Modding a Ric....

[Ric5]

Also most of the famous Rickenbacker played by famous bass players were modified.

Chris Squire
Paul McCartney
Geddy Lee
Cliff Burton

Etc ...

 

[OzzyGreg]

.
Whatever you do, if you decide to change the bridge.. make sure the new bridge has the same number of mounting screws and step down as the original Ricky one!

I bought my 1980 4001 about 25 years ago. It had active EMG pickups and a flat, three screw Schaller bridge installed for some reason.

For 24 years I put up with the fact that I couldn't play the thing with a pick because the A string had considerably less volume than the other three. When I finger-plucked it was fine, no difference (not atleast to my ears), but with a pick it was terrible. It always sounded fairly Rick-like, but never as close as it should have in my opinion too.

I decided, in desperation to buy and fit a Rickenbacker bridge to it. I had to carefully chisel out the filling the previous owner had put in the routing so that the Ricky bridge could sit down where it was supposed to.

Hey presto! Even volume right across all strings when playing with a pick.... and.... it now sounded far more Rickenbacker like!

This has transformed my bass!

My two cents.

Greg

 

[cassius987]

The Rick bass you modded was rarer then the 4003s in question, But I think both modded basses are cool.

It was also modded when I bought it--it had a P Bass pickup, a bunch of wood putty that had been painted over, and a really weird bridge pickup plate. There was no going back. I picked it up for $800 in early 2010.

 

[Jools4001]

FWIW I think Ric5 does a better job of representing Rickenbacker than many of the "enthusiasts". But I'm sure that not all of these enthusiast are "unreasonable". There are several on this board that are A-OK.

Personally, I think people mod Ric's because of a failure of Ric to do what their customers want, for the most part. Whether you are talking about swapping electronics, adding a trebel bezel, or adding a 5th string, most of the mods done are because Ric doesn't really care what you want, and many of them are improvements. When you think about it, no one really cares about modding any other bass; in most instances it's looked on as an improvement. Ric fanboi's seem to be the most sensitive to changes in the status quo.

I will say though, that you have an interesting way of combatting the perpetuation of the myth

+1

I love my Ric, and have done for 35 years, but I'm not blind to it's faults.

I really wish Ric were more responsive to users feedback. If they were, they could have evolved the 4000 series into a state of near perfection over the last 40 years...

Instead, they seem to have spent their R&D budget on copyright lawsuits

 

[OzzyGreg]

.
Who cares if people want to modify their Rickenbackers?
If they are silly enough to do it then go ahead!

Mine's not OEM. I bought it that way.
I wish it was exactly as it left the factory.

One thing that really annoys me is people insulting others on these forums from behind the safety of the internet.
Face to face they would fall silent in 90% of instances I reckon!

Another annoying thing is that I have to filter through all that personal crap to find the sensible/mature discussions!

Greg

 

[Ric5]

I think this forum is great. We can all express our different opinions. I like the diversity.

 

[I<34080]

I don't care if you hack your Ric to pieces, it's yours, but I don't understand why someone would pay so much for an instrument for aesthetics alone. I love the Rickenbacker tone, feel, and look, which is why I bought one. I would never spend 1700 on a Fender and then put Rickenbacker pick ups in it.

Hardware mods make sense to me though.

 

[Ric5]

Here's me with a 1968 4001. I played it stock for many years. I was always unhappy with the weak original pickups and the tone sucking .0047 capacitor. In the picture below the bass has 2 4003 high gain pickups and no .0047 capacitor. In its modded state it was a vastly better player than it was stock.

Also about a week ago I removed the .0047 capacitor for a local Rickenbacker owner. It was a nice 74 Azureglo 4001. He was very happy with the modification.

 

[cassius987]

That kind of modification is easily reversed if you so desire. Routing a bunch of wood out is a whole 'nother story.

 

[incubus2432]

I love me some modded Rics.

.....4004LK with Hipshot bridge and stacked pots (VVVT) with toggle wired as a kill switch. Certainly not extreme modifications but I wanted to keep 'em reversible on this one.....
......stock....

......with minor mods (bad pic).....

....4004 Laredo with black hardware and black painted fretboard.....

The Laredo was sent out almost two years ago for conversion to a 5 string with a wider neck and some other spiffy mods but, apparently, it wasn't a very high priority for the luthier so it's being returned as we speak.

As far as the Rick Resource Forum......it certainly is a great source for info and there are plenty of great people there but it's obviously a "fan" site and anything deemed as "bashing" of the company or product is frowned upon and edited. I have no problem with limiting "bashing" but the definition of "bashing" there is virtually anything perceived to be even slightly negative. It is what it is.

 

[Reverend179]

I'm thinking I'm gonna dark star the neck pickup on my '74 4001, put a bartolini in the bridge mute compartment, and re-do the control scheme volume/tone, three way and an on-off for the bridge mute pickup.

Feel free to flame me. I don't give a damn.

 

[cassius987]

Don't be so narcissistic. I really don't care who mods what and I think a lot of Ric players feel the same. I've just been trying to point out the special reason why J Hud got so much attention.

 

[Ric5]

I love me some modded Rics.

.....4004LK with Hipshot bridge and stacked pots (VVVT) with toggle wired as a kill switch. Certainly not extreme modifications but I wanted to keep 'em reversible on this one.....
......stock....

......with minor mods (bad pic).....

....4004 Laredo with black hardware and black painted fretboard.....

The Laredo was sent out almost two years ago for conversion to a 5 string with a wider neck and some other spiffy mods but, apparently, it wasn't a very high priority for the luthier so it's being returned as we speak.

As far as the Rick Resource Forum......it certainly is a great source for info and there are plenty of great people there but it's obviously a "fan" site and anything deemed as "bashing" of the company or product is frowned upon and edited. I have no problem with limiting "bashing" but the definition of "bashing" there is virtually anything perceived to be even slightly negative. It is what it is.

I love the 4004 basses.

They are great basses for mods. You can wire them Volume, Volume, Tone like a jazz bass. Or you can wire them with stacked pots so both pickups have a volume and tone control. Also you can install high gain or toster pickups. You can also replace the bridge. And there are several more mods that can be done.

 

[john turner]

I'll say it one more time, J Hud had every right to do what he did, but he picked a pretty bad bass to do it to and then post about it online for the world to see. That was a minty 4003S, something a lot of Ric players would really like to have, and he turned it into his own wacky thing. Now that's all well and good but there are so many better candidates for modding out there without having to destroy a nice example of a vintage instrument.

And I'm not even a "purist"! Hell, I don't even want most of the vintage models Ric fans drool over (case in point, the RM1999 does nothing for me... give me a modern 4003 any day). But I can still see this.

he didn't destroy anything, he changed an instrument that he owned to be what -he- wanted it to be.

there's no excuse for any ad hom negativity toward that. period. folks might not find the mod to their tastes, but the personal insults and attacks and just disrespect that guy got over that was absurd.

What would you rather see some Fender guy mod up, a pretty typical P Bass from the 90s or later, or, let's say, a Fender Precision Elite II or some other rare model like that. Not the epitome of vintage but still something people hunt after. Or how about a vintage 2-band Stringray instead of a modern production model? Etc. etc.

well, for me, this is a moot point. over the past 18 years i've got more dough invested in custom, hand made instruments, built for me to my specifications, than a lot of folks have equity in their houses. this, along with the fact that the last time i gigged with a 4 was also, ironically, about 18 years ago (i only play 7's and 8's), has rendered me pretty immune to having any negative opinions at all regarding other folks' instruments and what they do with them - i have -exactly- the instruments i want, i know how to get, and can afford, any other instruments i might want, and i'm not afraid to modify even my (very expensive) custom instruments should i find something i want done to them.

i also don't look at a mass produced instrument from -any- company as worth anything like the antisocial baloney that that dude received. frankly, when you hold an instrument that was hand built made -for you- by a master, there's nothing, not even a ric, that can compare. just not even in the same dimension.

and i'm saying that as a proud owner of a '75 4080 for the past 20 years and a 4003 for the past 26.

I know we can do what we want with our stuff but when we go rambling about it online the whole damn world can comment on it freely. Just as you have a right to mod the bass however you want, they have a right to say whatever they please about it, and you can't do anything about it.

not on talkbass they don't. rule 1 here is respect one's fellow members. this is not conditional upon them appropriately caring for their gear.

it is unfortunate that apparently to some small minority of folks, an anonymous, mass produced bass is more worthy of respect than a fellow bassist trying to find his voice and willing to take chances in the process. my personal opinion of the absurdity of that approach aside, that's counter to what we are trying to accomplish with this site.

and that kind of behavior certainly made me question the motivations of those few, strident ric-erazzi who felt obliged to share it the way they did. unfortunately it wasn't the first time i've seen it from that small but loud demographic, either.

 

[cassius987]

Well John Turner, that's all fair enough to me. For what it's worth I wasn't trying to excuse personal attacks on anyone--just the criticism of the mod. Criticism, not personal attacks, should be protected as free speech just about anywhere IMO.

 

[FaithNoMan]

I don't perpetuate any myths ...

as for being a jerk I'll let you do that on your own.

If somebody wants to mod their bass it is after all THEIR bass ... Who are we to tell them they can't do it.

Yeah man - some people really step OVER the line, especially on a bass that's NOT theirs!

As for mods, mine were pretty small - I changed the pots out on my bridge pickup, and my tone pot is a no-load, and the volume one is 750K(don't even ask how I came up with those values). I might change the 750K one out for a no-load eventually, as well.
I get a great cutting tone, and definitely feel no need for a vintage tone switch to get me more highs=)

 

[willsellout]

i do too. i remember a guy who modded a ric and folks -here- were literally calling for his head. there was a thread on the ric forum about this guy's modding adventure, slagging him -over there- for something he was posting -here-. i've never heard of fans of any other company going -that- far in their slag-festivities.

here's the thread : http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/my-rickenbacker-modification-project-688926/

That bass is rad!

 

[Ric5]

he didn't destroy anything, he changed an instrument that he owned to be what -he- wanted it to be.

there's no excuse for any ad hom negativity toward that. period. folks might not find the mod to their tastes, but the personal insults and attacks and just disrespect that guy got over that was absurd.



well, for me, this is a moot point. over the past 18 years i've got more dough invested in custom, hand made instruments, built for me to my specifications, than a lot of folks have equity in their houses. this, along with the fact that the last time i gigged with a 4 was also, ironically, about 18 years ago (i only play 7's and 8's), has rendered me pretty immune to having any negative opinions at all regarding other folks' instruments and what they do with them - i have -exactly- the instruments i want, i know how to get, and can afford, any other instruments i might want, and i'm not afraid to modify even my (very expensive) custom instruments should i find something i want done to them.

i also don't look at a mass produced instrument from -any- company as worth anything like the antisocial baloney that that dude received. frankly, when you hold an instrument that was hand built made -for you- by a master, there's nothing, not even a ric, that can compare. just not even in the same dimension.

and i'm saying that as a proud owner of a '75 4080 for the past 20 years and a 4003 for the past 26.



not on talkbass they don't. rule 1 here is respect one's fellow members. this is not conditional upon them appropriately caring for their gear.

it is unfortunate that apparently to some small minority of folks, an anonymous, mass produced bass is more worthy of respect than a fellow bassist trying to find his voice and willing to take chances in the process. my personal opinion of the absurdity of that approach aside, that's counter to what we are trying to accomplish with this site.

and that kind of behavior certainly made me question the motivations of those few, strident ric-erazzi who felt obliged to share it the way they did. unfortunately it wasn't the first time i've seen it from that small but loud demographic, either.

Wow ... good post ... I agree ...

For me it has been about 10 years since I gigged with a 4 string bass ... I love the 5 string basses and I prefer my own custom instruments.

 

[king_biscuit]

That kind of modification is easily reversed if you so desire. Routing a bunch of wood out is a whole 'nother story.

Right. Plus it's not necessary to remove the capacitor -- it can just be jumped and left in place.

 

[willsellout]

Right. Plus it's not necessary to remove the capacitor -- it can just be jumped and left in place.

But why not remove it? No one prefers it. it's like the famed "Ric-O-Sound". Ric uses it as a selling point despite the fact that 99% of Ric owners don't use it. Which is why I have a mono plug in my Ric. Well, the real reason I have a mono plug is because of Ric's inconsistency from year to year and my unwillingness to wire up a true stereo jack that I will never use.