Basses with the Ric type pickup placement?

[lastminute]

What other basses out there where the neck pickup is right next to the neck and the "bridge" pickup is more in the middle?

 

[SulzerType2]

Not many! Even the copies get the bridge pickup wrong.

The Guild SB-202 looks like the pickups are in the right areas, but these are vintage basses in their own right, now.


The neck-ward coils in the humbuckers on Peavey T40s look to be right as well.

 

[Vinny_G]

This one, maybe?

Link Removed

 

[godofthunder59]

While the Peavey Patriot doesn't have a neck pickup the bridge pickup is in a almost perfect position and that Super Ferite pickup is killer. I've seen Patriots modded with a Ric neck pickup on more than one occasion. Other options for that Ric sound are the Peavey T40 and believe it or not the new Epiphone Newport even though the bridge pickup isn't in the exact same location as the Ric.

 

[Kindness]

The Serek Sacramento: Link Removed

 

[B-Mac]

Sorta
Kinda
Not exactly

 

[FatStringer52]

Some of the early Gibson EB's would probably be the closest. The bridge pickup is a bit closer to the bridge than the Ric's tho. Availability and price may be limiting factors . . .

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[primussucks9126]

Front coil of a Stingray sounds very ricish to me. It's in almost the exact right spot

 

[Deleted member 271037]

Höfner basses with the "Cavern" pickup configuration have neck + middle position pickups, although both pickups are slightly closer to the neck than on a Rick. Höfners are a VERY different type of bass of course so definitely not a good choice if the idea is to find a bass with a similar tone/feel to a Rick, rather than just a bass with a neck + middle pickup configuration.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

A pickup tight to the neck, unless its a very shallow pup route, isnt great structurally, which is why Ric stopped doing it a long time ago. It requires hogging out a decent size chunk of wood right at the point of maximum stress. Personally I cant hear a difference between that and the 1" or so position off the fingerboard, at least on a Ric, nor have I ever seen a convincing comparison demonstrating any audible difference with the same strings and electronics. You could probably show a difference on an occilloscope, but if nobody can hear it.... There's a lot more to the classic Ric tone than just the pickup placement, starting with solid maple through-neck construction, the pots, etc.

 

[jmattbassplaya]

The Serek Sacramento: Link Removed

Those are pretty.

 

[bassobrutto]

This was a pretty common pickup scheme in the 60s, though these were typically short scale basses, e.g.: Hagstrom HBII, Concord, and Coronado; various Vox and Mosrite models. More recent examples are the very 60s-looking Hofner Galaxie, Supro Huntington II, and Nordstrand Acinonyx.

 

[slowburnaz]

In case anyone is wondering, the modern Ric 4003 bass pickup placement has the pickups right on harmonic nodes... the neck being where the 24th fret would be (2nd octave), and the bridge where the 36th fret would be (3rd octave).

 

[Ric5]

I build my own basses and quite often I put the pickups in the Rick positions.

p - bass

Rickenfaker

Jaguar

Fenderbird

Mouradian 5

SG bass

 

[micguy]

Front coil of a Stingray sounds very ricish to me. It's in almost the exact right spot

It is pretty close, from what I can tell. The bridge pickup on a Ric is 1/8th of the way from the bridge to the nut. Rationalized to a 34 inch scale, you want that pickup to be centered 4.25" from the bridge - a real Ric has different dimensions due to the shorter scale, but it's 1/8th of the way from bridge to nut as well. Although this thing has a rather different pickup, it's centered at that spot. I built it because I always liked the sound of my first bass (a 4001) on the bridge pickup (that's about all that I liked about that bass, but I digress). I use similar eq to a Stingray in my eq pedal when I use this thing.

 

[GIBrat51]

A pickup tight to the neck, unless its a very shallow pup route, isnt great structurally, which is why Ric stopped doing it a long time ago. It requires hogging out a decent size chunk of wood right at the point of maximum stress. Personally I cant hear a difference between that and the 1" or so position off the fingerboard, at least on a Ric, nor have I ever seen a convincing comparison demonstrating any audible difference with the same strings and electronics. You could probably show a difference on an occilloscope, but if nobody can hear it.... There's a lot more to the classic Ric tone than just the pickup placement, starting with solid maple through-neck construction, the pots, etc.

Both my '73 4001 and my '01 4003 had the same strings for a while (Rickenbacker Light Gauge Nickel Rounds), and both have the push/pull Treble Tone pot. I have to agree; as far as the neck pickup position is concerned? There's no discernable difference - none that can't be attributed to the significantly lower output of the 4001's "High Gain" pickups, anyway. Maybe they were in 1973 - when they were new; but, "Highly Mellow" is more like it now...

 

[kmon]

While the Peavey Patriot doesn't have a neck pickup the bridge pickup is in a almost perfect position and that Super Ferite pickup is killer. I've seen Patriots modded with a Ric neck pickup on more than one occasion.

Interesting…I’ve been thinking about that very mod recently..

 

[sikamikanico]

Lakland Hollowbody (the 34" scale version). I recall seeing several hollowbodies with pickups more towards the neck...

 

[tlc1976]

My first bass, a cheap short scale Harmony (Teisco style) bass I got around 30 years ago, has the pickups extremely close to what would be the 24th and 36th fret positions.





30 1/2” scale approximately. 24th fret would be at 22 7/8”, I’m at 22 3/4”. 36th fret would be at 26 11/16”, I’m at 26 9/16”. Don’t mind the E string saddle, I was playing with intonation with the old strings and at the moment don’t remember where I put the spring.

Does having the pickups at those prominent harmonic points make it comparatively louder? This bass has always been louder than any other one I’ve had.

 

[Kindness]

Lakland Hollowbody (the 34" scale version). I recall seeing several hollowbodies with pickups more towards the neck...

Comparison: