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The Rickenbacker Club! Part trees!

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#381
it also appears to have been re-wired...no longer stereo...and the Pup Cover is PLASTIC! the selector switch however does work...

needs a set-up badly

anybody know anything about these Duncans?...they appear to be direct replacements...(same size as the originals?)
 
#386
Snakeman1066 said:
it also appears to have been re-wired...no longer stereo...and the Pup Cover is PLASTIC! the selector switch however does work...

needs a set-up badly

anybody know anything about these Duncans?...they appear to be direct replacements...(same size as the originals?)
Click to expand...

Ah too bad it's rewired. Fix it :D

The duncans are direct replacement pickups.. I think it is the same size as the original but I am not sure cause when you buy them you get a new "ring" with the bridge pup.
 
#387
YZZ said:
Ah too bad it's rewired. Fix it :D

The duncans are direct replacement pickups.. I think it is the same size as the original but I am not sure cause when you buy them you get a new "ring" with the bridge pup.
Click to expand...

i had a maple glow 4003 some time back and got rid of it simply because i couldn't find a tone out of it i could live with....and didn't want to spend the $$$ to swap out the pups....and everybody was freaking out that i wanted to get rid of the stock pups

this thing sounds really different...i'm assuming because of the duncans...plus somebody as already butchered this one....

don't worry the same guy that fixed my last one is getting this one some time next week
 
#388
Snakeman1066 said:
Ok guys....

blackric.jpg


(sorry cell phone is all i have at the moment)

yesterday being Christmas we dropped by on a little old lady we know...her dryer died.....we took her our old one (as we got a new one)....long story short she knows i play.....he son used to play this, but is no longer with us....

she thought it was from the 70's, but according to the serial # it was made in November of 1986....the original pups have been replaced the ones in it now have seymour duncan logo's on them

it is all black but has a broken (dash line) white binding...the fretboard has black dot inlays instead of the shark fin.....

anybody?
Click to expand...

This should be a good bass with a nice thin neck and some girth to it....I have had one of these and they are nice when tweaked properly...that is a good year for a 4003
 
#392
Snakeman1066 said:
i had a maple glow 4003 some time back and got rid of it simply because i couldn't find a tone out of it i could live with....and didn't want to spend the $$$ to swap out the pups....and everybody was freaking out that i wanted to get rid of the stock pups

this thing sounds really different...i'm assuming because of the duncans...plus somebody as already butchered this one....

don't worry the same guy that fixed my last one is getting this one some time next week
Click to expand...

The Duncans are direct fit replacements and are marketed as such.
They sound OK, not great, not bad, just OK. They're humbuckers, quite hot, and rather dark sounding compared to stock single coils (Higains).
I had a set in my '77.
That and the wrong value pots make for a totally un-Rick like sound. I rewired mine back to a stock arrangement and it sounds more like what you'd expect.
Current RIC Higains are wound a little hotter than the 1980s pups, but should give a better representation of the traditional sound, along with the correct value pots, if yours have been changed.
RIC also offers a prewired control harness, current pot values are 330k.

Ric5 (Jeff) knows the correct values for 1980s pots, I can't seem to keep all the era changes straight.
 
#393
I believe the pots have always either been 250K Vol + 500K Tone or 330K all around. Going all 500K would probably be safe if you don't mind a little extra brightness.

Duncan pickups don't sound bad, just different. As for me, I use HB-1s (the 4004/650 humbucker made by Ric) in a couple of my 4003s and really like them. I just recorded in two different studios for a couple of different projects with one of those basses and the comments I got back from both artists was how pleased they were that the bass sounded "so huge". I was pretty happy with it too, can't wait to hear the finished product.
 
#394
Snakeman1066 said:
i had a maple glow 4003 some time back and got rid of it simply because i couldn't find a tone out of it i could live with....and didn't want to spend the $$$ to swap out the pups....and everybody was freaking out that i wanted to get rid of the stock pups

this thing sounds really different...i'm assuming because of the duncans...plus somebody as already butchered this one....

don't worry the same guy that fixed my last one is getting this one some time next week
Click to expand...

Well that's good for you then.

I think it's a little weird they freaked out about it. I mean: It's easy to switch back the stock pickups later if you wanted to..

I am actually going to check out a Mapleglo Rickenbacker 4003 with the SD pups this week :)
 
#395
I posted a "global poll" regarding this but would be courious to know specifically, how many Rickenbacker lovers have or paln an taking advantage of the promotional sales going on.

I placed an order with MF for a new 4003 MID back in October. The $1,559.99 price delived to my door was the best around anywhere, including what North Coast Music gets for theirs, which is $1,689 plus $45.00 shipping. Other places are charging $1,900 and up!

I'm interested to see how much thinner the new two-piece neck is compared to my 2009 (Jan made) 4003 bass. I'm thinking that it's probably along the lines of my 1982 4003, which also has the two-piece laminated neck.
 
#398
Gibenbackerbass said:
I'm interested to see how much thinner the new two-piece neck is compared to my 2009 (Jan made) 4003 bass. I'm thinking that it's probably along the lines of my 1982 4003, which also has the two-piece laminated neck.
Click to expand...
And again, I link back to that other forum.

Invalid Link Removed

I'm a relative noob on thickness of Ric necks. Also, there's a lot of mixups in this discussion between what I call neck thickness (from the top of the fretboard to the back of the neck) and width (from the top of the fretboard near the fat string across to the bottom of the fretboard near the skinny string). Terminology seems to be problematic in discussing this as some people use the term "width" interchangably.

All I have to go by is my 4003S/5 and what I sorta recall about my late 80s/early 90s 4003--which I never compared to another Ric before selling it.
 
#399
kcole4001 said:
Ric5 (Jeff) knows the correct values for 1980s pots, I can't seem to keep all the era changes straight.
Click to expand...

During the 1980s the volume pot would be 250k ohm and the tone pot would be 500k ohm. If you have humbuckers on your Ric then try all 500k ohm pots.

The main reason that people like the Seymour Duncan Ric replacement pickups is that in the installation instructions it tells them to remove the .0047 capacitor. With this capacitor removed their Ric bass suddenly has bass and low mids coming from the bridge pickup.

I am a big fan of Seymour Duncan pickups except I don't like their Ric replacement pickups. They sound bland. Like eating french fries that haven't been salted.
 
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