Rickenbacker with Alembic pickups at Willies American Guitars in St Paul

[fmm]

https://www.williesguitars.com/product/2019-rickenbacker-4003s-jetglo-pearlstar/
Not my bass.

[BeenDown139]

Not a traditional Rickenbacker sound but a powerful tone, think Chris Squire meets John Entwistle.

indeed. i'll bet that's an interesting matchup

[gearhed289]

I had that setup on my main Ric for a while. I ended up going back to passive single coils ('93 "hot" toaster and current model high gain). It sounded great, but it was neither total Alembic or Rickenbacker. I decided to just let it be a Ric, and use my Alembic for my Alembic needs.

[hieronymous]

That's actually not a bad price. I was just fantasizing the other day about an 8-string Rickenbacker with Alembic pickups - I love the way my 4003S/8 sounds with the stock pickups, but it seems like Alembic pickups would give some nice fat bottom & high-frequency clarity. Actually, an 8-string Alembic is one of the only things I wish I had - I almost got my hands on one 10 years ago, but the guy decided not to sell.

Sorry for the veer, what were we talking about?

[hammer]

If anyone is interested in this one or the Epic, I drive Willies 5-days/week on my way to and from work and could take a looksee.

[gtrguy]

I personally think that the Rick's have such a unique sound all their own that it would be a shame doing away with that. Especially if it was a 4001 or other older model.

[BeenDown139]

...the Rick's have such a unique sound all their own that it would be a shame doing away with that...

amen to that.  i had a late 70's 4001 that i picked up in a pawn shop for $500 in the mid 80's (a princely sum back then) that i played hundreds of gigs with.  we were playing a lot of Beatles music back then and it was a real rush to channel Macca on that bass. it wasn't worth a tinker's damn for slapping or popping (had a mid-70's P-bass for that) but fingerstyle on that bass made life worth living. It was also the most temperamental bass i've ever owned, much more so than the fretless essence that graces my living room these days. the panic/pissed-off pre-1st-set bridge adjustment was an established part of the pre-show warm-up.  It probably didn't help that it was getting bounced around in the back of the equipment van by a bunch of stoner musicians thurs-sat every freaking weekend for months on end.  i miss that bass :-(

[gearhed289]

This is my Ric when it had Alembic pups. Not really a "featured" instrument on this tune, but it's good to hear what it sounds like within a song. Plus there's some smokin' violin if you're into that sort of thing. 
https://nomadichorizon.bandcamp.com/track/the-take-2

[mb94952]

I used to own a Ric 4003 with Alembic pickups and of course it sounded good, BUT it was meant for passive pickups, in MY opinion. It didn't have the Ric sound, because it was too clean. I paid only $900 for it, too about 5 years ago or so.

[dannobasso]

Well done gearhed! Great tones, great mix, great playing. I'm buying the album. I love electric violin.
BTW I have a new Ric 5 and it does NOT have the Ric sound.

[bigredbass]

This reminds me of those Jaguar XJ/S cars where the owners gave up, pulled the Jag motor and installed a Chevy V8.  Problem was, the REST of it . . . . was still a Jag.

[gearhed289]

Well done gearhed! Great tones, great mix, great playing. I'm buying the album. I love electric violin.
BTW I have a new Ric 5 and it does NOT have the Ric sound.

I got the email notification this morning, thank you! I knew "dannobasso" looked familiar, LOL! I played my Distillate on tracks 1, 5, and 9.

As a side note, all 3 of my Rics are S models, so no Rick O Sound. For serious recordings, I do split my signal into one or two amps and a DI on separate tracks. I really want to try the newer 5 string, but I'm already pretty sure I won't like the string spacing.

[dela217]

I bought a Ric 4001 around 1977 or so.   I got it new.    Dreadful instrument.    It seemed I had to adjust the truss rod and bridge every time I needed to play it.    Sold it within the first 6 months and bought my first Alembic.    Never looked back.

[hieronymous]

I love my Rics and my Alembics! I've been using these two a lot lately:



And I love this pic (same Alembic, different Ric)



Some interesting parallels - USA-made, neck-through, stereo wiring - but obviously very different as well. For example, don't compare the routing under the pickguard on a Ric with Alembic woodworking artistry!

As gtrguy pointed out, a good Rickenbacker sounds great, but I still think an Alembicized Ric would be cool to have in addition to a stock one.

Here's something I recorded with my 8-string Ric recently - the distortion is the Way Huge Smalls Pork & Pickle on the pork (overdrive) setting through my obscure Japanese Vizion Lucifer chorus. All the synth stuff is Moog - another great American company!

[lonski01]

If anyone is interested in this one or the Epic, I drive Willies 5-days/week on my way to and from work and could take a looksee.

hi brian if you try to look at this bass maybe give him a chance to find out if he is more ric or alembic and no repairs or breaks? thanks for work it out and i will look forward to read from you
bests lonski