Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

hey everyone-
i have a 4001CS, which i love, but there is a big difference in volume between the neck pick-up and the treble/bridge pickup. the neck pickup is raised about as high as it can go, but the bridge pick-up gets a lot more output...should i lower the bridge pick-up until they even out more? thanks for any tweaking advice.

First of all ... the treble pickup is louder than the neck pickup on all Rick basses because the magnet is bigger and more powerful ...

I usually remove the rubber grommets on the neck pickup and replace them with a small soft spring ... this allows the neck pickup to have more travel distance ... there could be a wiring problem somewhere or the magnet could be weak on the neck pickup ... and yes you can lower the bridge pickup ...

I usually play a 4003s5 bass ... the treble pickup is very hot and the neck pickup is a toaster ... I usually open all the vol and tone controls to 10 and then back off the neck vol to 9 or 7 ...

If you are brave you can take a pair of visegrips and twist and pull the pole pieces and raise them like 1/8" each on the neck pickup ... this would be a last resort ... this is not for beginners ...

thanks for all the info Jeff. I appreciate it.

I had two V63's, on one the pickups were nice and balanced in volume and on the other the neck was very soft sounding.
I do the opposite from Jeff, I don't put anything between the pickup and the guard except for the two rubber washers, I take off the little nuts and bolts, wire the ground to one side of the center screw with a nut on the treble side. I find out where I want that side and don't move it once I tighten the second nut. It brings the neck pickup much closer to the strings. If you try to raise the pole pieces be very careful, it's easy to slip, especially on the E and G poles.

I've come across several 4001 basses where the neck pickup was quite a bit hotter than the bridge pickup. Measuring 9+ on the neck and 7.8 or so on the bridge.

I think the much bigger magnet on the treble pickup offsets any volume gain you would get from from more windings.

Jeff wrote:

"... the treble pickup is louder than the neck pickup on all Rick basses ..."

I could swear that my Blackstar doesn't fit this assertion, my recollection being that I had to turn the neck pickup volume down to keep it from taking over the sound when the selector switch was in the center position. When I get a chance I'll get it out and check it.

It may be the phase cancellation phenonmenom that does that. I adjust them with the switch in the middle along with alone to see where they are relative to each other. Usually alone mine are louder too after I adjust for the sound I like.
BTW Gary, you were right my 78 (former) Midnight Blue is nor MB, it's Azureglo, it's dark like a MB, but is definitely a pastel, not a metallic color. All this time I wanted an Azureglo and I had one all ready. When I compared it with my new MB I thought that time had just faded the metallic componant out of it or something because the shade was similiar.

All the Ricks I've had except for my CS (and obviously my 4000 ) have had louder neck pickups, but I've only ever removed the cap on one (a 76 azureglo which now belongs to a friend). Am thinking of trying it on my 72 just to see what its like, but that bass sounds so sweet I'll be surprised if its an improvement.