Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Question for fellow late-model Ric owners: One thing that puzzles me is the taper of the tone controls (but this may be normal for a Ric)...there's very little impact on the tone when you roll them off until you get almost all the way down...and then the highs roll off very quickly in the last 20% of the knob's travel. Both pickups' tone controls are same in this respect.

Trying not to overthink it....I'm really just curious about the fact that they are not as "linear" as other passive basses. Specifically if that's normal for late model 4003's. Said another way, is my instrument defective or is the behavior to be expected from a stock late-model 4003?

Guessing its normal, but I appreciate any input you may have for me. Thank you.

One never really knows about the current wiring until you measure the OHMS rating of the pots. If they're particularly out of spec on the low side, then the effective range will be shortened, and the tone duller. The harnesses in Ricks are put together with parts pulled from bins without any effort to measure them, let alone match them with each other.

Like Dane said it can vary based on the individual specs of your harness, but your description sounds perfectly normal to me. Here's how I perceive almost every passive tone control I've ever used, assuming the usual .047 µF cap.

Tone pot taken out of circuit -- brittle
100% -- bright, "full character"
90% -- same as 100% with less "scratch"
80% -- same as 100% with even less scratch and the throaty midrange character starts to go away due to the pickup's resonant frequency getting cut into
70-30% -- steady chipping away at the upper mid resonant frequency and the tone of the bass loses a lot of its character; I always hate how this region of the control sounds
20% and below -- An actual bass boost happens due to retuning of the resonant frequency of the circuit, suddenly things sound good again, but like a different bass! Even though the control is passive, the resonant frequency retune has actually added a few dB to the midrange compared to 100% and the ear perceives this as a pleasing change in character, almost like a subtle bass boost.