What makes a Rickenbacker sound like a Rickenbacker?

[TimWilson]

It does take some time - a few days isn't enough - to get used to a very different-feeling bass. I recently got a Kubicki and it was a full week before I could really work it. The slightly shorter scale, headless design, and futuristic body took some real playing time to get comfortable with, but now it's part of me.

 

[superfunk47]

As has been said, a sum of it's parts.

Neck thru, all maple body + neck.

Pickups/placement.

Electronics (the miniscule treble rolloff on those vintage caps).

And that pickguard...everyone knows the pickguard gives it that extra little bite

 

[Chronicle]

That was the answer for me to your questions when I had them too (but due to different reason, as I need a back up for my Rick 4001 for a while). Its a Squier Precision Special with an EMG active P/J pickup set. Growl and bite like a Ric but total differnt playing feel!

That won't do it...



To get close to a Rick's sound, you need a another Rick. I would've told you to just get used to the Rick cause it's a much different bass. It's a ashame you returned it... (That poor GC employee too... that was his gas money! )

The hum is what you're going to get with all single coil instruments. Just get a EHX hum debugger and you're fine.


So bottom line, if you're getting a Rick, be prepared to learn to live with the differences of it.


It's so worth it...

 

[Jools4001]

A Ric is indeed the sum of it's parts, it's everything together that give it a unique sound.

People have mentioned the maple construction, the neck-through, the pickup placement, the pick-ups themselves, but I don't think anyone has mentioned the unique 33 1/4" scale length or the design of the bridge. Mechanically, the bridge is truly awful but it is another factor in the sound - my '73 4001 (which I still have) wore a professionally fitted Badass II for a couple of years but ultimately didn't really sound right until the original bridge was re-installed.

Interestingly, I don't think that Ric pups have as much to do with the sound as you might imagine have a look at this youtube clip of Paul Gilbert - not my sort of music and STOOOOPID spacesuits, but...The bassist is using a Ric 4000 with a Precision pu and it still sounds like a good Ric to me (and I've been playing one over 30 years)...especially around 2:05

 

[Hoover]

But I suppose a neck-thru w/ maple neck & body with pups in ric positions but in a "Fenderish" shape would sound similar?

When I was in college a classmate of mine had a Ric 4001 that he'd installed stock Fender Jazz Bass pickups into (in the original locations). It sounded nothing like the archetypal Rickenbacker.

(Didn't really sound like a Fender Jazz Bass either.)

 

[Eilif]

if you wanna get close to the sound.try a Peavey T40.it wont look as good and it wont feel anything like a Ric,but it'll get pretty close sound wise.

I second this. There's a shop here in chicago that always has several rics, and alot of fenders. I've been their numerous times, and I completely disagree with folks who say that you can get a ric sound out of a fender. It just isn't there. The ric sound is the sum of it's parts, especially the pickups, and the pickup placement.

The Peavey T-40 has many different elements, but the extremely dense ash body, odd ferrite pickups, and especially the pickup placement (very similar to a ric) alows for what is by far the closest non-ric-but-ric-esque' tone I've ever come across. It doesn't feel physically like a ric, and it isn't a ric, but it's astonishingly close.

That said, labor and inflation being what it is, I don't think RIC's are at all overpriced.

 

[HOOLIGAN]

I'm at a loss, because I have a '77 Ibanez Ric copy that sounds "more Ric" than my actual Ric, and it has a bolt-on
neck & a mahogany/ash body-
I also had a Ric 4001 that had active Bartolini pickups and a Badass bridge that still sounded like it couldn't be anything
other than a Ric-
Maybe it is all in the pick guard!

 

[Chronicle]

I'm at a loss, because I have a '77 Ibanez Ric copy that sounds "more Ric" than my actual Ric, and it has a bolt-on
neck & a mahogany/ash body-
I also had a Ric 4001 that had active Bartolini pickups and a Badass bridge that still sounded like it couldn't be anything
other than a Ric-
Maybe it is all in the pick guard!

I don't know how it's possible to sound more Rick than your actual Rick... maybe you're trying to compare your actual Rick to another person's Rick? Cause there's the amp that will add characteristics....

 

[derelicte]

i WOULD JUST GET A SADOWSKY. OR AN ATELIER Z.

 

[cbass717]

i have the same pickups in my spector. but the active version. ive never played a ric before. but are you telling me this is what the sound like?

 

[kazuhank]

...To me a Ric is to bass what a Tele is to guitar. You just can't beat on it.

I think Joe Strummer might argue against this stance (or even Springsteen, Frank Black, Jimmy Page et. al. tele players). My main guitar is a Tele that I beat up pretty hard and it takes it way better than my strat, and honestly some of my basses.

 

[nls666]

The Peavey T-40 has many different elements, but the extremely dense ash body, odd ferrite pickups, and especially the pickup placement (very similar to a ric) alows for what is by far the closest non-ric-but-ric-esque' tone I've ever come across. It doesn't feel physically like a ric, and it isn't a ric, but it's astonishingly close.

See them compared in this, Rickenbacker 4003 vs. Peavey T-40, video on YouTube:

 

[patman01]

remove the pickup cover--your hand will be set at an angle where you can dig in all you want

 

[Mongo Slade]

I'm not sure I explained this correctly. It seems to be more a fact of the zero relief neck and super low action then a matter or where my right hand goes. When I was a kid I used to strike the strings with a downstroke of my three right hand fingers making a very percussive sound. This bass would have been perfect for that but my style has evolved to a more trad approach of plucking the strings with an upstroke and only occasionally downstroking with the back of my fingernail-for effect. For better or for worse(and I'm not looking to start a debate here) my fingers now bend and articulate only at the second knuckle rather than the first.
Or maybe its the string spacing. Or the slightly shorter scale.

I play and sound exactly like me on almost every bass I play, and the bass usually has very little impact on my sound, which I believe comes from my approach. This bass was the lone exception I have ever encountered where this was not the case. And I didn't spend thirty-two years developing a style of play that I would have to modify just to accomodate one bass, no matter how much I love it's inherent tone.
I just wanted to know if anyone else made a bass that sounded sort of like that and also played more like a bass than a bass guitar.
I also disagree about all single coil basses humming.
I in fact have several that do not.
Sound off.

Peace

 

[RED5]

Each one is dipped in a solution of "Ric-o-Tine" to enhance the Ric-o-Sound capabilities of the wood. Secret sauce is behind everything.

 

[Mongo Slade]

4. Will anyone at Talkbass care enough to read through this long-ass post and make a suggestion that isn't dripping with sarcasm?

There's always someone...

Peace

 

[Chronicle]

I'm not sure I explained this correctly. It seems to be more a fact of the zero relief neck and super low action then a matter or where my right hand goes. When I was a kid I used to strike the strings with a downstroke of my three right hand fingers making a very percussive sound. This bass would have been perfect for that but my style has evolved to a more trad approach of plucking the strings with an upstroke and only occasionally downstroking with the back of my fingernail-for effect. For better or for worse(and I'm not looking to start a debate here) my fingers now bend and articulate only at the second knuckle rather than the first.
Or maybe its the string spacing. Or the slightly shorter scale.

I play and sound exactly like me on almost every bass I play, and the bass usually has very little impact on my sound, which I believe comes from my approach. This bass was the lone exception I have ever encountered where this was not the case. And I didn't spend thirty-two years developing a style of play that I would have to modify just to accomodate one bass, no matter how much I love it's inherent tone.
I just wanted to know if anyone else made a bass that sounded sort of like that and also played more like a bass than a bass guitar.
I also disagree about all single coil basses humming.
I in fact have several that do not.
Sound off.

Peace

Forgot to add HOT SINGLE COIL pickups hum. Like those found in Ricks.

 

[Jools4001]

Interestingly, I don't think that Ric pups have as much to do with the sound as you might imagine have a look at this youtube clip of Paul Gilbert - not my sort of music and STOOOOPID spacesuits, but...The bassist is using a Ric 4000 with a Precision pu and it still sounds like a good Ric to me (and I've been playing one over 30 years)

Forgot the link



Now tell me that doesn't sound like a Ric, even though it only has a single P pickup

 

[Ian Perge]

Vigorous Patent Enforcement.

 

[Ric5]

What makes a Ric sound like a Ric?

Pickup placement and pickup type. A maple body and neck. A bubinga fretboard that is finished with conversion varnish.

Also the pre 1990 Rics had 500k ohm tone pots on single coil pickups. The 60s and 70s Rics had a .0047 bass cut capacitor for the bridge pickup.

Also the bridge tailpiece assembly and neck through construction add to the sound. Also the Ric has dual truss rods.