Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Good Morning,
I'm new on the RR Forum and was wondering if any one out there has changed the stock wiring on the 4004 to VVT or Vol, Blend, Tone or any other combination ?
Any input would be greatly appreciated.

darrin7 wrote:Good Morning,
I'm new on the RR Forum and was wondering if any one out there has changed the stock wiring on the 4004 to VVT or Vol, Blend, Tone or any other combination ?
Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome! Use the search function here - you'll find loads. But be careful and make sure you don't blow those loads!

darrin7 wrote:Good Morning,
I'm new on the RR Forum and was wondering if any one out there has changed the stock wiring on the 4004 to VVT or Vol, Blend, Tone or any other combination ?
Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Never heard of such a dastardly thing! Why would one want to do that?

Here was the first of its kind.

Hey that 4004 has got two toasters on it!
Its also mapleglo, with the samwitch body. Very cool!

I build custom wiring harnesses for 4004's using humbucker friendly 500K pots and .022uF tone caps instead of the tone killing 175K-330K pots and .047uF caps these basses come with. I also use push-pull pots to enable coil shorting the 15K HB1's to become 7.5K single coil pickups, as well as balance controls to replace the mini pickup switch. PM me for details.

Dane built a harness for me - Blend/Volume/Tone with coil taps on the V/T for the pickups for my 4004C. This is just so liberating - I can get just about any tone I want out of the bass! The hotter circuit is just plain fantastic. And yes, I LOVE the blend knob! Dane does great work and prices are good. The parts he uses are matched and great quality work! Except for a little hole enlargement (where the switch is) the mod is reversible if you end up not liking it (which I doubt).

My 4004cii has V/V/T and love it, but will have Dane build me a new Harness soon with 500k pots and new cap.

Josh, I would think about getting the tapped core option for you harness as well.. you can get some nice sounds enabling the different pickups....

I have V/V/T and coil splitting on mine. Here's a post I did way back in 2009 on the mods:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=388835

On my 2008 Cii I replaced the tone pot (1 Meg ohm) and the cap (.022 instead of .047k), now the sound is much clear.

Dane did a simple VVT harness for my 4004Ci. Love it!

VVT with 500k push/pulls on the V's with .022 cap on my Laredo. Love it.

A lot of info out there on this subject. Possibly leaning towards the VVT or the Vol, Blend or Pan & Tone control & probably with coil taps for single coil on both HB1's.
Now, is there a difference between a PAN & a BLEND knob & what is the advantage, if any between VVT & Pan / Blend set up ?

I did a whole thread on my 4004Cii. The sound from the bridge pickup was weak and thin. I discovered that one of the coils was open. Being both poor and cheap, rather than replace the pickup, I rewired the bass to operate with two single coil pickups arranged as a humbucking pair (why Ric doesn't do that, I don't understand). I also replaced the volume pot with a 500K push-pull and wired it so that I can use the neck pickup by itself as a humbucker in parallel mode.

The 500K volume pot really cleaned up the sound. Switching between single coil and parallel humbucking mode on the neck pickup, there's no change in sound. Eventually, I'll find some ambition and switch things around. I'll put the damaged pickup, which has to run single coil, in the neck position, and wire the switch so that I can then run the bridge pickup either single coil or series humbucking. That should give me a bit more versatility.

Here's my original thread: viewtopic.php?t=412815

Finally found some ambition. Did the mod Monday evening. Each single coil is about 7.5K ohms, and the series HB is about 15K. Tested it with my tiny practice amp, and it works as intended. Noticeable jump in volume when I switch the bridge pickup from single coil to HB mode. I'll try it out at a show this weekend.