Attention All Rickenbacker Owners

Get one, you'll love it. I'd suggest a mid '70s 4001 because of the thin necks or a new 4003 because of the super hot pickups (the neck is quite a bit thicker than the 4001.) If you want to order a new bass and feel like waiting for a year or more, check out the 4004 models.

1) Sustain on the dropped D is no different than if it were tuned to E. You'll probably have make some slight setup adjustments.

2) Don't even bother with the Rick-o-sound. It's just an outdated p.o.s. You'll need the Rick-o-sound box or a stereo Y splitter cable to get it to work. It will split the output of the pickups into 2 signals so you can use 2 amps or 2 channels on the same amp. It's really just more trouble than it's worth. http://www.rickenbacker.com/us/ros.htm

3) Controls are a 3 way pickup switch, and a Volume and Tone control for each pickup.

 

I run my Ricky 4003 through a Hartke 3500 head and an XL 4x10 cab (really I've had this same setup for ten years.) Sounds great, lots of punch.

I haven't really messed around too much with dropped-D or other tunings on it (I have a Carvin LB76 6-string for extended range needs) but I've never noticed anything amiss when I did so.

 

Just about the amp.

Rickenbackers sound great with most Ampeg amps. I can see no reason why this shouldn't work with an SVT-III Pro.

As a personal taste, I prefer 15" speakers than 10's. They add bottom end to the mid/trebly tone of the Rick. But that's just what ***I*** like.

Hope this helps,
JL

 

Regarding drop D, original Tool bassist Paul D'Amour played a Rick, and, at that time, all of their songs but one (Prison Sex, which was in drop B) were in drop D. Take a listen to Opiate or Undertow and decide for yourself. I think it sounds great. And certainly not lacking in low end.

On a side note, I hope a Rick is in my future at some point. I wish they made a 6-string. Or maybe they do... [off to do research]

 

The band I play in tunes down a half step to Eb (and sometimes drops the low string down to C#) and I find my 4003 does not like it at all. The strings get pretty squirrelly and the tone gets very clacky. The Ric sounds much better in standard tuning.

Another issue I have with my Ric is a weak E string. The low string is noticably lower in volume than the other three strings and does not sustain as well. I can't seem to reconcile the problem by adjusting the bridge pickup or changing strings. The neck pickup is unadjustable and I believe that's where the volume discrepancy problem is rooted.

So bottom line: It's pretty commonsense, but make sure you try the Ric out in whatever tuning you're planning on using before you buy it and check out the string-to-string balance.

 

Depending on what kind of sound your after, one of the more common uses of the Rick-O-Sound is sound the neck pickup to a bass anmp and the bridge to a guitar amp, with or without distortion.

 

I agree fully. My 4003 definitely does not enjoy being drop tuned. The E is not particularly strong even in standard tuning, either. However, that doesn't stop me from loving the bass for what it does do well!

--jeff

 

Rickenbacker put a capacitor on the output of the treble pickup that recduces its low end output. There are any number of theories as to why they'd do this, but my personal favourite is that back when flatwounds were pretty much the only bass strings out there, Rickenbacker wanted to boost the punchy, trebley output of their bass, which has always been its characteristic sound.

Now that many of us use roundwound strings on our Rickenbackers, we want some more low end, so those with the third capacitor in their older Rickenbackers bypass them.

I'm not sure of the exact time Rickenbacker stopped putting in this third capacitor, but I got my '01 4003JG brand spankin' new, and it wasn't in there. It sounds absolutely awesome.

--jeff

 

Ric stopped putting the .0047 capacitor in the 4003 around 1993. Since then they've installed a shunt to replace it.
If you buy a 4001 or a 4003 bass with the .0047 cap, you can easily bypass the capacitor in less than 5 minutes. It's really very easy and simple.
The result is amazing.
All Ric basses wired stereo before 1993 have this 3rd capacitor in them as standard.
Cheers,
FYI, the 4001v63 and 4001S models do not have the .0047 cap in them because they are wired with mono outputs.

 

I thought it was around 1986. I had a 1987 without it in there. Could have been removed though.

 

You and your damn "bass avatars".


Screw you, dood.





I wonder if my parents will get me a spankin new rick (Or the used white one of my dreams) for graduating.....

 

No 6 string rick, and also...

Paul played an ovation,,,ovatoin,,,,ovition....


Well, he didn't play a rick on most of Opiate.

That is a rick (Maple glo,,,,,,) on Undertow...

Sure sounds alot alike to me, though.

I belive he used Mesa amps.

 

Well, the dropped D string wouldn't sustain as well as the other 3 strings _on the Rick_; however, as far as comparing a Ric to a MIM P, you're going to get much more sustain out of the Ric -- that's one of the calling cards of the 4001/4003: endless sustain.

 

Good point. I'd use the heaviest gague you can stomach when drop-tuning a Rickenbacker. I tried DR HiBeams (when I was in my brief "Obsessed with the Matthew Good Band " phase) in their heaviest guage once, and they drop tuned pretty darn well - MGB does most of their stuff tuned to Eb, and it sounded very tight on the Rick with those strings.

--jeff

 

I went up to a 110 gauge E and still had problems, but I tend to smack the crap out of the bass. A less heavy-handed bassist or maybe just a bassist that has some skill might fare better.