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All your questions probably can be answered by consulting joeysbassnotes.com . It sounds like nobody has ever set the bass up properly. Without seeing the bass, it is hard to tell, but resetting the rods according to Joey will lower the strings. If the neck is that far out, that would explain the bridge having to be down too far. Go slow, and when in doubt, consult a tech who knows Rickenbacker guitars. That said, I hope your bass was not improperly adjusted so that you have other problems under the surface. Being a 4003, in standard tuning, any reasonable reputable set of 45-105 should be fine on the bass.

I'm not going to suggest a brand. I'm going to give some criteria to consider: 1) laminate neck for stability and elimination of resonances and dead notes 2) lightweight tuners, like Hipshot, Schaller or Gotoh to further reduce neck dive 3) longer upper horn to balance the bass better 4) 2 (B&E) + 3 (ADG) tuner arrangement to give more room for the B string so it doesn't bind around the tuner post or the nut 5) the "neck" pickup in the same relative location as the D-G segment of a P-bass pickup so there is the proper balance between fundamental and overtones 6) good, clean electronics, because "thump" does not equal fundamental and "growl" does not equal the clarity needed on the B string The bottom line (pun intended) is that a 5-string is its own instrument. It is not just a 4-string modified; worse, most 4-strings modified sound, feel, and play badly.

Ladies and Gentlemen, you underestimate RIC. That's all I'm going to say.

None of them. A Jazz bass makes, at best, only a compromised instrument: 1) the one piece neck will have resonance and dead spots; 2) the neck pickup is too near the neck for good definition of the B string; 3) the headstock is cramped, instead of a 2(B&E) + 3(ADG) tuner arrangement so the B string doesn't bind over the nut or around the tuner post; 4) the full-sized tuners cause neck dive. 5) The "growl" of a Jazz bass pickup does not make up for lack of clarity; 6) with the added weight of a thicker neck and extra tuner, the upper horn is not long enough to balance properly.

Are these measurements with the pots in place? If so, they are not accurate due to the rest of the circuit loading. Even then, it's not the overall measurement of the pot that is important as it is to make sure the outside two lugs have good contact with the wafer and that the wiper is smooth and clean. To check all this requires removing the pots from the circuit.

Try any standard set of "Bright Bronze" or similar alloy in 12-52 gauge. You will probably need to tweak your truss rod.

What is your body chemistry? The reason I say that is different people react to the different metals differently. For example, I interact with nickel, but not iron or chrome. So conventional nickel-plated rounds, like D'Addario XL's or GHS Boomers die almost immediately on me. Stainless steel strings go clank on me. Fender 9050 flats, however, being a duller steel, last a long, long time for me, and sometimes in the next ten years or so I might have to change the chrome wrap Spirocore E string on my double bass - or not. It depends on your body chemistry, the way you play, and how often.

GHS has a Pressurewound that is a roundwound made from a slightly softer iron alloy. It's a little darker than a conventional roundwound, but not as dark as a flatwound or nylon wound.

Most of the companies have "extra long" or "super long" strings, like D'Addario and GHS.

[quote name='spacey' timestamp='1368087831' post='2072927'] Just poor workmanship on instruments. You dont get one of violins.[/quote]NO. CORE STRETCH!!! It's not bad workmanship. It's string core stretch. On conventional strings, the larger diameter the core, the more the string stretches as you fret it, and it goes sharp. The reason it is not noticeable on fretless instruments, whether electric bass, double bass, EUB, or what have you, is that the player automatically compensates by where he/she stops the note. Remember, Leo Fender got it right to start with: the original Precision Bass had an adjustable bridge from the start in 1951. What most people don't realize is that this happens at both ends of the string. If the nut is not placed correctly and the nut slot milled correctly, especially the E string will go very sharp on the 2nd & 3rd frets. I actually prefer a little higher action because of the way I "dig in," to the strings, so I actually have intonation shims on the front of my nut on my custom fanned fret bass to compensate for the string stretch, as well as adjusting the bridge. It's in the strings, not the instrument, not the player, and not the workmanship, although all of these contribute to overall tonality and may have a slight bearing on how much compensation to set.

It did for me!

Yes, back in the early to mid '70's my school band bought one very similar, but with a solid neck instead of the laminate neck. I think its brand name was "Ventura" or something like that. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but any replacement/refurb/upgrade parts are probably going to cost more than the bass is worth. Try to make it playable as is by simply cleaning it up, setting it up, and carefully reinstalling strings so that the tuners work as well as they can. If you got a good one, it will stay in tune and sound reasonably well.

[quote name='mentalextra' timestamp='1354997683' post='1892883'] Just out of interest, what is the point of the covers? Everyone seems to take them off, it seems quite rare to see a jazz with both covers on unless its in a display case [/quote] The original point of the covers was that the bridge cover was lined with foam rubber to damp the string sustain to emulate a double bass, and the cover over the pickup helped reject electrostatic noise since the pickup had a plastic cover, or on the original '51 through '56 basses it was a single coil similar to a Telecaster pickup, but with four pole pieces instead of six.

HOLD THE BUS!!! Why go to other off-site places when there are three primary sources to get everything you need? First, the factory website has actual factory blueprint schematics for download at [url="http://www.rickenbacker.com"]http://www.rickenbacker.com[/url] , and then the enthusiast's forum can give you all the help you need restoring the bass at [url="http://www.rickresource.com"]http://www.rickresource.com[/url] , and then you can get all the help setting it up to play at [url="http://www.joeysbassnotes.com"]http://www.joeysbassnotes.com[/url] . RIC customer service can help you get in touch with the UK distributor to get parts.

[quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1354631129' post='1888385'] How do you damp the strings when you need to? [/quote]I rarely play with a pick or otherwise that the strings need damping. When I do, it's the usual palm damping that guitar players do. If I need to emulate early P-bass tone, just like the early P-basses, I use flats and shove a piece of foam rubber under the cover to damp the strings. The rest is in the fingers of both hands.

Contact Ric5 on either the Rickenbacker factory forum or the RickResource enthusiasts' forum. He has converted 4003's from 4-string to 5-string and knows as much as the rest of us together that will answer your questions.

[quote name='The Bass Doc' timestamp='1367234288' post='2062822'] That illustration of true temperament frets confirms that 'normal' fretting is not an absolutely exacting procedure. In other words 'near enough is near enough'. Consider how Strat players for instance mess about with the individual saddles to give each string a different speaking length and then check out the bridge on a classical/Spanish guitar - it's a plain bar! - still sounds in tune though. If you're looking for pitch perfection on every string, every fret, you could be driven round the bend looking at your tuner. [/quote]Classical guitar manufacturers do not use the 2^1/12 function for mathematical placement of frets as do Fender and others. They use a compensated traditional centuries-old compensated scale of "Rule of 17," where each fret is based on a rounded 1/17th proportion of the fret board. Then the bridge is placed according to custom. This, along with the fact that classical guitar strings don't have the same string core stretch characteristics as metal core strings, determines why the bridges are different. Now, fretting inconsistencies can also be to blame. How about the 12th fret itself? Has it been checked to see it is in the right place? If not, then all the intonation tricks in the world won't fix it if they are based (pun intended) on 12th fret placement. Likewise, if the nut is not cut properly, there will be string stretch that will be especially noticeable on the first three frets, but will also appear on the upper frets as well. Finally, have the strings been changed? Bad strings can intonate all over the place, even if the bass is set up "perfectly."

A friend of mine had one of the '90's versions. The pickups are wired for bypass passive, if I remember correctly, as well. The neck J pickup and the P pickup are on an either/or switch. On the Rickenbacker forum, there is a member whose avatar is Cassius987. He has three pickups on a Rick 4001 which he rebuilt from a carcass that had been abused years before he got it, and had no other option. He can tell you about the various ways to wire it and the pros/cons of the various pickup combinations and impedance issues.

Sounds like one pickup is out of phase. Swap the wires around of the pickup you just installed. If that doesn't work, then you need to see if the poles of the magnets are also opposite by taking out one pickup and see if the tops of the pickups will click together. If they repel, then the pickups can't be wired like a traditional Jazz bass and you will have to get the matching bridge pickup as well.

There is nothing new but the history you don't know. Fender has done it twice with the Stu Hamm. The originals are from the early 1990's, the second version is from the early 2000's.

Yes, a good bass, meaning a bass where the resonances don't sap the overtones, will help. Overlooked: each bass, even if it is the same make or model, may have construction variances where the pickups are in slightly different places, which will sample different nodes and anti-nodes. This will cause a different balance to the artificial harmonics. An extreme example is to compare a Rickenbacker to a Precision: the pickups of a Rickenbacker are at the octave nodes, so the octave harmonics may or may not chime well. Conversely, the segments of a Precision pickup are at the 5th and 7th nodes, and octave harmonics "jump" out of the bass.

Every bass has a different balance as to the optimal tension of the strings to drive the top: not enough, and the bass doesn't project. Too much, and the bass sounds "choked." Just right, with a proper setup (nut, bridge, fingerboard dressing, soundpost placement, etc.), and the entire instrument projects good tone and volume. It sound like you found what is good on your bass. Enjoy!

[quote name='SlapbassSteve' timestamp='1366590266' post='2054674']Would I be right in thinking that would act like the 'vintage' switch on a Ricky? [/quote] It's the same kind of circuit, yes. Since the bridge pickup is closer to the bridge than on a Rickenbacker, the value needs to be .01 instead of Rickenbacker's .0047 to get enough body of tone. It won't be all the jangle of a Rickenbacker, since the pickup is a humbucker instead of a single coil, but it will contribute to clarity when both pickups are full on. Putting the coils in parallel drops the impedance to 1/4 of the wiring in series. That takes a serious chunk out of the mids, and by comparison does result in a thin tone. Not a "quacky" or complete lack of bass, or "honky" tone as does out-of-phase, but it does drop the mids considerably.

Series/parallel will only make the tone "thin," and you won't gain significant clarity without sacrificing low end. What you effectively have is a jazz bass meets EB-3 meets neck pickup of a Rickenbacker or Hofner (description of the tonality). So instead, do this: put a .01 microfarad capacitor inline between the hot lead of the bridge pickup and its connection to its volume potentiometer, and play the bass with all controls full up; treble and mids at neutral (no cut or boost) on the amp; and the bass level to suit. Then if you are playing new strings or roundwound strings, bring the tone knob on the bass down an number or two for the final tweak. After you do this for awhile, meaning a couple of months including personal practice, band rehearsals and gigs, then you can start re-balancing the volume knobs on each pickup to bias the tone towards bass (neck pickup) or treble (bridge pickup) to suit your playing style and the songs you play. Then you can also start tweaking the amp to further refine your tonalities. I'm sure there's more in this bass than the pickup configuration might seem at first glance. Remember, a Hofner has basically the same setup, and a Rickenbacker is also similar, just that the bridge side pickup is not quite as close to the bridge, and an EB3 is also very, very similar in pickup configuration and overall tonality, just that the EB3 will have more mids due to the mahogany body instead of the alder body.

[quote name='White Cloud' timestamp='1366404310' post='2052308'] I love the extra low end of 5 string and have also flirted with 6...but found that much less useful in a band/live performance scenario. My band transpose most of our covers to suit our singers range, I have found that 5 strings allow me to better facilitate the whole process without losing any low end. Love 5 strings long time [/quote] Exactly. As an expansion on that theme, a lot of times patterns and leaps from low to high are much easier with a B string to fret up rather than transpositioning the hand and wrist, and makes for more secure intonation.