Rickenbacker help!!

[Ric5]

The first thing a Rick owner needs to do is realize that their bass IS a different design.
You shouldn't set up or EQ it as if it were a Fender.
It's not just hype.
Makes life a lot easier, I wish I knew this back in the mid 1990s when I got my 4001.

Ya Rics are different ... I build my frankenstein basses and I put the pickups in Ric locations and I flatten out the neck as much as possible to make them more like Rics.

Rickenbackers would be my favorite basses if there was a good factory 5 string Rickenbacker bass.

 

[Rich Treat]

Here is one of the quotes:



The whole discussion is here: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] Setup

Thank you for this link. It led me to the manual where I have copied this quote...

"A slight under bow (relief) is common on non-Rickenbacker instruments due to their limited range of adjustment. Due to their extreme adjustability you may prefer to adjust a RIC neck almost dead straight depending on the playing action preferred."

With phrases like "may prefer" and "depending on the playing action preferred", this all still seems vague to me. But I guess that I have to accept that some basses are just different. I was just so surprised to be told to set the neck straight with no relief. Learn something new everyday!

 

[cassius987]

The manual is vague. The CEO is not. Make it straight.

 

[Korladis]

Rickenbackers: They're not like Fenders.

 

[cassius987]

Yet every bit as good and then some.

It's funny, I once found them strange too, but now that I know how to set up a Ric really well it's actually helped me do other setups better as well. A Ric takes just a little more homework, but once you've figured that out it's a piece of cake and suddenly something like a P Bass seems a lot easier than it did when you were 14 and didn't even know what the term "relief" meant.

 

[Korladis]

Yeah, I think lots of people are unpleasantly surprised by Ricks not behaving like Fenders, which lots of other basses do. But Ricks aren't based on Fenders, they're a very different design.

People can be creatures of habit, after all.

 

[ric stave]

Ya Rics are different ... I build my frankenstein basses and I put the pickups in Ric locations and I flatten out the neck as much as possible to make them more like Rics.

Rickenbackers would be my favorite basses if there was a good factory 5 string Rickenbacker bass.

...and yet, my brother, you have made some of the most awesome, coolest 5 string basses out of one of my favorite stock basses EVER!

Honestly, the only reason I let go of my 2nd Rick was because it wasn't a 5 string! I shoulda sent her to YOU to mod her for me!

 

[bassmachine2112]

hiho,I have to agree-set the neck flat as a pancake and lower the bridge pick up till it balances with the neck one then you will hear a rick in its glory when you put the selecter in the middle position.
EQ wise everything flat in the middle and push the presence to taste and a dollop of gain
The moral is-set it up like a ricky not like the rest.
I have a 99 4003 and the pups are powerful medicine,as loud as my musicman and louder than the rest of my basses to the point that I had to lower the neck one cause it was farting the speakers and distorting.Once I did that the difference was astounding.
They are not like other basses but sorted out they play a dream and sound a dream.
I can fully understand why some people get one and are disalusioned by them cause not set up right they sound very disapointing and playability is not good.
pushing the presence up is due to the abundance of bottom end and low middles which should not be cut.presence gives that characteristic attack to the note when you hit it.
The single coil pups have a very distinct dynamic unlike any other bass and can punish sloppy technique.
Play a Ricky like a Ricky not like a bass.

 

[JMacBass65]

I have to agree-set the neck flat as a pancake and lower the bridge pick up till it balances with the neck one then you will hear a rick in its glory when you put the selecter in the middle position.

+1

Yeah, years ago I had a blast with my Ric, even though it wasn't set up very well. It looked cool and sounded cool and that’s all that mattered. I was young and stupid and quite a bit of a masher when it came to technique, so as long as I beat on it hard enough, it worked well enough for me.

When I began to play again after not doing so for about ten years, I realized my Ric was not set up well at all. Fortunately I learned how to set it up correctly after reading some of John Hall’s posts in another forum. The difference was night and day. It plays like a dream now, and it inspires a different approach to playing.

One other thing I suggest, since the quoted post talks of tone. IMHO you WANT the .0047 cap wired into the circuit of the bridge pickup. This is key to the true Ric tone!

My 85 4003 did not have the .0047 cap; bypassing the cap had become such a common mod that Ric eliminated it in the early 80’s. Well in recent years Ric added the “vintage tone circuit”, which added the cap back in and added a push/pull pot to engage or disengage the cap.

Well upon reading about this (I new nothing of the cap), I promptly added the cap to my bass, and presto, NOW it REALLY sounded like a Ric. I mean, it always had…….but maybe not quite. It is a huge difference if you ask me. I ended up adding a mini toggle switch as well, to bypass the cap when I want. Nine times out of ten I have it in (“vintage”), but every now and then I pull it out as the classic Ric sound is not quite right.

So with the by-passable cap, tone controls, pick, fingers, and where and how you attack the strings, there are just so many sounds you can get out of it.

I have completely re-discovered this bass.