Just bought my first Rickenbacker. What now?

[rodak]

Personally, I like the look with the bridge pickup cover removed and the stock bezel. I've seen some replacement bezels, and they look interesting, but I just prefer the stock one. Give it a chance and a good hard look before you replace it.

 

[bigdaddybass12]

They gotta make a tort pickguard for that thing !

 

[deesonic]

I've had my 2001 Midnight Blue 4003 for about 15 years now. I bring it out occasionally at gigs for a couple songs (usually Motorhead songs), but usually I stick with my good ol P Basses. My RIC is the most uncomfortable bass I own, but I still love it and will likely never sell it. I do love the vibe and growl. The only changes I have made are to replace the cover with a bezel and upgrading the stock bridge to V2 version like RIC puts on current models. The new bridge is so much better and easier to setup. Of course i have kept the original parts. Enjoy!

 

[Kevorargh]

Mod nothing! Play it as it is - I have had two and both were great. Tube preamps help bring out a wonderfully gnarly tone from a Mic - my Two Note LeBass Tube preamp meshes well with my Ric.

Or you can do whatever you want .

 

[Bass Ameg]

Play Ace of Spades.

 

[B-Mac]

These seem popular:

[URL="https://www.bestbassgear.com/zero-mod-4003-ric-thumbrest.htm"]Zero Mod 4003 Ric Thumbrest - Best Bass Gear[/URL]

 

[mikecd1]

Congrats on your upcoming bass! The bezel is a great idea and I really enjoyed putting a Bartolini mute compartment pickup in mine, but an easy upgrade would be the zero mod thumb bar to help find a comfy place to pluck. Easy install, big advantage!

 

[relayer66]

I’ve had a 4001 and currently have a 4003.

The most important mod for me is already done…lost the pick guard cover. I prefer the gash to the bezel. Next thing I would do is strap locks.

Another good mod is the toaster pickup. I would leave the original bridge on, nothing else looks the same or has as much vintage chrome bling.

 

[ImTheOnlyOne]

String with Med Light nickel rounds, set the action low, lose the pick guard, and buy a mess of picks.
Utilize moderate compression and warm it with a light fuzz or OD.
Then filter and phase to your heart's content.

 

[Grapevine921]

Bridge pickup bezel is nice for me. I also added shielding. Rics really shine with a near straight neck and some fresh rounds. Enjoy!

 

[bmusic]

Now I'm considering the thumb rest.

I should mentioned that I rock La Bella DTFs on the thing. I had some black nylons on for a while, but it's not my sound. The La Bellas, though...that deep thump with the attack of the maple and the two pickups...very satisfying.

 

[bmusic]

Oh, and also, I did the vintage knobs. I guess they ship this way now, which means RIC is now modding their basses to look like mine?!

But I did this even when I was playing a 4003. Prefer the look to the silvery ones.

 

[Father Gino]

I had a brand new 4001 about 1980. I hated it. But I didn’t know anything about truss rods, flat wound strings or the bass suck cap that was undefeatble stock. Really thin neck that couldn’t deal with heavier strings.
I bought 4003 more recently and played it out for a couple of years. TI flats made it sound great to my ears. Baseball, fat neck. Pretty heavy. I don’t like the string spacing. Even with the aftermarket bezel, the damn thing was always uncomfortable (flat plate might have been better).
I figured I could fairly easily get used to it, but why bother. Bought a jazz bass FSO which was back to my personal roots.
I still want another black one with the binding and sharks teeth. They just look cool!!

 

[moon-bass]

I bought a 77 4001 a while back. I replaced the bridge with a new Hipshot (the older bridges could get tail lift) and also replaced the wiring harness - the older Ric basses had a capacitor that sucked the bass out of the sound - the new wiring harness has a push/pull pot that can defeat the capacitor (or leave it in). That's it, otherwise kept it stock. If the newer basses don't have the bridge lift issue and if they have the push/pull pot then I wouldn't have made any changes.

 

[Hurricane Jimmie]

So Anyway, Congrats on getting a Ric. I'd been playing almost 40 years and had never played one.

We have a local music shop that carries them, but they were never on the wall for very long. One day my buddy called me and told me a new one had just arrived. I went to the store, played it for about 10 minutes, and bought it. It was my primary bass for the next dozen years and hundreds of gigs.
I've never had any modifications done to mine other than installing a strap-lock on the lower horn for the Slinger Strap that I use, but I do that to almost all of my basses. I left the PU cover on...and took the flag sticker off.

Good Luck with your new bass. There's a lot to like and explore.

 

[rickwick7600]

I have a 76 4001 and a 2018 4003. I've done a handful of mods to each. Some back and forth to original or some version that I did myself. People are going to find most of this absolutely ridiculous (I kinda do too from time to time), but just for the op's interest, I'll detail them here. This is going to be long.
76 4001 AutumnGlo
-Had the fretboard replaced by Larry Davis will full sharkfin, crushed MOP inlays and thinner frets.
-Replaced the truss rods (probably wasn't necessary but they were bent at the top pretty bad)
-Replaced the truss rod adjuster nuts with Fender barrel hex nuts for easier adjustments
-Custom ebony truss rod cover with MOP Rickenbacker inlay
-Black Pickguard
-I shaped a Zero mod thumb rest copy out of Ebony
-Treble bezel with thumbrest
-Humbuckers in neck and bridge in toaster style casings. Made by Creamery pickups.
-Currently have a Nordstrand 2b active preamp in there, but I may go back to passive wiring.
-I've gone back and forth between the aluminum Hipshot bridge and the original.
2018 4003 Montezuma Amberglo
-All blacked out hardware and trim: Hipshot black tuners, custom black truss rod cover I made myself out of wood with a gold Rickenbacker decal I found online, black pickguard, had the neck toaster cover and bridge pickup surround powder coated black, black brass Hipshot bridge
- Zero mod thumb rest
-Treble bezel with recessed thumb rest
-Replaced the bridge pickup with one from Classic Amplification reverse wound for humcanceling.
-I customized a wiring harness to be mono with linear taper volume pots (seriously no reason for that I realize).

I love them, but I've clearly spent too much time and money messing with these; most of it truly unnecessary. Don't go crazy with the mods like I did. You might regret some of it.

 

[GodsLove66]

1. Get a V2 Bridge
2. Play the following:

 

[Andy Marshman]

As a much younger guy in 1967, I subbed an out of town 2 night gig for a guy and got to use his 4001 and his Vox Super Beatle amp stack. I was only used to my Fender P so I didn't care for the Ric at all. It was decades later that I started to admire what I used to call an Ugly Duckling 4003. I got one, barely used, in Montezuma Brown (one of the 'colour of the year' shades. I played most of the time until I went to short scale basses. Apparently, it had a twist in the neck that I didn't know about because I like my action a bit high. It was a great instrument to play. I know how to do mods, particularly electronics, but I wouldn't recommend changing a thing on a Ric.

 

[garrett77]

I lowered the nut slots on my 4003. Biggest improvement.

I had no issues getting the neck to be nearly flat, and the action is pretty low without fret buzz.

Installed Thomastik flats.

Hipshot bridge.

I removed the pickup cover, as many have suggested, and installed a RIC branded treble bezel.

Added a DIY laser cut black pickguard and 3d printed truss cover, both of which improved the tone...

EDIT: added photo.

 

[Guiseppe]

Welcome to Ric ownership - you now have an example of the best bass money can buy.

I've modded a couple of my Rics over the years, including this one:

• Kahler bridge.
• Seymour Duncan Treble pickup.
  
• I've got a Nordstrand pickup to fit in the Bass (neck) position.
• Hipshot drop-D eXtender tuner.
• 6-position Freeway selector switch.
• Allparts two-piece pickguard.
• I think the pickup & control routings are shielded.

View attachment 5192872

Generally I don't tend to go that far and like the basses pretty much stock, but there are a couple of reversible mods I tend to do:

• take off the Treble pickup cover and sometimes put in a bezel,
• fit a Hipshot drop-D eXtender tuner (on the larger headstock models).

A couple of tips for a Ric newbie:

• You only plug in one jack at a time: either a mono one into the "Standard" output or a stereo (TRS) one into the "Rick-O-Sound" one; if you plug a mono jack into the stereo socket you will only get the Treble pickup and if you plug a jack into both you may get no sound.
• The Treble tone is a push-pull pot, which enables a bass-cut cap when pulled for the "Vintage" tone (think Chris Squire) or bypasses it for the "Modern" sound when pushed in (think Geddy Lee).

Strings-wise I use Rotosound Swing Bass (of course!) 40-60-80-100 gauge.

Great post. I could have used this when I was considering getting a 4003 a bit ago.