I'm not stupid, it's my stupid Rickenbacker that's stupid, ok?

[mowf]

Sooooo, spent a fun hour or so the other night taking my 2022 Rickenbacker 4003 apart and checking all the connections, pots etc to figure out why the volume for one of the pickups wasn't working. Put it back together only to find I couldn't get the tone working either.

 

Turned out I was turning the wrong knobs.

 

I've been playing my Gibson EB-2D a fair bit recently, and the volume for the neck pickup is where the tone for the neck pickup is on the Rick. I have now invested in a set of labelled knobs from Rickysounds.

 

This is another reason why I like Precisions.

 

 

[Skybone]

Oops. 😄

[kwmlondon]

It’s a learning curve.  

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

When I bought my 4003, I immediately invested in a set of labelled knobs as the jazz bass style knobs it came with don't look right on a Ric, and I knew I'd forget which knob is which.

[Grooverjr]

Ah, the joys of having too many toys and not enough brainpower (I am a fully signed up member of that club) The one that gets me is the East P retro. Makes some lovely, lovely sounds but there is a lot of wizardry to fit into 2 stacked pots. I have to have the instructions handy if I haven't played around with the settings on that bass for a while. 

[Kev]

I had this too when I picked up a 70's faker.  

 

My knobs are labelled though, so this should make you feel better.

[Skybone]

We've all done it, even with the labels on the knobs. 

[Woodinblack]

Yeh, they are certainly in the wrong place when you have used any other bass, but then once you have learned...

 

Still, one day I will learn which knobs on the bongo do what.

[prowla]

Another "Rics are wrong because they aren't Fenders" issue. 🙂

[Woodinblack]

2 hours ago, prowla said:

Another "Rics are wrong because they aren't Fenders" issue. 🙂

 

Well, more not gibsons when it comes to twin tone and volume controls, fender have their own crazy ideas.

[prowla]

15 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Well, more not gibsons when it comes to twin tone and volume controls, fender have their own crazy ideas.

 

Arguably, Gibsons are wrong, because both Tone controls affect both pickups; Rickenbackers address this by: a. putting the tone caps on the pickup side of the selector switch so that they're out of curcuit when their respective pickup is off, and b. keeping the circuits independent right up to the output sockets and even allowing them to go to separate amps (Rick-O-Sound).

[Woodinblack]

2 hours ago, prowla said:

Arguably, Gibsons are wrong, because both Tone controls affect both pickups;

 

I was referring to the positioning. Ultimately any passive circuit unless you are using rick-o-sound the tones affect the other pickup. Gibsons are far worse because the volume affects the other pickup too!