Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

OK ... the perfect ric bass doesn't exist ...

but I am searching for ric bass that embodies as much perfection as I can get ... it started with my 1968 4001 ... a good place to start ... the 60's basses have a really comfortable neck and a beautiful resonance and a real treble bite ... that 68 really sounds best with modern pickups ... the treble bite of the 60's basses is not just the capaciter and underwound pickups ... it is more of a structural thing ... less wood and a different way of making the neck ... but the 68 has some flaws ...

well I now own several rics and they all have strengths and weaknesses ... 70's basses have the cool walnut strip and nice high gains and a stronger neck ...

the 4003 features a better truss rod system and a stronger neck and hotter and fuller pickups ...

the 2030 basses are interesting in their own right ... nice neck and growlly pickups ... but it is a bolt on neck and it is not as pretty as a 4000 series bass ...

the 4004 is sleek and modern and has its own distinctive growl ... but the humbuckers just aren't the same as single coils ...

the 4003s5 has the awesome ric bite and a low B growl ... but the strings are a little close ...

then I started converted 4 string basses to 5 string basses ... I got a wider spacing ...

well my latest experiment is putting single coil pickups into a 4004 ... I took a 4003 high gain treble pickup and put it into the treble position on that bass ... I had to remove a little bit of wood and gringd a few millimeters off of the magnet to make it fit in the hole ... then I put the chrome cover on it and it looks the same as the humbucker that was in there except it has 5 pole pieces ... then I put a 6 pole high gain pickup in the neck position ... and of course it is wired volume, volume, tone ...

Well that bass now has more treble bite than 60's ric bass with the old pickups and capaciter ... but it has more volume and bass as well ... then when I roll off some treble with the tone control it has a nice smooth fender kind of tone ...

well there is a down side ... it has a lot of bite and a 60's sound but it lost the darker growl that it had with the humbuckers ...

the maple neck and lighter body give the bass a different resonance ... and with the single coil pickups a real bite ... also this is a 4004L so the body is maple as well ...

Must not be gigging this weekend, Huh Jeff?

I'm with you, how about some pics?

Oh yeah, just my opinion though, your right, the perfect Rick bass dosent exist. Thats why we keep buying them and collecting them. We search for what we will never find.

We come close, but we are never completely satisfied.

Hence the addiction.

yep I gig next weekend ... this weekend I wax philosophical ...

"The guys in hell all want a glass of ice water..."

Yeah I want that perfect RIC too!

In your essay, you made a lot of different observations, but you never came to a conclusion. What IS your perfect Ric bass?
A 68 body with a stronger modern neck with a stripe and the modern pickups, 5 string with slightly wider spacing, wired vol vol tone, with no mute and a fully adjustible bridge?

I like several basses ... I only like the '68 modified ... and I need the low B ... I will probably sell the '68 4001 ... my 2 4003s5 basses have really nice necks ... and I really like the 4003-5 jetglo ... it is a great gigging bass ... but my 4004L5 is surprising me ... I was thinking of getting rid of it ... the low B was kinda dead ... so I changed the strings ... it came to life ... the humbuckers are like dolby sound ... they cut noise but they also loose some tone ... I am really liking the 4004L5 with single coil pickups ...

so for me having several 5 string rics and grabbing different ones on different days is perfect for me ...

Jeff... while waxing philosophical, remember the wise words of Mr.Myogi said: "wax on..wax off".

"... and I need the low B ... "

I sense an addiction here!

perhaps I need to simplfy ... I am considering making a 4004 my main bass ... with single coils it has incredible treble bite ... more than the old 4001 basses with the horseshoe pickup and capaciter ...

in fact is has so much treble bite that I have to back the tone control down a little ...

I think I want to get a 4004C and try this mod mod on it ...

I have the perfect four string Ric. I want the perfect five. The 4004cii5 could be it if the pickups are better than I suspect.

I think my 4004Cii with the toasters sound great.

Banta said: "I want the perfect five. The 4004cii5 could be it if the pickups are better than I suspect".

Brad, What makes you think the pickups might not be good enough?

I have never played a 4004CII5 but I know the pickups are humbuckers ... and the ric single coils have a different sound than the humbuckers ... my 4004L5 is an interesting bass with the humbuckers ... but even better with 4003 pickups in it ...

Joey, I think they were designed for a four string. I still don't think they're wide enough for the new five string.