Step-by-step on how to install 0.0047mcf cap?

rickless · Post by **rickless** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 1:50 pm

Can anyone give me a step-by-step on installing a 0.0047mcf cap into my Rickenbacker 4003? I have no experience with this stuff, but I want to learn. I have a soldering iron, 60/40 solder, and the cap. Will I need heat shrink or those crimp connector things? Just assume I know nothing.

jnbass · Post by **jnbass** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 1:54 pm

but why?

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 2:05 pm

That was the same question I had, Jared. Do you not like BASS, Jon?

All I have heard about the cap was that it made the bass sound very trebly and took out the bass response. Is this the tone you want?

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 2:36 pm

If you really want to do it. Take off your pick guard, if you are careful you won't have to untune the strings, turn it upside down, then look at the treble volume control, there is a solid wire that goes from the middle lug to the three way switch. Get a .0047 uf. cap (very small probably 50 volts or something, maybe less I don't know, it doesn't matter, the smaller the better)and just soldier it from the middle lug to the same place the other end of the wire went (because you have to remove the wire) make sure you keep all your stuff there because if you are like 95 % of us you will take it back out again.
All you have to do is make sure that it is fairly straight right to the switch and not touching anything else. the wire is rigid and won't move once it is soldiered well, and don't use a pistol type gun, use a pencil, supposedly the transformers in the gun can deguass the magnets of the pickups.
What it does is scoop out a lot of mid and bass from that pickup, making at all treble. I don't know what it would sound like with the new pickups. I have flatwounds on a 4003 (81) and put a switch for the cap in it, it has a hollow sound with the cap working and sounds great with it bypassed. With roundwounds they can sound good if you have a big amp such as an SVT which has good tone controls and can replace the mid that is scooped out, but what's the point? They sound like a triple pickup guitar which has a broken middle pickup if you can imagine that.
When you soldier, don't touch the soldier first, touch the lug and put the soldier on the other side, the lug has to get hot enough to let the slodier flow or it will be what is called a cold soldier joint and will be noisy and crackly. But then again you don't want to burn anything, so be careful, you might want to try and practise on something first. Let us know how it turns out and how you like it.

jmh · Post by **jmh** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 2:56 pm

Does the cap help to achieve the Squire/Geddy/Meros/Camp sound at all?

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 3:02 pm

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 4:29 pm

I believe that cap was installed to prevent the 4001 from being too muddy when played with flatwound strings. Years ago John Hall explained this to me on usenet. Improvements in amplification and changing tastes of bass players have made this part largely unnecessary - a vistigial part. Rickenbacker removed the cap from the wire harness many years ago. Unless you are a stickler for completeness, there are no compelling reasons to put it back.

rickless · Post by **rickless** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 5:21 pm

Well gentlemen...count me in the minority! First of all, that was my first time ever soldering and I was quite nervous. Fortunately, I got through it without burning my Rick, my self, or my house down. It took forever for the solder to melt. The only soldering iron I have is 30 watts. What do most of you use?

Anyway, I for one really like the change. Before, there was very little difference at all between the sounds I got from either pickup. Now I actually have two pickups contributing different voices to the total sound. The balance between them was not harmed at all. They are very close to the same volume. For the first time, it sounds like to me what a Rickenbacker bass is supposed to sound like. A distinct high-mid voice cutting through without lacking a bottom end. I don't know why everyone says it takes away all the guitar's bass when you still have a neck pickup pumping out plenty of bass. Unless you guys have a weak output coming from the neck pickup, I don't understand. There's no way I could play this thing through an SVT stack and have anyone think I'm lacking bottom end...No Way!!! It sounds to me like I've simply expanded the spectrum of frequencies in this bass. If anyone is after the Geddy Lee/Chris Squire sound, I can see (and now hear) how installing the cap and using the Rick-O-Sound feature to overdrive the bridge pickup signal and keep the neck pickup clean would get you very close.

rickless · Post by **rickless** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 5:24 pm

I understand you're only getting my first impression. After it's been this way for a while and I've used it in a live setting several times, I'll be sure to give an update as to if I still like it, etc.

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Sat Apr 17, 2004 5:39 pm

Jon,
Big sigh of relief, WHEW! First soldering job was this one? You've got stones.
Yours might have more bass than the original 4001's because it is a 4003 with high gain PU's.
I like mine without, but everyone's ear is different and everyone's signature "sound" is different. Even without the cap and my 4001's ('73 and '76 respectively), I am getting tons of Lee/Squire growl and nastiness. Must be in the attack!

I'm glad it went as well as it did and that you are happy with the result!

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 12:37 pm

Tim the .047 uf cap bleeds treble to ground, it effectively short circuits it, when your tone control is wide open no treble is going to ground it is all going out of your bass so changing caps would do nothing to add more treble. The more you turn your tone control counterclockwise (which is really a treble control) the more treble goes to ground (shorts) and the less you have going out of the guitar. If you had no cap there you would have a volume control because all the sound would go to ground. The cap passes the treble to ground and blocks the bass. The treble pass .0047 cap that is on the old Rics passes only the treble out of the bass but there is no control for it. It could easily be done though. You could run both pickups through one of the tones and run the treble pickup cap through the other one and you'de effectively have a bass control for the treble pickup, you might have to change the value of the pot though, and you would also have to change the wiring. A pot is a variable resistor. I might try it as a matter of fact. A cap can either be a treble pass or a treble cut device depending on whether it is in series or in parallel in the circuit.

tsarter · Post by **tsarter** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 12:40 pm

This is just what my tech told me today. I suspect something is mis-wired. I'm going to have him look at it for me later this weekend.

ilan · Post by **ilan** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 8:10 pm

Old Dano 6-string basses have a 3-way switch near the tone control, that selects between "normal" tone control operation (treble pass?) and controllable treble-bleed.

dave4004 · Post by **dave4004** » Sat Apr 24, 2004 5:39 am

Tim, I suspect you're just not used to the Cheyenne sound. It's not much like your former V63.

dave4004 · Post by **dave4004** » Sat Apr 24, 2004 5:43 am

Ted, despite what basses usually have, I have a Fender CS Vintage Precision (actually a P/J model they used to make) and there's an .022uF tone cap on each pickup circuit. Works just fine, at least on this bass.