Pickguardian Ric cover

+1

 

Look in the For Sale section, Basses, a while back there was a rick for sale by Cheezewiz. His has the pickguardian pickup cover, and IIRC, some pics with it on.

 

Yep..mine had it. It's a handy little dealie for covering the pickup route, but unfortunately, it didn't make using the pickup for a thumbrest any easier, since the protective clear plastic cover extended all the way to the top of the "under" cover.

 

GODAMNIT I WANT A RIC.

sorry

 

I can relate Todd. I wanted a Ric for years. I finally got mine, and gigged with a it few times. I loved the way it sounded, but just couldn't adjust to the feel. The neck was just too thick, and I couldn't find a comfortable spot for my right hand anywhere. I'll own one again someday for sure, but this time it will be a 4001 or an early skinny necked 4003.

 

Did you install it yourself on the Ric or did it come that way?

This is actually pretty exciting because I didn't know about these and was fixing to have some serious custom work done to my 4003 to cover up that sharp, gaping hole.

 

I had one of those for my '79 4001. To be honest I swear it affected the tone. What I think was happening was the metal PU mount acted as a sort of body vibration transmiter alowing the pickup to "hear" the bodys vibrations adding growl and depth. This is basicaly why Telecaster guitars sound the way they do, the bridge surounds the pickup and since the bridge is ferous the pickup picks up its vibration giving the Tele' it's signature growl.

Just my take on the thing, you might not notica any difference

~Paul

 

I've always thought that pickup and bridge covers HAD to affect tone, since it would be reflecting sound out of the bridge cover, and back into the pickup on the bridge cover.

As always, I could just be plain FOS as usual too.

 

Well, James Jamerson always insisted that the covers were necesary for "the sound". Rick covers are actually chrome plated plastic (real chrome on plastic) so while they aren't magneticaly reactive, though they might sield the pickup a bit (they are grounded). I'm not sure if the Fender covers are ferous or not.

You may be right though about refocusing the sound back at the pickup.

The big thing here though is the metal mounting ring vibrating with the body and transmiting that sound to the pickup.

Personaly I'd rather leave the cover on there, I think it looks better if nothing else

 

I installed it myself. It's a very easy job, just involves 1 minute of screwing

 

Wow, I never thought of that. I was always aware of the Tele bridge pickup and believed all that metal down there influenced the tone, but I never thought about it on Rick basses for some reason.