Rickenbacker 4001

Last updated

Rickenbacker 4001
Rickenbacker 4001.jpg
A 1977 Rickenbacker 4001
Manufacturer Rickenbacker
Period1961–1981 [1]
Construction
Body typeSolid
Neck jointBound (or unbound maple 4001S model)
Scale 33.25 in (845 mm) (long scale)
30.5 in (770 mm) (short scale) [2]
Woods
BodyBound maple (and unbound maple 4001S Model)
Neck Maple, Walnut
Fretboard Bubinga, Rosewood, Maple
Hardware
Pickup(s) 2 single coil toaster/horseshoe pickups (early models), [2] 2 single coil Hi-Gain pickups (later models)
Colors available
Fireglo (Cherry Sunburst), Autumnglo (Tobacco Sunburst), Burgundyglo (Red), Jetglo (black), Mapleglo (natural) and Azureglo (blue) [2]

The Rickenbacker 4001 is an electric bass that was manufactured by Rickenbacker as a two-pickup "deluxe" version of their first production bass, the single-pickup model 4000. This design, created by Roger Rossmeisl, was manufactured between 1961 and 1981, when it was replaced by an updated version dubbed the Rickenbacker 4003. [3] Variant models of the 4001 include the 4001S, 4001LH, 1999 (European model), 4001V63 (reissue), 4001CS (a limited edition series based on Chris Squire's 1965 British model RM1999) and the 4001C64 and 4001C64S: the C Series is a recreation of Paul McCartney's left-handed 4001S with a reversed headstock. There are also Al Cisneros (4003 AC) and Lemmy Kilmister (4004 LK) signature versions of the instrument.

Contents

Construction

The 4001 model features a neck-through construction, a full-wood body, fretboard with metal strings (originally flat-wound, though many players replaced them with round-wounds), twin truss rods, triangle inlays, two single coil pickups, two volume and two tone dials, selector switch, [2] and wiring for Rick-O-Sound (standard after 1971). [1]

Unlike most two-pickup electric basses, the 4001's pickups are of two different designs. The 4001 has a small neck pickup, colloquially referred to as a "toaster pickup" due to the distinctive metal covers found on 1960s models. The bridge pickup is larger in size and mounted on a metal plate. Earlier models are referred to as "horseshoe pickups", as the bridge pickup is enclosed between two metal-covered horseshoe magnets. Later 4001 models as well as the modern 4003 redesign replaced the toaster and horseshoe pickups with so-called Hi-Gain pickups. The Hi-Gain bridge pickup is of a more conventional design than the horseshoe pickup. The bridge pickup also features a removable metal bridge cover designed to emulate the look of the original horseshoe magnets.

Rickenbacker also produced six-string and 12 string guitars and a short-scale bass, the 3000 model. [2] The bridge system is a relatively unusual design, both in aesthetics and in function, featuring removable saddles, as well as a compartment designed to hold a foam mute.

A 2020 CieloGlo 4003S, showing the lack of body/neck binding and dot fret inlays 4003S.jpg
A 2020 CieloGlo 4003S, showing the lack of body/neck binding and dot fret inlays

The 4001S (and 1999) model varies in its use of dot inlays, and unbound neck construction. [2] The Rickenbacker 4003, which replaced the 4001, differs in the truss rod design and introduces a fret wire that better withstands the wear from round-wound strings (fast fret wear was a common complaint for many years, and Rickenbacker strived to address the issue). The pickups are also higher in output, and the bridge pickup, a so-called "horseshoe" pickup, was entirely remodelled, featuring a more conventional design, although the "horseshoe", albeit removable is still part of the construction, for aesthetic purposes. More recent 4003 models also feature a push-pull switch on one of the tone knobs, which diminishes the output of the pickups, to more closely resemble the original 4001 tone. Other features remained similar to its forebear.

Rickenbacker has in recent years also produced a five-string model, featuring a more conventional bridge system, smaller Schaller machine heads and distinctive, asymmetrical pickups. It retains the Rickenbacker's signature 33" scale length, an unusual design for a five-string instrument. Between the years 1993 and 2018 Rickenbacker also manufactured a streamlined model, named the 4004, that used the 4001's trademark shape but featured smaller pickups, a simplified control layout, a more conventional bridge system and eschewed the use of aesthetic details such as binding or a pickguard.

Notable players

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bass guitar</span> Electric plucked string instrument

The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length, and typically four to six strings or courses. Since the mid-1950s, the bass guitar has largely come to replace the double bass in popular music due to its lighter weight, the use of frets and, most importantly, its design for electric amplification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electric guitar</span> Electrical string musical instrument

An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickups to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical signals, which ultimately are reproduced as sound by loudspeakers. The sound is sometimes shaped or electronically altered to achieve different timbres or tonal qualities from that of an acoustic guitar via amplifier settings or knobs on the guitar. Often, this is done through the use of effects such as reverb, distortion and "overdrive"; the latter is considered to be a key element of electric blues guitar music and jazz, rock and heavy-metal guitar-playing. Designs also exist combining attributes of the electric and acoustic guitars: the semi-acoustic and acoustic-electric guitars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lemmy</span> English rock musician (1945–2015)

Ian Fraser Kilmister, better known as Lemmy Kilmister or simply Lemmy, was a British musician. He was the founder, lead singer, bassist and primary songwriter of the rock band Motörhead, of which he was the only continuous member, and a member of Hawkwind from 1971 to 1975.

Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California. The company is credited as the first known maker of electric guitars – a steel guitar in 1932 – and today produces a range of electric guitars and basses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Single coil guitar pickup</span>

A single coil pickup is a type of magnetic transducer, or pickup, for the electric guitar and the electric bass. It electromagnetically converts the vibration of the strings to an electric signal. Single coil pickups are one of the two most popular designs, along with dual-coil or "humbucking" pickups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mosrite</span> American guitar manufacturing company

Mosrite is an American guitar manufacturing company, based in Bakersfield, California, from the late 1950s to the early 1990s. Founded by Semie Moseley, Mosrite guitars were played by many rock and roll and country artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fender Mustang</span> US solid body electric guitar

The Fender Mustang is a solid body electric guitar produced by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. It was introduced in 1964 as the basis of a major redesign of Fender's student models, the Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic. It was produced until 1982 and reissued in 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Helicopter</span> Musical artist

Brian Helicopter is the stage name of Gareth Holder, an English musician, based in the United States. He is best known for playing bass guitar for the UK punk rock band The Shapes. He also played for many other bands, the most notable being the NWOBHM bands Rogue Male and HellsBelles. For a short time in the early 1980s, he was also a member of British R&B band The Mosquitos, with guitarist Steve Walwyn of Dr. Feelgood and Eddie and the Hot Rods, and can be seen on the cover of The Mosquitos only single "Somethin' Outta Nothin'". A prolific session player, he appears both credited and uncredited on many releases throughout the 1980s and early 1990s under both his real and stage name. He was one of the first bassists in the nascent UK punk scene to adopt the Rickenbacker bass guitar which he still uses to this day. He was also one of the first bass guitarists in the world to use Trace Elliot amplification. His bass playing style is characterized by a very fast precise pick attack, and fast runs. Unusually for a bass guitarist, he sometimes utilizes an overhand tapping technique more common to six string players. He continues to play professionally, reverting between his real name and his stage name as the fancy takes him. He is also a professional skydiving coach and instructor, currently holding seven world records in the sport. He can be seen in an episode of MythBusters aired on the Discovery Channel taking presenter Kari Byron skydiving whilst testing the falling airplane blue ice myth. He is also a vegetarian. He can be seen in the independent film Six Sex Scenes and a Murder, in the role of the bounty hunter. He currently resides in California, where he plays bass for the San Francisco Bay Area band Ghosthookers. Ghosthookers released a record in 2008 which features Brian Helicopter on bass under his real name.

The Gibson EB-3 is an electric bass guitar model produced by the Gibson Guitar Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gibson Thunderbird</span> Electric bass guitar

The Gibson Thunderbird is an electric bass guitar made by Gibson and Epiphone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Meros</span> American bass guitar player

Dave Meros, is an American bass guitar player, best known as the bass player for progressive rock band Spock's Beard. Meros has also played or recorded with such artists as Gary Myrick, Bobby Kimball of Toto, Simon Phillips, Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders and Big Big Train, Martin Orford and played for Eric Burdon and The Animals from 1990 through the end of 2005, and was the bass player for Iron Butterfly from 2015 through 2021. He was also tour manager for Eric Burdon and has worked as a tour manager for further artists as well. As a bassist, Meros' musical influences are varied, including Paul McCartney, John Entwistle, Chris Squire, James Jamerson, Marcus Miller, Francis "Rocco" Prestia of Tower of Power, Chuck Rainey and David Hungate.

A solid-body musical instrument is a string instrument such as a guitar, bass or violin built without its normal sound box and relying on an electromagnetic pickup system to directly detect the vibrations of the strings; these instruments are usually plugged into an instrument amplifier and loudspeaker to be heard. Solid-body instruments are preferred in situations where acoustic feedback may otherwise be a problem and are inherently both less expensive to build and more rugged than acoustic electric instruments.

The mini-humbucker is a humbucking guitar pickup. It was originally created by the Epiphone company. The mini-humbucker resembles a Gibson PAF humbucker, but is narrower in size and senses a shorter length of string vibration. This produces clearer, brighter tones that are quite unlike typical Gibson sounds. It fits in between single-coils and full-sized humbuckers in the tonal spectrum. It is frequently used in jazz guitars, mounted under the fingerboard or on the pickguard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rickenbacker 330</span>

The Rickenbacker 330 is part of Rickenbacker's 300 series of guitars. The 330 entered the Rickenbacker product line in 1958, though at the time the 300 series of guitars was known as the "Capri" series. It was designed by the German luthier Roger Rossmeisl. The guitar is associated by many players with the jangle-rock sounds of bands from the 1960s and 1980s. The instrument incorporates many features standard on Rickenbacker guitars, including a three-ply maple/walnut neck, a shallow headstock angle, and a thick rosewood fretboard finished with clear conversion varnish. The 330 also features a body with Rickenbacker's "crescent moon" double-cutaway shape with sharp, unbound edges, and an R-shaped trapeze tailpiece. One idiosyncrasy of the guitar is its dual truss rods, which allow for the correction of problematic and unwanted twists, as well as curvature, of the guitar's neck. The 330 is equipped with a monaural jack plate, lacking the Rick-O-Sound stereo functionality of other Rickenbacker models such as the Rickenbacker 360.

Electric guitar design is a type of industrial design where the looks and efficiency of the shape as well as the acoustical aspects of the guitar are important factors. In the past many guitars have been designed with various odd shapes as well as very practical and convenient solutions to improve the usability of the object.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rickenbacker 360/12</span> Model of 12-string electric guitar

The Rickenbacker 360/12 is the Rickenbacker company's 12-string variant of their 360 electric guitar model. Mainly known for producing "jangly" sounds, it was among the first electric 12-string guitars. The 360/12 was given worldwide attention when George Harrison used it on many Beatles recordings, introducing the distinctive new sound of this guitar on "I Call Your Name", which the band recorded in March 1964. In the late 1960s, the company made alternative models such as the Rickenbacker 370/12, which became the favored instrument of Roger McGuinn of the Byrds.

The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele, is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it was the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful solid-body electric guitar. Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music.

The Rickenbacker 4001CS is a limited-edition series electric bass guitar based on Chris Squire's 1964 Rickenbacker 4001. Only 1,000 were made between 1991 and 2000. The 4001CS is another instrument from Rickenbacker's Limited Edition Series. These instruments, commissioned by and for prominent artists who favored Rickenbacker instruments, incorporate features which are favored by the artist or reminiscent of their most famous Rickenbacker instrument.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rickenbacker 400 series</span>

The Rickenbacker 400-Series was a line of lower cost solid body electric guitars that Rickenbacker introduced in 1956.

References

  1. 1 2 "Rickenbacker 4001". Rickbeat.com. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Vintage Guitar – Rickenbacker 4001 Bass Guitar". Vintageguitars.org.uk. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  3. T. Bacon & B. Moorhouse. The Bass Book. Backbeat Books. 1995. ISBN   0-87930-368-9
  4. "Lou Barlow of Dinosaur Jr. on Playing Bass with a Really Loud Guitarist". YouTube . Retrieved 18 April 2021.
  5. John is shown playing the Ric in the video for ""Another Nail in My Heart" (official)". YouTube . Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  6. "Gear Rundown: Cliff Burton". 11 August 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  7. Ed Roman. "Rickenbacker Guitars - Rickenbacker Guitar Artists - Ed Roman Guitars". Edroman.com. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  8. Snider, Charles (2007). The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive Rock (1 ed.). Chicago: Strawberry Bricks. p. 207. ISBN   9780615175669.
  9. "Jon Camp Interview 2012". Renaissance Fanfare. 22 February 2012. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  10. "Peter Cetera". www.dennybegle.com. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  11. "Bass Guitar Magazine October 2006". Electricamp.com. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  12. "Instruments: Early Shows I [27.06.1970 – 24.03.1972]". Queen Concerts. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  13. "Eric's Trip". 29 May 2008.
  14. "Pete's Gear: Pete Townshend Guitar Equipment History | Pete Townshend's Guitar Gear | Whotabs". Thewho.net. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Ashton, Adrian (2006). The bass handbook. Hal Leonard. p. 38. ISBN   978-0-87930-872-8.
  16. "Dawk Sound Limited – Rainbow / Ritchie Blackmore". Dawksound.com. Archived from the original on 20 April 2004. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  17. "Glenn Hughes". Equipboard. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
  18. "Rick James poster". Images.uulyrics.com. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
  19. "Inge Johansson". Equipboard. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
  20. Willie G. Moseley. "Lemmy Kilmister". Vintage Guitar Magazine. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
  21. "Rush delivers precisely what fans want". San Antonio Express-News . 4 December 1996.
  22. "Artists Playing Rickenbacker Basses". Rickresource.com. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  23. Bacon, Tony; Barry Moorhouse (2008). The Bass Book: A Complete Illustrated History of Bass Guitars. Hal Leonard. p. 19. ISBN   978-0-87930-924-4 . Retrieved 6 August 2010.
  24. Randy can be seen playing the 4001 in the video of a 1977 performance of "Hotel California" "Hotel California live in Washington 1977". YouTube . Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  25. Archived 26 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  26. "Scott Reeder: Desert To Sea". bassplayer.com. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  27. "Paul Simonon | Equipboard". equipboard.com. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
  28. "Jim Smith". Equipboard. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
  29. Ashton, Adrian (2006). The bass handbook. Hal Leonard. p. 241. ISBN   978-0-87930-872-8.
  30. "Basses". watersish.com. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
  31. Bass Player magazine. November 2009. p. 34.