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Do bass guys do pup swaps / wiring changes like the guitar guys/gals?

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  • ArtieToo
    replied
    Re: Do bass guys do pup swaps / wiring changes like the guitar guys/gals?

    Btw, I found that 4001 wiring diagram over at TalkBass. It definitely is a bit unusual.

    Click image for larger version

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  • dg27
    replied
    Re: Do bass guys do pup swaps / wiring changes like the guitar guys/gals?

    Originally posted by DavidRavenMoon View Post
    My ‘73 4001 had the older lower wind pickups. The neck was a toaster and the bridge went through the strangle capacitor which removed all the low end. That pickup was useless on its own. So yeah, you didn’t want to switch to that by chance.
    I knew nothing about the cap, but thanks for confirming that the bridge pickup was useless on it's own. I never had the means to run that "Rick-O-Sound" (stereo setup), so the four knobs always seemed kind of silly.

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  • ArtieToo
    replied
    Re: Do bass guys do pup swaps / wiring changes like the guitar guys/gals?

    That sounds logical. I'll buy it.

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  • DavidRavenMoon
    replied
    Re: Do bass guys do pup swaps / wiring changes like the guitar guys/gals?

    Originally posted by ArtieToo View Post
    That's somewhat bizarre. Do you have any idea of the reason they'd remove the bass from the bass?
    I really don’t. But they do the same thing on the treble pickups on the guitars. Gives them that bright Rickenbacker jangle.

    My Rick came with flatwounds. So the strings weren’t as bright. And when you use both pickups together you get that classic Rick bass tone. So the treble pickup is really just adding to the treble bite. The neck pickups are more mellow sounding.

    Rickenbacker were the very first electric guitars. They invented the first pickup which was the horseshoe pickup. That’s why they still have that dumb cover over the pickup. That was the horseshoe magnet. I think on those pickups they used the caps because it was a loud pickups. But only on the stereo basses.

    On the ones they exported to the UK, like Chris Squire used, they were mono and I don’t think they used the cap.

    But I’m just speculating. The current owners probably don’t even know why it was done.


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  • ArtieToo
    replied
    Re: Do bass guys do pup swaps / wiring changes like the guitar guys/gals?

    Originally posted by DavidRavenMoon View Post
    . . . and the bridge went through the strangle capacitor which removed all the low end.
    That's somewhat bizarre. Do you have any idea of the reason they'd remove the bass from the bass?

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  • DavidRavenMoon
    replied
    Re: Do bass guys do pup swaps / wiring changes like the guitar guys/gals?

    More pickup shenanigans... I decided one day to add a third pickup to a bass I made. It’s the one on the left.

    Then I kept swapping out the two bridge pickups. I was using EMGs back then. I just wasn’t getting the tone I wanted.

    That lead me to design my own pickups and figure out to make them!




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  • DavidRavenMoon
    replied
    Re: Do bass guys do pup swaps / wiring changes like the guitar guys/gals?

    Originally posted by dg27 View Post
    But mainly I hated the four knobs and especially the switch, which I'd often accidentally hit during the chaos of playing live at the time. All of a sudden I'd have no low end (because I'd thrown it into the treble position).
    My ‘73 4001 had the older lower wind pickups. The neck was a toaster and the bridge went through the strangle capacitor which removed all the low end. That pickup was useless on its own. So yeah, you didn’t want to switch to that by chance. Then one day I bypassed the cap. Holy crap, now it sounded like a bright P bass! lol. So I wired up the treble tone control to blend that cap in.

    Pickup switches are kind of out-of-place on a bass. But there were no blend pots back then. If you ignore the switch, the bass is wired like a Jazz Bass. I added a master volume so I could blend the pickups and still lower the volume.

    The other reason they have four knobs though is it’s a stereo bass. So if you’re using two amps, or two channels on an amp, you need two tone controls.

    I did a stereo master volume, but I rarely used the stereo out. But it was cool for running the bridge pickup through a fuzz or something, while keeping the neck pickup clean. Or vice versa. I had a Maestro Bass Brassmaster.

    All my other switches were for altering the tone of the pickups.


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  • dg27
    replied
    Re: Do bass guys do pup swaps / wiring changes like the guitar guys/gals?

    Originally posted by NegativeEase View Post
    Man, thats super cool, 4001/4003 are my favorite basses -but I've never Duncaned one up.... sound so damn good as is usually

    Curious now, you jerk.
    My tastes changed somewhat and I was on a Duncanize everything spree at the time. But mainly I hated the four knobs and especially the switch, which I'd often accidentally hit during the chaos of playing live at the time. All of a sudden I'd have no low end (because I'd thrown it into the treble position).

    It's still my least favorite ergonomically (I need the forearm cut: used to have to duct tape my wrist).

    I remember posting pictures of this on a Rick forum at the time, where I got absolutely skewered for modding a Rick. I never went back there.

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  • NegativeEase
    replied
    Re: Do bass guys do pup swaps / wiring changes like the guitar guys/gals?

    Originally posted by dg27 View Post
    I don't like a lot of knobs and absolutely hate switches on basses, so on two of my basses I went the other way.

    For my '76 Rick 4001S I replaced the pickups with SDs for Rick and had a blend knob installed to replace the switch. Maricela had them make a custom chrome cover for the bridge pickup. Tony Dudzik (Pickguardian) created the new pickguard and a plate to go around the bridge pickup.

    [ATTACH=CONFIG]103575[/ATTACH]
    Man, thats super cool, 4001/4003 are my favorite basses -but I've never Duncaned one up.... sound so damn good as is usually

    Curious now, you jerk.

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  • dg27
    replied
    Re: Do bass guys do pup swaps / wiring changes like the guitar guys/gals?

    Thanks. I used that bass heavily for several years and had it basically rebuilt. The no-pickguard look seemed really dated after the 80s, which is why I talked Tony Dudzik into doing this one. Shell tort seemed too obvious, which is why I went with the black.

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  • JB_From_Hell
    replied
    Re: Do bass guys do pup swaps / wiring changes like the guitar guys/gals?

    The color combo on that PJ is awesome!

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  • dg27
    replied
    Re: Do bass guys do pup swaps / wiring changes like the guitar guys/gals?

    Originally posted by ArtieToo View Post
    Is that a mini-hum in that Ric? Which one?
    My notes say it was the srb-1 neck and srb-1 bridge. It was whatever was standard SD for Ricks at that time (2003).

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  • ArtieToo
    replied
    Re: Do bass guys do pup swaps / wiring changes like the guitar guys/gals?

    Is that a mini-hum in that Ric? Which one?

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  • dg27
    replied
    Re: Do bass guys do pup swaps / wiring changes like the guitar guys/gals?

    Originally posted by ArtieToo View Post
    That Ric has a heckuva lot of knobs on it for a bass. My kinda wiring.
    I don't like a lot of knobs and absolutely hate switches on basses, so on two of my basses I went the other way.

    For my '76 Rick 4001S I replaced the pickups with SDs for Rick and had a blend knob installed to replace the switch. Maricela had them make a custom chrome cover for the bridge pickup. Tony Dudzik (Pickguardian) created the new pickguard and a plate to go around the bridge pickup.

    Click image for larger version

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    For my '84 MIJ Fender Jazz Bass Special, I replaced the stock pickups with Hot for Neck and Hot for bridge, got rid of the (IMO) useless TBX switch and had that replaced with a blend. Those basses had no pickguard at all, which I grew to dislike. I drew what I wanted on Kraft paper, sent it to Tony and he made a pickguard and matching backplate. (The body isn't a standard size; no stock pickguards would fit.)

    Click image for larger version

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    It was only after that that I learned about S-P switches; that's become my default.

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  • DavidRavenMoon
    replied
    Do bass guys do pup swaps / wiring changes like the guitar guys/gals?

    Originally posted by ArtieToo View Post
    That Ric has a heckuva lot of knobs on it for a bass. My kinda wiring.
    My band mates called it the “Space Bass”

    I’ve gotten simpler with wiring these days.



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