Rickenbacker Advice

[Stofferson]

Hey guys, sorry if this is the wrong area, this is my first "help" post.

So after years of playing my Warwick Corvette with EMG j set. I bought a Rickenbacker 4003s it plays amazing and ticks all the boxes but i just cannot get the sound i like. The pickups are loud and clear but I'm not sure if I'm just used to the nice mid fart of the jazz pickups but the Rick is just pure bass and treble, probably just me and i guess there is no way around this? (replacement pups etc).

usually play via a sansamp BDDI v2 into either an Ashdown abm 600 or a power amp. Even with all the eq in the world i just cant get that mid range

[4000]

Play with the balance of the pickups and also try backing off the neck pickup volume a bit, which will give you more mids and lessen the scoop as both pickups on full naturally gives a more mid-scooped sound.  You could even try just using the back pickup and eq that to taste. A lot of people just seem to try to plug in and play with Rics and they're not always at their best doing that. And with 2 tones and 2 volumes you've got a lot of scope. Have a look on Youtube at Joe Bonamassa explaining how to experiment with the tone & volume controls on a Les Paul and try and use that sort of mindset.

FWIW I always had mid-issues with the BDDI and replaced mine with a VT Bass pedal, which I found way better. I also replaced my ABM with 2 x VT500s and there's no way I'd go back.

 

Edited March 22, 2019 by 4000

[martthebass]

I'm a full on both pups guy and I get where you're coming from.  The 4003 is a very versatile bass but I do think it has a 'core' sound with the stock pups and loom.  That's the reason I bought one, for that core sound, I think I'd fail if I was trying to make it sound like a Jazz or MM.  For that reason it only gets used in situations where I want that core sound.  Sorry if that wasn't very helpful.

[spongebob]

4 hours ago, martthebass said:

I'm a full on both pups guy and I get where you're coming from.  The 4003 is a very versatile bass but I do think it has a 'core' sound with the stock pups and loom.  That's the reason I bought one, for that core sound, I think I'd fail if I was trying to make it sound like a Jazz or MM.  For that reason it only gets used in situations where I want that core sound.  Sorry if that wasn't very helpful.

Me too, but I use mine for everything regardless. It's my tone and I'm sticking to it! 😄

[ezbass]

4 hours ago, 4000 said:

Play with the balance of the pickups and also try backing off the neck pickup volume a bit, which will give you more mids and lessen the scoop as both pickups on full naturally gives a more mid-scooped sound.  You could even try just using the back pickup and eq that to taste.

 

Very much this.

[Beedster]

Not sure you're going to have much luck getting Warwick tone out of a Ric. Rics aren't very good impersonators of other basses, but the opposite is also true. Learn to love the Ric tone

[NikNik]

It's an odd beast, the 4001/3.

I don't own any at the moment but I do have two Greco Ricks and I tend to favour both pups with the rear pup volume backed off a tad and that's what I did with the Ricks when I had them.

You'll never get a Warwick or Jazz tone out of a Rick. Treat it as a unique instrument.

[Skybone]

What @4000 said.

Back off the neck pickup a tad, compared to the bridge pickup. Set your amp/preamp EQ accordingly (I would suggest that your Mids need to be higher than the Bass & Treble).

If you've kept the Warwick and will be running both, maybe look at a programmable preamp with settings suited to both basses.

Like @NikNik, I don't have a Ric anymore, but use Rockinbetter Faker's, with a HD500x into an ABM300 combo. Works for me.

[Lozz196]

Have you got the Pre-Shape on the amp on - not trying to teach you to suck eggs but bizarrely it’s off when the button is in, not out. If that is in the active position, coupled with a Sansamp there is a lot of mid-scooping going on.

[Delberthot]

I found that I got the best sound using only the bridge pickup with the neck pickup completely off and the bridge pickup controls wide open.

Unfortunately I found it incredibly uncomfortable to play and ended up selling it but that's for another thread

[Beedster]

Re-reading the O/P, my advice would be that if you want a Ric to sound like anything other than a Ric, you've bought the wrong bass. They absolutely have a core tone that, whilst they're extremely versatile around that tone, is in their DNA. It's like a clarinet and an oboe, same sonic range, and good players can create a huge array of tones from each, but whilst at extremes one can sound a but like another, they will never sound the same to the players. And the Ric tone is not just in the PUPs, you can change them but whilst it will sound different, it will do little more than you can do with the tone controls on your amp or Sansamp, it will still sound much like a Ric, and importantly will still play much like a Ric. This isn't to say that your average audience, or even band members are going to notice, although I worked with a singer years ago who begged me to play a Precision over a Ric because in his opinion the Ric sounded wrong for the music (I think he was blagging) - but you as a player need to feel that you're producing the tone that's in your head. 

A Ric with both PUPs open, strung with flatwounds, and played with a pic through a B-15 is one of the most glorious bass sounds I can imagine, with a beautiful pipey hollowness sitting on top of a powerful fundamental. It's a tone that just draws me in whenever I hear it - irrespective of genre - but a lot of people hate it

[Stofferson]

Thanks for all the responses.

Yeah, after years of plugging a Jazz bass in an tweaking on the amps and pedals, to now have more sonic capabilities on the bass, it is a learning curve.

this post probably sounded very amateur haha but there's basses and then there's Ric's.

I do prefer to have everything set on the bass, I currently  have both pup on full whack and tweak everything from there.

Oh I totally get the Ric sound, play-ability wise it's one of the nicest basses to play too, so unless someone has a Thumb to trade 🤣 it's a keeper.

@4000 thanks man, I've had many variations of sansamp over the years, settled finally on the Bddi V2 as it has the mid function amongst other things like footprint etc.

@Lozz196 yeah man, The Ashdown it's very scooped or not, but had a play and did work better fiddling with those eq Pre-shape and has helped a lot.

It's not that i wanted it to sound exactly like my Warwick, I think after having the same pick ups for years, it's a drastic change, anyway, I had a fiddle at my last gig. Pretty much a blend of what everyone has suggested here and was very pleased with it. It's just a wild beast to tame, so am I, pretty much unpleaseable when it comes to gear and tones haha, i'm getting there.

thanks all

[speigel]

well as you know its the same with every bass, its how you play it too. If you wanted a Squire/Lee sound from a Ricky you need to play it quite hard and you'll need the right amp.

[itu]

Is your RIC so modern that it has a push/pull pot to cut the capacitor from the pickup? If not, put a wire over the cap and test it again. I hated the thin sound of the other pickup, but loved the bass. Black, 1974.

[BrunoBass]

On 22/03/2019 at 17:57, ezbass said:

Very much this.

That’s exactly what I do. Whilst I sometimes use the front pickup when recording mellow stuff, with my gigging band I use the back pickup only and tweak the tone. A touch of overdrive and I have the rock tone I’ve craved for years.

[markdavid]

I have another suggestion.What strings are you using? Some strings (any made by Daddario for example apart from the ones they make for other companies) are naturally mid scooped. Maybe the strings on the bass do not work well with its core tone, may be worth trying other brands. My only other suggestion is try turning the bridge pickup to about half way and the neck to the point where you just start to hear it.

Edited June 8, 2019 by markdavid

[Skybone]

Curious how @Stofferson is getting on with his Ric?

[Stofferson]

On 08/06/2019 at 13:19, Skybone said:

Curious how @Stofferson is getting on with his Ric?

Erm, I traded it for a Warwick Thumb. I am immensely happy 

[BrunoBass]

I wonder how many Rick owners keep the bass beyond the first few months? I’m a new 4003 owner and even I’m not convinced it’s my ‘forever bass’...

[NikNik]

[Stofferson]

It's a Marmite bass, immensely beautiful, but didn't fit my sound nor band

[Sarlscharisma]

On 10/06/2019 at 20:12, BrunoBass said:

I wonder how many Rick owners keep the bass beyond the first few months? I’m a new 4003 owner and even I’m not convinced it’s my ‘forever bass’...

I would guess less than 50%.  I still have one, but it's my 6th in as many years.  Sound great recorded but hard work to play and the live sound normally loses some bottom end.  Even those famous for playing them either moved them on or modded them to the point of them barely have the classic ric sound.  IMHO.  

[BrunoBass]

5 minutes ago, Sarlscharisma said:

I would guess less than 50%.  I still have one, but it's my 6th in as many years.  Sound great recorded but hard work to play and the live sound normally loses some bottom end.  Even those famous for playing them either moved them on or modded them to the point of them barely have the classic ric sound.  IMHO.  

The lack of bottom end live is something I’ve really noticed. When I plug my Jazzes in my eq is pretty much flat and instantly useable. With the Rick the eq is all over the place just trying to get close to what I want.

[NancyJohnson]

Can we get past the fact that Rickenbacker copies are not actually Rickenbackers?  Same goes with Gibson Thunderbirds; your Tokai or Epiphone copies are just that.

Right, after getting that off my chest, I owned a 4003 for a while; like all my gear, I tend to play with everything full on, for convenience more than anything else.  Taking this as my start point, it became more about tweaking the bass set up to accomodate this, so pickup adjustment, rattly low action.  It did sound delicious.

Incidentally, the OP alluded to using a Sansamp into a choice of amps.  I'd always favour running a BDDI (or similar) into a power amp or the effects return on a head otherwise you're colouring the Sansamp tone by running it through a secondary on board pre-stage.

[Beedster]

11 hours ago, BrunoBass said:

The lack of bottom end live is something I’ve really noticed. When I plug my Jazzes in my eq is pretty much flat and instantly useable. With the Rick the eq is all over the place just trying to get close to what I want.

Not just a function of Rics though, I've owned two Rics which had quite literally thunderous E-strings and one that really didn't. I've owned more than one vintage/contemporary Fender Precisions with exactly the same problem, and I wasn't always able to resolve it with set-up, EQ or string/bridge selection (i.e., it was a whole instrument thing down to the way the neck/body resonated). The absence of bottom end on one of the Precisions was to my mind more a fault than an idiosyncrasy, although given it had been built in 1972 and I was about the 8th owner, returning it to Fender wasn't really an option!