Bridgehouse

According to his platform testing in his own 51 - It was Ric with a bit more bass (interpret however you like!) due to position. And yes, about 2 days

I really like black on cream. My 74 P is black guard on cream - It was olympic white but it's custard now 😅 f-hole and guard would be too busy..

I'd do a pickup swap too. You can get some really really good replacements for these for small beans.

Pertinent for me. My first 51 build had one: But my current build does not... So I say mood, and colour dependent....

Used my lunch break to tick off another job - jack socket: Which leaves string tree and pickup and then I can actually see what it’s like..

If it looked the same I suspect it would fall foul of Ric and be deemed to be infringing on copyright as it looks like the originals..

It's becoming a proper Woolies Pick n' Mix bass tbh

Maybe - soon find out - it’ll certainly sound different to a normal P with ceramic bar magnets, big slugs and 44awg wire!

No, you've misunderstood. It's the aspiration - young rockers still play Strats, and offsets, and indeed lots of Epiphones - but they don't have the aspirations that us young 'uns had in the 70's 80's etc..

Lol - my subtlety filter must have been on overdrive 😅

They only dilute the brand if they are rubbish. A good quality Squier VM bass will plug someone right into the brand and then the aspiration starts - all part of the GAS - leads to MiM, US Standard, Custom Shop...

True. But @Woodinblack raises a really good point. For a fad to happen, there needs to be a point of entry for the trend setters - who tend to be not exactly well off.. Fender have Squier and MiM - lots of options from £150 - £1000 Gibson have Epiphone, and also some of their Tributes are under £500 - certainly used. Just looked on eBay - I can't see a used or new 4001/4003 for under £1k and most go for over £1300 - if you want a specific colour you may have to go up to £1700/£1800 That's not a good price point for getting your product used by the up and coming trendies which turns it into an aspirational product.

You could apply that to Burst Les Pauls, Stingrays (to a lesser extent) and quite a few other iconic guitars & basses.

Opinions fall into two camps - Wonderfully unique and quirky, or stuck in the past and pointless. I like them. I wouldn't drop £2k+ on one, and I really would like an early 70's 4001... but not at current prices. A 74 4001 would cost me a lot more than I paid for my 74 Precision..

They make less so they can continue to use full fat nitro paint and not exceed their limits for emissions in California and pay a huge tax/fine. Their unwillingness to change any part of their formula means that the logical route was make a lot less and charge a lot more.

They've gone up in price a huge amount over the last 3-4 years as well. First time I looked they were hovering around the £1200/1300 new mark..

I’ve heard good things about those Nordstrands.. maybe even better than the Lindy Fralin - which are really highly regarded! Looking forward to trying the oil city - should be interesting!

It looks good too....!

It’s built. Sorting out the details to get it to me Who’s interested in what it sounds like?

I’ve given it an initial setup and tidy up - it’s playing nice acoustically - it’s not loud unplugged. It’s louder than a solid body but quieter than my Ibanez semi hollow. Also took some beauty shots:

To be honest, part of my excitement is the idea of a different tonal platform for a bass I'm familiar with. We have a lot of basses out there that proscribe to a specific formula: Split P pickup on P body 2x Jazz Singles on a J body 1xMM Humbucker on a MM body And so the list goes on. Now, I did a PJ partscaster last year and I have to say, I found the combination of the two to offer some tonal difference, but for me, it wasn't huge. I'm interested in the idea of a bass with something out of the ordinary. Ric pickups use ceramic bar magnets and oversize slugs with 44awg wire in a specific wind shape - it does make them different to a Jazz or a 51P single coil. I really like the idea of getting that different formula and sticking it in a 51P body made of swamp ash or the hollow variant I have just done to see what it sounds like. Will it sound exactly like a Ric? Don't care frankly. For me the experiment is "how different will it sound to a normal 51P single coil?" Ultimately, it will sound like me playing that bass - but I hope to do a compare and contrast for the interested amongst you

Well, the corresponding debate over on the "guitar forum" *ahem*, came to a similar conclusion - and actually recreating the sound, feel, and everything else is pretty much impossible. Which got us onto the characteristic mid-range snarl. The conclusion was EQ'ing and preamp, but a certain pickup winder said he could do some of that with magnet, slug, wire and wind choice. The challenge was on - he's building it - I'll fit it in one of my 51P's and see how it sounds

Me too. All he is doing is using the same type of magnet, wire and slug, in a 51P bobbin, so there's no copyright infringement - you can't copyright/patent the design as it's pretty much the same as any other single coil However, the choice of magnets, wire, slugs, winding and spacing should lead to some 'interesting' tonal variation compared to a standard 51P single coil.

I'll be non subtle then. That's a 51 Precision sized pickup with the magnets, dimensions, slugs and winding/wire to exactly replicate a Rickenbacker single coil.

I was rather thrilled when he checked the measurements on CAD and said it could be done.. it will give a completely different character to a 51P pickup, but I think that's fine..