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The dreaded Rickenbacker floppy E string!

#21
Never noticed a problem with Ric E strings, always ring like a piano with rounds. Rics are pup height sensitive, out of adjustment, per chance? I've had more trouble with G strings when they get old. The Rotosounds sound great for about a month, then pdfffft....
 
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#26
I have a unique take on this ...

4003b%20022.jpg


I convert 4 string Rics into 5 string Rics ...

When I convert a 4 to 5 the E is NEVER WEAK ... Not even a little ... but you can get a problem with the B. But with the B being fatter the problem is less and the additional stress on the neck of the extra string makes the bass resonate better.

The problem is not with tension or strings or resonance ... In my opinion ...

It is the location of the pickups. I love the "Rickenbacker" tone and look ... So I build other basses that also get the Ric tone by putting pickups in the Rickenbacker locations ...

5s%20012.jpg


But sometimes I notice that the neck pickup when placed under the 24th fret location can sometimes make the lowest string hollow ... it can remove some frequencies from the lowest string. Also sometimes when both pickups are full on it can cancel some frequencies.

Not all Rics suffer from this and some more than others ...

My solution is lighter strings, and roll off the neck volume to about 8, dial in the mids and eq to taste.

So with the advantages of the Ric also come disadvantages as well ... the same can also be said for the p-bass, the jazz bass and the stingray ... especially the stingray which has the opposite problem ... the G string s weak and lacks bass ... the G string on Ricks is marvelous and the Best G string is found on the Gibson EB0.

My argument with the 4001/4003 design is the bridge and the pickup cover and also Rickenbacker's inability to design and build good 5 string basses ...
 
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#27
catcauphonic said:
Click to expand...


anecdote time:

I was sitting in a bar in Bangkok a couple of years ago & the bass riff came on once & I named the song before the next strike. It really amazed everyone at the bar, for some reason.
That was a great night, and also my last night in Thailand.

My RIC was strung with a .11" as the E string & seemed just fine.
 
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#29
Say what you will about trolling Ric players or whatever, but in the 70's I tried out several Rics and none of them resonated well on the E string. The last one, which I owned, I traded in at Bizarre Guitar in Reno. Later on, in the 80's I got to know a very pro player in NYC, and we talked about this same problem. When I told him I'd dumped my Ric because of this, he said about 9 out of 10 he'd tried had that same issue.

Obviously Ric has remedied this problem in current builds, but not everyone who says the E string sounded hollow and off is not out to trash the brand. Back when Roger Glover was using a Ric, one had to be very careful to find one that actually sounded good.

My 2 cents FWIW.

Kahuna
 
#30
Killed_by_Death said:
anecdote time:

I was sitting in a bar in Bangkok a couple of years ago & the bass riff came on once & I named the song before the next strike. It really amazed everyone at the bar, for some reason.
That was a great night, and also my last night in Thailand.

My RIC was strung with a .11" as the E string & seemed just fine.
Click to expand...
Didja name that tune in 3 notes or less?
 
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#32
Big Kahuna said:
Say what you will about trolling Ric players or whatever, but in the 70's I tried out several Rics and none of them resonated well on the E string. The last one, which I owned, I traded in at Bizarre Guitar in Reno. Later on, in the 80's I got to know a very pro player in NYC, and we talked about this same problem. When I told him I'd dumped my Ric because of this, he said about 9 out of 10 he'd tried had that same issue.

Obviously Ric has remedied this problem in current builds, but not everyone who says the E string sounded hollow and off is not out to trash the brand. Back when Roger Glover was using a Ric, one had to be very careful to find one that actually sounded good.

My 2 cents FWIW.

Kahuna
Click to expand...
The Rics of the 70s had a capacitor attached to the Bridge pickup that removed the bass and low mids from that pickup ... Also they put 500k ohm tone capacitors on single coil pickups ... hence the Rickenbacker clank ...

The 4003 is a modern version of the 4001 with fatter sounding pickups and 250 or 330 tone pots for a fuller tone

The 4004 has 2 humbuckers and a very fat tone.
 
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#36
Nev375 said:
Yeah well, except for all the ones screaming "TROLL! TROLL!" ...just sayin'

I own a Ric too (albeit a guitar) and I think this thread is hilarious.
Click to expand...


There are 2 kinds of Ric fans ... those like me who like the look and tone of a Ric bass ... then there are the Ric purists who belong to the Rickenbacker cult ... they drink the koolaid

Also the are those who start threads just to be a troll about various topics
 

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