prowla

I twigged that.

I was wondering if the series cap was in circuit, which makes the treble pickup thinner and cuts some volume. I like having the switch, because it gets a sound.

Real Ric pickups work well together - it must need some adjusting. Has it got a push-pull tone pot?

Get another pickguard!

Not even for £3.50!

They are so ugly they are cool!

I've also got a doubleneck I put Retrovibe Ric-style pickups on. Again, it's a 22-fretter, though, but the pickup is right at the neck. I was really lucky with that one - it had "EMG" (yeah, right!) pickups and the Ric ones fitted straight in, even the same screw holes. Again I need to have a proper listen, but the bass does clatter like a Ric should.

Actually, the pickups are more in the J position, so it's possibly going to do a 4000 on just the "neck" one. I do need to have a proper try-out, though. Incidentally, the Vol knob is push-pull and switches off the bridge pickup, and the Tone one switches in the series cap on the bridge pickup. (They are real Ric pickups too!)

You need to get the TRC sorted out on that!

Too right!

Thanks for that info re. scale length! (Yes, I didn't mention the doublenecks...) 🙂

Thanks for that - it's more than double the winning bid of the one on ebay, though.

Yes, bolt-ons are worth less than a thru-neck.

it's a very similar colour to my '72.

The bolt-on neck ones are inferior in the sense of being an accurate copy of a Ric thru-neck. Some of them can be (even) weaker than a Ric at the join, because the wood there is pretty thin and the overlap isn't that much; OTOH, there are real Ric set-neck (ie. glued on) 4001 & 4000 basses too. The bolt-on neck ones are also all (I think!) 34" scale, as opposed to a real Ric's 33.25".

@stewblack If you do decide to give up on doing it yourself (but I hope you do sort it on your own), there are a couple of fine folk in the FB fakers group who may be able to work wonders on it. It's a £500+ instrument (when in working order). I'm not sure if you already know this, but the Ric 4001 basses' truss-rods will collapse if you just tighten them as you would a Fender or most other guitars, as the stop block at the end under the nut folds in on itself; the result is the fingerboard separates from the neck. Yours looks like it might've possibly been the result of over-tightening, though it is a different design. Incidentally, the 4001's truss-rod system isn't necessarily a bad design, provided you follow the instructions and flex the neck to position and then turn the adjuster to hold it in place; the issue is assuming it works like other guitars, when there weren't may brands around in the 1950s...

Nice stick, but musically challenged...

I put in my max. bid on ebay and somebody beat me at the end.

Needs more precision, especially in the spacing on the front row there!

No - get it done ASAP, godammit!

Ouch! (But funny!)

I think the first single truss-rod bass was the original AC.

Ah yes - the Ibby with the re-purposed EB3 pickups!

I've got a Teisco guitar and its pickup is duff. Pending repair, I've put in a Strat one; I had to make a conversion surround to fit it. Despite being awful plywood toot, the guitar sounds rather good!