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Could anybody recommend passive pickups for Rickenbacker 4001

gricko

gricko

Mar 29, 2004
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#1
for me, villex is the benchmark. LOUD, noiseless, full range.
apart from villex, the only passable i had experience with was nordstrand Big SplitMan 4. [could not play MM position pickup and it was cut in half and housed in two soapbar covers, but that is the story for another day].

open for suggestions that do not necessitate cutting up the body



much obliged
 
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#2
I love the mid 1963 version from The Creamery. I used them in this buildThey have a '57 version also and either can be had as above, or in a toaster shell.
Screenshot_20250803_145903_Brave.jpg

20240626_155011.jpg
 
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#4
If you want humbuckers, the Joe Barden Rickenbacker set are the highest regarded direct drop-in in my experience and are the closest humbuckers to retaining the original Ric sound according to many who have used them. I use some Barden pickups in a Telecaster and am amazed at how close to the single-coil Tele sound they can get (they sound more like traditional single coil Tele pickups than a lot of hotter actual single coils do!). If you are up for experimentation in humbuckers then there are lots of different pickups that will fit in the large bridge pickup cavity, and if you are willing to cut into the pickguard or buy a new pickguard then there are a lot of humbuckers that will fit in the neck position as well without requiring any wood removal (the Rick neck pickup assembly underneath the pickguard is roughly the size of an EMG 35 sized pickup or a Thunderbird pickup).

I agree that for traditional Ric single-coil replacements, Classic Amplification is the place to look- I use their pickups in both of my Rics currently. Ric Toasters are also great full-range single-coil pickups for both neck and bridge positions (I go back and forth between a Toaster and a Classic Amp Hi-Gain in the neck position of one of my Rics)
 
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#5
thank you all for suggestions
probably was not clear - my '73 have original pickups and electronics that are working just fine. i was asking for an "upgrade" in performance.
we play in low tuning [A#] and it was handling it just fine. but if it could "go to 11" with a minor investment, why not try it.

long story:
hope to change truss rods this autumn - were bent at the headstock when i bought it in '90, but did not move til 5-6 ears ago and then i stopped playing it. will probably change bridge at the same time and was thinking if something could be done with pickups since it was already being worked on. was not stock when i became its custodian and have no problem changing components if that does not mean drilling and carving.
 
#6
gricko said:
thank you all for suggestions
probably was not clear - my '73 have original pickups and electronics that are working just fine. i was asking for an "upgrade" in performance.
we play in low tuning [A#] and it was handling it just fine. but if it could "go to 11" with a minor investment, why not try it.

long story:
hope to change truss rods this autumn - were bent at the headstock when i bought it in '90, but did not move til 5-6 ears ago and then i stopped playing it. will probably change bridge at the same time and was thinking if something could be done with pickups since it was already being worked on. was not stock when i became its custodian and have no problem changing components if that does not mean drilling and carving.
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Ah. I’m not sure I would swap out original 4001 pickups for Classic Amplification, as they wouldn’t necessarily be that huge of a tonal upgrade (I had my two Classic Amp-equipped Rics alongside a stock '73 4001 and couldn't say I clearly preferred the tone of any of them over the others, though the Classic Amp pickups did have more output and better balance between neck and bridge pickups as well as humcancelling with both pickups turned up- all three sounded fantastic and as I would want a Ric to sound!). Does your ‘73 have a Toaster or Hi-gain pickup in the neck position? I would say the Toaster in my ‘73 was the best part for me, I really like that sound.

Your bass would have had a hard-wired high-pass (cutting lows) capacitor on the bridge pickup- is that still in the circuit?

If humbucking is important to you, then my suggestion for the Joe Barden Ric set still stands: https://jbepickups.com/products/r4000-pickups/
You could also decrease noise by modifying one of your current pickups slightly (totally reversible and no consequence on tone!) to make the pickups cancel hum when both are on at the same time (the humcancelling will be dependent on having both pickups on fully, the more imbalanced their volume settings the less they will cancel each-other's hum): [Rickenbacker 4003] RWRP Bridge Pickup Mod Tutorial

You could also reach out to Nordstrand and see about a custom-wound humbucker set from them in Ric sizes- they make a Rickenbacker neck single-coil (Nordenbocker) and have done custom Ric pickups for others when asked, though I've never heard of them making a version of their Big-Split pickup for a Ric. Maybe you could be the first and those are great pickups!
 
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#8
If you care about the original look, then Classic Amplification. Or Rickenbacker themselves (they sell their pickups directly).

If you don't then the Lace BassBar are pretty similar to the Villex concept (low-impedance with transformer).
 
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#9
gricko said:
for me, villex is the benchmark. LOUD, noiseless, full range.
apart from villex, the only passable i had experience with was nordstrand Big SplitMan 4. [could not play MM position pickup and it was cut in half and housed in two soapbar covers, but that is the story for another day].

open for suggestions that do not necessitate cutting up the body



much obliged
Click to expand...
Here's a thread on Nordstrand's "Nordenbacker" pickup. :cool:

Gizmot

Thread 'Nordstrand Nordenbocker'

A few weeks ago, I read a press release for the Nordstrand Audio Nordenbacker pickup designed for Ric basses. The reasons I was interested is that they claim that this pickup will deliver more output than the stock Ric neck pickup AND that it minimizes 60 Hz hum when both pickups are on.

I got the pickup installed - and the claims made for it are 100% true. What really surprised me is that this pickup absolutely sounds like a Ric pickup and it blends perfectly with the bridge pickup. It has a lot more flux density than the stock pickup does and you can really hear the additional low end...
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#10
I have been using the Duncan Custom Shop Lemmy pickups in a couple of my basses. They’re really great for clean as well as distortion. Lemmy never did get to use them, so disregard the name. I’d just call them excellent humbuckers…

www.seymourduncan.com

The Lemmy Kilmister Bass Pickups - Seymour Duncan

The sound of Motörhead is defined by the high-output fat tone and midrange grind that Lemmy Kilmister has delivered for decades with songs like “Ace of Spades” and “Iron Fist,” combined with a fast pick attack on his RickenbackerⓇbass. We started with carefully analyzing the pickups in his bass...
www.seymourduncan.com www.seymourduncan.com
 
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#11
There are some really minor differences in actual pickup dimensions, even among genuine Ric pups from different eras, that may or may not become apparent until you actually try dropping them into your bass. The treble pup is floating in that big chrome recess, but the neck pup is actually a fairly tight fit in the pickguard, or at least it was on my old 78' 4001. A couple minutes with a file might be needed, or living with a very slightly oversized hole. If so, you might want to mothball the original pups and pickguard for future sale, and buy a replacement guard to tinker/hand fit from somebody like Pickguardian. If you send him a tracing of your guard he'll match your screw hole spacing, which is otherwise a crap shoot on old Rics. Based on the few YT videos I've seen on the subject, the Classic Amp pups sound the most like old school Ric single coils, minus most of the noise. Bardens don't sound bad, just different.
 
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#12
As others have mentioned, if the .0047 low cut cap is in you will want to remove that. I also play in low A tuning and have tried all sorts of pickups in my ricks. I like the Duncan bridge pickup a lot, it's super loud and ballsy, drives amps really hard. I liked the Ric bartolini pickups too, they had really big lows and were very clear. Rickenbacker HB1s are also very hot and bassy, albeit a little dark if you don't change the pots to a higher value. Bardens are also great, not as hot as the modern high gain, but very well balanced. I like the modern high gain horseshoe a lot too, very very hot single coil. I may be in the minority here, but I liked the classic amp pickups the least, I find the stock modern hi gains to have plenty of output and found the CA to sound really weak in comparison.
 
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#14
For any of the single coil options, a good shielding job can make a huge difference, neither 4001 or 4003 came standard with ANY shielding, which is bizarre, but it’s an easy afternoon job with shielding tape or paint. You’ll never get all the noise out, but the stick gains can be pretty noisy without it.
 
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#16
Erik Stokley said:
As others have mentioned, if the .0047 low cut cap is in you will want to remove that. I also play in low A tuning and have tried all sorts of pickups in my ricks. I like the Duncan bridge pickup a lot, it's super loud and ballsy, drives amps really hard. I liked the Ric bartolini pickups too, they had really big lows and were very clear. Rickenbacker HB1s are also very hot and bassy, albeit a little dark if you don't change the pots to a higher value. Bardens are also great, not as hot as the modern high gain, but very well balanced. I like the modern high gain horseshoe a lot too, very very hot single coil. I may be in the minority here, but I liked the classic amp pickups the least, I find the stock modern hi gains to have plenty of output and found the CA to sound really weak in comparison.
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If you like the modern Ric Hi-Gains a lot then it doesn’t surprise me that you wouldn’t like the Classic Amplification “stock” wind very much as they are wound in line with vintage/4001-spec Hi-Gains. Modern Hi-Gains are up to 150% as much wire which makes them more mid-heavy vs the vintage examples which are wider and cleaner sounding (to my ears modern ones are kinda honky, but that’s subjective). I felt like the actual output wasn’t much different for me between the CA pickups and modern Hi-Gains though (the CA have less winds but stronger magnets), with the CA neck pickup having more output for me than the 2016 Ric pickup I was replacing though the more compressed and mid-forward character of the modern bridge Hi-Gain might sound hotter.
 
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#17
sunbeast said:
Does your ‘73 have a Toaster or Hi-gain pickup in the neck position?
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hi-gain

anyway, looks there is nothing but emulation of original pickups or a variation of the same, apart from going custom.

still thinking, but at the moment it looks like two deathbuckers might be closest to what i'd like to achieve. will have to confirm it will fit existing space in neck position. have access to laser cutter, making custom pickguard should not be a problem. current pickguard is custom.


much obliged for your replies
hope to post results later in the year when it is assembled
 

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