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Just to update - I bought a Kent Armstrong 'Toaster' pickup for the neck and have sent the original to Jaime Campbell at 'The Creamery' in Manchester who's offered to take a look. I didn't hear back from Andy at Wizard or Joey I guess they are busy men. I also wired the bass up to two volumes/two tones and bypassed the three way - I sent the whole assembly to Jaime and used some old pots and caps I had that fitted a diagram I found I also shielded [i]everything[/i]. It's now hum free and sounds fantastic, gritty and clanky like a true Rick ought to but with a nice mellow hollowness when the tone is backed off. I may post some pics as despite the dreadful colour it looks pretty damn cool to me! Cheers for the input folks

Thanks for the advice yes I have emailed Andy.

[quote name='4000' timestamp='1318177888' post='1398886'] Joey's a great bloke and if your Ric is a real one then I don't see a problem..... [/quote] Yes it's a genuine Ric, I can understand him not wanting to have his diagram's publshed elsewhere and I did make it clear that they were for personal use, his site is very helpful and he is obviously very knowledgeable so I would welcome his opinion.

[quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1318166624' post='1398697'] Looks like I was [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/157429-wanted-rickenbacker-or-replacement-type-neck-pickup-for-4001-bass/page__pid__1398656#entry1398656"]right[/url]. Just how knackered is it? [/quote] Yes it seems the only logical conclusion - my mate hasn't measured it yet but even hard wired to a jack output is low. The earth eyelet that attaches to one of the chrome surround screws has broken away so the earth wire has been soldered to the aluminium chassis. The hot wiring from the pickup has been tampered with and the wire lengthened by soldering on extra wire. Having looked at pics on 'Joey's Bass Notes' it appears to be wired correctly however the rubber shielding has perished in places and the magnet isn't as powerful as on the treble pickup. I think I may send it to be looked at by Wizard pickups - or can anyone recommend a pickup specialist who doesn't charge daft prices? I need to amend that ad as I got a Kent Armstrong 'toaster' from WD music having read a few reviews and discussion threads, this will do the trick until I can get the repair done. Thanks for all your input so far as it's been very helpful.

They weigh a ton though, I owned one similar to that for about a week and needed physio after gigging it - about twice as heavy as a 70s P Bass!

Well I took the whole harness apart and resoldered: both pickups are working but the neck pickup is much weaker and the whole thing has the most awful earth buzz I have heard in my life - truly awful and unusable. i've ordered some copper shielding but I think this is more than an earthing issue. My mate has a meter to measure the pickup output so he will have a look when he gets around to it. I also emailed the guy who does the Ricky page 'Joey's bass Notes' but he is a little protective of his wiring PDFs and as a known enemy of the Rickenwaffe he may decline my request.....

Well I tried your suggestions, many thanks guys, unfortunately I'm getting a lot of buzzing and fizzing from the tone pots and when the bridge pickup is played solo nothing but an almighty hum....here is my wiring, I have earthed everything to the bridge as suggested including the switch and tone pots. Both the bridge and neck pickup work when directly connected to the jack and sound great. I can't see any obvious problems with the pickup wiring. Its a bit of a hotchpotch of wires but all decent quality. The bridge pickup has a white (live/hot) wire and a red ground the neck has a black/red (hot) and a black ground. Anything jump out at you? I spent a number of frustrating hours and it's driving me nuts!

Thanks I looked at that but couldn't get it to work for me as the pickup configuration and jacks are different or appear so.

Hi I bought a bargain Rickenbacker 4001 '75 bass from gumtree a few weeks back. It had been left in a garage for several years having been defretted - badly - sprayed snot green and stripped of its pots and wiring with pickups attached directly to the jack. Well I've had it refretted and it plays really well now, I bought a pickup harness from the US (allegedly genuine Rickenbacker) but I have only basic soldering skills and I can't read wiring diagrams. I'd really appreciate some help - I'd like a simple to read step by step diagram/photos showing the wiring of your Ric and how to wire the bass up to a mono jack as I'm not bothered about stereo. The pickups both work and have a strong signal, the harness has two volumes, two tones with capacitors and a 3 way switch. There was no jack included but I have a few knocking around. Cheers! Here's a pic of the wiring harness -

Yes I can't upload any images with either the basic uploader or flash 9 - on the flash 9 version I keep getting an error message about 'skipped content' the other says its uploaded but no image is present. Very frustrating! I'm having a lot of problems just backspacing and navigating around each area.

Great basses go for it!

[quote name='Delberthot' timestamp='1316446862' post='1378096'] You must've woke them up [/quote] Ha! Ha! Rickenwaffe in for the kill as ever....they didn't get that Jolena copy though so I guess that's one for the Rick Resistance!

[quote name='bosozoku' post='1371338' date='Sep 13 2011, 02:49 AM']Uhhhh, not a Rickenfaker, but makes my sphincter pucker, and I don't think it's in a good way... [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rickenbacker-4003-customised-body-project-unique-/220846050662?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item336b734d66"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rickenbacker-400...=item336b734d66[/url] More photo's here: [url="http://s1121.photobucket.com/albums/l512/nigel_p_baxter/Rickenbacker%204003%20customised/"]http://s1121.photobucket.com/albums/l512/n...3%20customised/[/url][/quote] eurgh......... WHY? Seen this before.....WHY? Please lock the power tools in the garage in future...

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='1371100' date='Sep 12 2011, 09:16 PM'][url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rickenbacker-Bass-Guitar-4001-4003-Spares-Repair-Maybe-Vintage-Fireglo-/130575692348?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item1e66eaf23c"]This Hondo won't last.[/url][/quote] I think you are right! I thought about warning him off using the sacred R word but I've seen this one before.... I picked up the Gumtree bass yesterday and its a mid to late 70s 4001. The routing, truss rods, fixtures and fittings all point to this era. The jack socket cover has been replaced and all the electrics are gone but the pickups sound fantastic. The machineheads have the black plastic ferrules from this era and the dark strip running the length of the neck and body (which is covered in a rather fetching snot green punk paint job but the stripe outline is visible). The neck profile is very similar to my 4000 bass, slim and flat. The neck by the way is fine, nice action now I've adjusted the bridge which was rusted up and set at its highest. Plays great now! I'm looking at getting it fretted and if anyone has a wiring diagram (that I can understand ) I may have a go at rewiring it myself. I have a perspex TR cover so I can add that too. Not sure about a refin as I quite like the look of it....but hey if I can get it done cheap enough it would have to be mapleglow or white. I will put up some pics at some point. Anybody out there got a white 4001 scratch plate?