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Just played my expensive boutique bass, and then played my '73 4001. The Ric sounds huge! And it has that unique awesome tone that NO other bass has. After 37 years of playing my Ric, she still blows my socks off!
Just wanted to thank you, and all the others here who tried to help me diagnose and fix the problem. As of 1 hour ago, my '77 Ric Walnut/Amberglo is fixed!
It was the pickup. Must be a broken coil. I bought a 1975 pickup to replace it, checked it on the ohm meter, saw 7.54, and installed it immediately. Works perfectly! It appears the '75 pickup was rewound at one time, but that is such a welcomed sight over the original one that barely worked at all. No worries of a broken coil happening to that one. All the knobs work as they should now as well. I so glad I didn't mess with the control panel in any permanant way.
Now the bass sounds like it should, and even better than my '06 Ric with the Vintage tone switch engaged.
Thank you again!
It was the pickup. Must be a broken coil. I bought a 1975 pickup to replace it, checked it on the ohm meter, saw 7.54, and installed it immediately. Works perfectly! It appears the '75 pickup was rewound at one time, but that is such a welcomed sight over the original one that barely worked at all. No worries of a broken coil happening to that one. All the knobs work as they should now as well. I so glad I didn't mess with the control panel in any permanant way.
Now the bass sounds like it should, and even better than my '06 Ric with the Vintage tone switch engaged.
Thank you again!
Good to see it got sorted out.
You should still check out Sergio in Lisbon. He does great work, and will rewind that dead pup to whatever specs you choose (vintage scatterwound, standard vintage, modern, super hot, etc.).
It would be cool to have a spare to check out some different tones.
He rewound my neck pup in my '77 4001 to standard 1970s specs. Sounds great, and he's extremely reasonable (price-wise) and a great guy to deal with.
The only downside is it will take a couple of weeks to get her done, but as a spare pup that shouldn't be a problem.
You should still check out Sergio in Lisbon. He does great work, and will rewind that dead pup to whatever specs you choose (vintage scatterwound, standard vintage, modern, super hot, etc.).
It would be cool to have a spare to check out some different tones.
He rewound my neck pup in my '77 4001 to standard 1970s specs. Sounds great, and he's extremely reasonable (price-wise) and a great guy to deal with.
The only downside is it will take a couple of weeks to get her done, but as a spare pup that shouldn't be a problem.
Glad you got it figured out. And thanks for posting the solution. As for the open coil, you probably should have it rewound as a spare or a change in tone. 8k ohms (+ or -) was standard in the 70s. The current higains are 11.6k ohms (+ or-), so anything between that and the one you have would be a change of tone. The more it is wound (higher DC resistance) the more output but less definition of the notes. You lose some of the high frequencies.
Here is my 2009 Rickenbacker 4003 with a Hipshot bridge and a modified Pickguardian pickup cover getting copper shielding installed.
Here it is finished.
Here it is finished.
I tried to remove just the chrome cover that goes over the strings but that seemed to make it noisier. After adding the shielding it seems to be about the same as it was with the cover.
I have a Squire Classic Vibe 50's P bass that also has single coil pickups. Both the Rick and the CV are about the same (noise wise) but the Rick pickups are louder. I seem to get most of my noise from fluorescent lamps. I'm not sure shielding will help for that. I also use a noise gate.
How many other people here have flats on their Rick? I put some Chromes on it about two weeks ago, and it has so much more low end. I also took off the stock bridge and put on the Hipshot, and it's awesome. I get a good amount of snap from the strings, but tons of low end, and they feel great on my fingers.
I posted this several days ago in the "Strings" forum.
Got my Chromes (ECB81) put on and they do sound good. They sure are different than rounds. I like the difference; gives the bass a whole new dimension and character. I wasn't expecting the blue ends, but will get used to it I suppose.
Overall I'm happy with the tone and feel of them. Just hope the dirt subsides.
I've got some TIs on my 4000, but I don't like 'em.
Too loose feeling.
I'm used to mediums.
I also don't like the tone when used with my usual (rounds) amp settings.
Nothing wrong with the strings, just not my thing, which is odd since I loved flats when I started playing.
Too loose feeling.
I'm used to mediums.
I also don't like the tone when used with my usual (rounds) amp settings.
Nothing wrong with the strings, just not my thing, which is odd since I loved flats when I started playing.
I bought my first Ric in 1972. It came with round wounds and I immediately changed them for Rotosound flats (110 E string). At the time I was going for a Phil Lesh sound (Grateful Dead) and I couldn't afford an Alembic. From that experience I learned to love the sound of flat wound strings.
I finally got the Alembic and put Pyramid Gold flat wounds on it. Today almost all my basses have TI Jazz flats (my Hofner has Pyramids).
So, when I recently bought a Ric 4001v63, in less than a day, off came the round wounds and on with the TI Jazz flats. It seems the bass was made for them. AND, no neck adjustment necessary!
Gale
I finally got the Alembic and put Pyramid Gold flat wounds on it. Today almost all my basses have TI Jazz flats (my Hofner has Pyramids).
So, when I recently bought a Ric 4001v63, in less than a day, off came the round wounds and on with the TI Jazz flats. It seems the bass was made for them. AND, no neck adjustment necessary!
Gale
Hi all,
Just some hints that might be useful for new owners of new RICs out there:
I recently bought a hardly used '09 4003, strung with factory roundwound RIC strings. I didn't pay much attention to the setup with these strings, as I had a set of D'Addario Chromes (the ECB81 set) ready for the new acquisition.
After changing strings,
1) the truss rods needed adjustment, the Chromes are higher tention than the stock strings. No biggie.
2) the nut definitely didn't like the .65 gauge of the D-string, so it needed some width adjustment. You'll need some files..(Stewart McDonalds' file set is nice)
3) all the nut slots, E, A, D and G, had to be filed down, they were way too hi from factory (same files..).
4) the bridge grooves had to be filed down accordingly for a good setup, and to make the mute assembly to work properly, especially with the G-string I had to go quite deep (again the set from S. McDonald came to use.)
Now she plays like a dream, but I'm sure RICs in general need some serious setup of (especially) nut and bridge grooves to show what's in them, even if you decide to go with the stock strings. It's less intimidating with Fenders, I usually leave the nut as is, adjust the rod and the bridge height.
RIC nuts are set up, I've read somewhere, quite hi (unlike Fenders) from factory for you to adjust to preferred height. And I guess the same thing goes for the bridge slots.
Well, this has probably been discussed before, but anyways..
Just some hints that might be useful for new owners of new RICs out there:
I recently bought a hardly used '09 4003, strung with factory roundwound RIC strings. I didn't pay much attention to the setup with these strings, as I had a set of D'Addario Chromes (the ECB81 set) ready for the new acquisition.
After changing strings,
1) the truss rods needed adjustment, the Chromes are higher tention than the stock strings. No biggie.
2) the nut definitely didn't like the .65 gauge of the D-string, so it needed some width adjustment. You'll need some files..(Stewart McDonalds' file set is nice)
3) all the nut slots, E, A, D and G, had to be filed down, they were way too hi from factory (same files..).
4) the bridge grooves had to be filed down accordingly for a good setup, and to make the mute assembly to work properly, especially with the G-string I had to go quite deep (again the set from S. McDonald came to use.)
Now she plays like a dream, but I'm sure RICs in general need some serious setup of (especially) nut and bridge grooves to show what's in them, even if you decide to go with the stock strings. It's less intimidating with Fenders, I usually leave the nut as is, adjust the rod and the bridge height.
RIC nuts are set up, I've read somewhere, quite hi (unlike Fenders) from factory for you to adjust to preferred height. And I guess the same thing goes for the bridge slots.
Well, this has probably been discussed before, but anyways..
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