Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi all,

Does anyone have a clear diagram for the wiring connections of the stereo harness to both the mono and stereo jacks? I recently tried my spare ‘72 4001 in stereo for the first time and it didn’t work properly; when I checked the jacks, both had been replaced, the stereo with a mono and the mono switched with a normal mono, from what I can tell. All other wiring seems original.

Obviously because I’m not replacing like for like I could do with a diagram - NOT a schematic as I can’t read them - so that I can see what wire I should solder where.

I’d be grateful for any assistance.

Joey used to have a nice one he pulled because folks were plagiarizing it. Maybe he'll see this and comment. in the mean time try a google search for:

rickenbacker 4003 wiring diagram

you might see something there that could help you. Good luck with it. Let us know what happens!

BMR1911 wrote: Fri Feb 25, 2022 12:52 pm 4A48640C-3F1A-4217-A9FE-DCC6D1922364.png

Thanks, but as I stated in the original post, I don’t know how to read schematics.

Hi Henry,

This one may be easier.

Cheers,

I also found the 4001 wiring, but it's in German. Read it side-by-side with the 4003 to get the gist. Cheers,

The jack sockets are standard Switchcraft ones if you havent ordered them yet btw. If the original wiring really is still intact then all you might need to do is separate the two wires coming from the two pickup outputs (if they are both connected to the tip of the old mono socket) and reconnect them to the tip and ring tags of your new stereo socket.

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

I’ll see how I get on (I have already bought new jacks).

Ratwax wrote: Fri Feb 25, 2022 11:03 pm Hi Henry,

This one may be easier.

Cheers,

Would you please tell me the web site where you found this (in English version) schematic? (I'm assuming there are others there....) Thanks.

Well, a bit of a hiccup. I’ve checked the wiring against the diagrams and another bass that I reluctantly opened up and there are insufficient wires to wire up the stereo/switched mono jacks, so I’ve had to order some.

One thing, the 0.0047 cap has been removed, which I normally do anyway, and that leaves the 2 x (0.47?) orange caps in the circuit. In my other bass the blue 0.0047 cap is in but has never seemed to work anyway (I’ve previously removed it to no effect, and normally the difference is night and day). But, rather weirdly, there are actually a total of 4 caps in my other bass. Although it could be that that 4th cap (a small ochre-coloured one - I can’t see what spec it is as it’s jammed against the 0.0047 one) has been wired in as some sort of shunt for the 0.0047 cap I suppose, which may explain why taking the 0.0047 out makes no difference.

EDIT - I’ve just checked and it is wired to the same terminals as the 0.0047, so probably in place as some sort of shunt, although why it’s not just a wire I don’t know. I’ll maybe post photos when I get chance. I’m not touching it whatever - that bass is easily the best sounding bass of all the many thousands I’ve played.

Hi Maxwell,

The original diagrams are in German, I got a copy and used Google Translate to turn the hard parts into English and then edited the PDF which I kept for my own use ('02 4003). I never got around to doing other ones.

The link to the document is mentioned in the Forum here - viewtopic.php?f=2&t=413934

I think that's where I found out about it.

I hope that helps.

RatWax - thanks!

Everyone: Here's info on a newly published book on guitar wiring. It's unlikely that you'll find Rick-specific diagrams here, but it should provide a good foundation in guitar wiring.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1919649425?li ... erscom1-20

My stock 2016 harness looks like a rat’s nest!
Stock. Nothing altered, afaik, except the detached coax cable.

Ok, I’ve had chance to have another look and there’s another minor hiccup, although it may be nothing.

I note that there is black shrink tubing on some of the wires where they connect to the mono switched socket (as per the picture above). Is this essential? Only I don’t have any.

If the tubing is required, does anyone know what size it is?