Rickenbacher Bass Question

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songright

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My bass player uses a Richenbacher 4003 bass. What is the story with the stereo output? Is one treble and the other bass? Is one left and the other right? It's amazing how putting an extra hole in something can cause so much confusion.
 
wikipedia said:
Many Rickenbackers — both guitars and basses — are equipped to be compatible with a "Ric-O-Sound" unit via an extra "stereo" output socket that allows the two pickups (or neck and middle pickup combined/bridge pickup, in the case of three pickup instruments) to be connected to different effects units or amplifiers. Another idiosyncrasy of Rickenbackers is the use of two truss rods (rather than the usual one) to correct twists, as well as curvature, in the neck.
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Navigate to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickenbacker :D
 
You can run the 2nd output to another amp on the other side of the stage to create a stereo bass sound. I would often do that live, with a tube pre, a boost at 63hz and 125 hz, and a few ms. of delay on one amp on stage left, and a fair amount of compression and a cut at 500hz on the other amp on stage right. Our setup has gotten much simpler lately, with a few side-fills, barely an amp behind me, and most feeds going straight to the mains.
 
Sweet. Thanks for all of the info, guys. I just talked to him, and he said the his G string is coming hrough VERY weak in the mix, and it looks like the string saddle is already lowered. It will have to be set up. Nice bass...his GF got it for him for X-Mas. @ $1500 it was a steal. Lovely bass. His backup bass is a MusicMan Sterling...what a life!
 
songright said:
Sweet. Thanks for all of the info, guys. I just talked to him, and he said the his G string is coming hrough VERY weak in the mix, and it looks like the string saddle is already lowered. It will have to be set up. Nice bass...his GF got it for him for X-Mas. @ $1500 it was a steal. Lovely bass. His backup bass is a MusicMan Sterling...what a life!
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I Have a 4001 that I have had since the late 70's and love it, I originally bought it because Geddy Lee played one in that era.

how I used to use the stereo jacks is I would use one for my amp and the other one would be a send into a DI to the mixing console.

1500 is not a very good deal for a 4003 considering you can buy one from all of the mass merchants for less than $1095.00
the rick-O-sound unit is a ripoff considering a Y cable will acomplish the same thing for a fraction of the cost.
 
He didn't buy it as it was a gift, but it still sounds awesome..so much, in fact that the Music Man Sterling Model is now his backup! That Music Man Sterling is a beautiful sounding bass...it used to be mine.
 
One of the purported advantages

especially on a bass, was that you could bi-amp, and run the bridge pickup to an amp/cab with a better treble response, and the neck pickup to something with better bass response. For instance, run the bridge to something with 10"s, and the neck to 15"s or an 18".
 
I bought a left handed 1986 Rick 4003 a few years ago for $350. I guess it sat at the music store for a long time until I made an offer.

I didn't play it much and sold it for $500 on ebay.
 
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