Rickenbacker Forum, Amplifier, Bass and Guitar Register
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aceonbass wrote:The pots used when your bass was made speced out at around 180K, which choked off the high end clarity and definition in the tone. I build wiring harnesses for Rick guitars and basses blueprinted to 60's/70's specs using 500K tone and 250K volume pots in matched pairs. I can also incorporate the vintage tone option used in current 4003's. Using 70's 4001 pickups will help a little bit, but not much. If you're interested, PM me for more info.
When did they lower the the pots' resistance Dane? I get a great clear tone out of my 79.aceonbass wrote:The pots used when your bass was made speced out at around 180K, which choked off the high end clarity and definition in the tone. I build wiring harnesses for Rick guitars and basses blueprinted to 60's/70's specs using 500K tone and 250K volume pots in matched pairs. I can also incorporate the vintage tone option used in current 4003's. Using 70's 4001 pickups will help a little bit, but not much. If you're interested, PM me for more info.
Dane built me a new harness; I can attest that it not only sounds much better than the stock harness, but he also uses nice wire and his soldering is very clean.aceonbass wrote:The pots used when your bass was made speced out at around 180K, which choked off the high end clarity and definition in the tone. I build wiring harnesses for Rick guitars and basses blueprinted to 60's/70's specs using 500K tone and 250K volume pots in matched pairs. I can also incorporate the vintage tone option used in current 4003's. Using 70's 4001 pickups will help a little bit, but not much. If you're interested, PM me for more info.
DriftSpace wrote:...his soldering is very clean.
I think RIC started changing pot values some time in the late 90's. They've settled on 330K pots (which tend to be way off as measured) for the past several years. Current flat backed CTS pots tend to vary by 10-15%. The CTS pots I use are manufured to much closer tolerances, and are otherwise identical to the CTS pots RIC has been using for the las 45 years or so.rictified wrote:When did they lower the the pots' resistance Dane? I get a great clear tone out of my 79.
jps wrote:DriftSpace wrote:...his soldering is very clean.
+1 on that, I have several including a vintage 60's reproduction one, the difference in the sound is clearly audible,Captain Bob wrote:aceonbass wrote:The pots used when your bass was made speced out at around 180K, which choked off the high end clarity and definition in the tone. I build wiring harnesses for Rick guitars and basses blueprinted to 60's/70's specs using 500K tone and 250K volume pots in matched pairs. I can also incorporate the vintage tone option used in current 4003's. Using 70's 4001 pickups will help a little bit, but not much. If you're interested, PM me for more info.
This is true. An entire new harness loom. And, you'll find Dane's work to be first rate.
Word!! What Dane said!!aceonbass wrote:The pots used when your bass was made speced out at around 180K, which choked off the high end clarity and definition in the tone. I build wiring harnesses for Rick guitars and basses blueprinted to 60's/70's specs using 500K tone and 250K volume pots in matched pairs. I can also incorporate the vintage tone option used in current 4003's. Using 70's 4001 pickups will help a little bit, but not much. If you're interested, PM me for more info.
What about the treble pickup base? On mine (a high gain, I presume?) it was made of black nylon (possibly glass-reinforced nylon, but still just plastic), so I replaced it with a steel one to get more metal and magnetism and everything, in a non-horseshoe kind of way. That and bunging in ye olde capacitor on the treble side certainly changed the sound a bit from original, which was a bit too round for my liking. But it's been that way for so long now that I can't really imagine it any other way! It might sound a little like the current crop of 4003s, or perhaps it has its own sound, I've no idea.aceonbass wrote:Using 70's 4001 pickups will help a little bit, but not much.
Have you tried new/different strings? What kind of strings are you using now? How old are they? Fresh stainless steel roundwounds are essential. Rorosound RS66LD (if you can get a set that doesn't have a dead E string), I'm currently trying DR Lo Riders with pretty good results.stuntmanmike wrote:... Any low cost suggestions?
) I did a few years ago using my former 4001V63 with a scatterwound toaster and a rebuilt magnetic horseshoe pickup (HS PU) with the .0047 µF cap inline. I switched between the pickups throughout the recording, starting with the toaster, then both pickups, then just the HS PU, and finally back to both IIRC. This was played with a pick, both in front of and behind the HS PU through a Universal Audio LA-610 Mk II into my Marantz PMD661 recorder; I played moderately light for most of this, um , performance. 
