LeftyBassist.com

I really want that.

Rickenbacker posted a FB pic the other day of 9 lefty Walnut basses getting ready to head out the door. I wonder where the other 8 went?

Certainly not my place. If I had it my way, I'd own all three of my favorite finishes in lefty. Midnight Blue (got it), walnut, and all white. Gotta have backups, right?

A thing of beauty

And... it's gone. Good price too. Anybody here get it? Would be interested in a review as the Walnut is my fave Rick.

This puppy is back up after supposedly selling. Same seller, same price, which, now that I think about it, seems ridiculously low. Anybody know anything? I could be wrong, but it looks like the "Vintage Tone" sticker was removed and stuck back on. Not too sure if that means anything or not...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rickenbacker-40 ... 1971237138?

Seller should still be legit, but they are not an authorized ric dealer, so just be careful about that.

I can fill in with a little info. Ping me via private message.

When you bought that Midnightblue, I meant to tell you, and all other Rick fans among us, that if you want to give your Rick a nice tone boost, go to Talkbass or RickResource.com and send a message to Aceonbass. He makes wiring harnesses for Ricks using appropriate pot and capacitor values. It really improves the tone; doubly so for us lefties since RIC wires righty pots lefty, which of course makes them next to useless. Aceonbass uses righty pots as well, but wires them righty, but I am sure we are all used to that, by now. Plus, he is a great guy to deal with.

Silly newbie question... would this update/upgrade apply to my 1987 Ricky too? It's got the stock wiring... Thanks for the info!

That is not a silly question at all.

I am quite certain it does. I think the pot values have been the same since the 4003 was released. You can double-check with him. He will know for sure.

I'm a tech idiot so don't mean to seem ignorant but I am curious: what is is about wiring pots right or left handed that makes a difference other than you have to turn the knob in the opposite direction? Is there something else that affects the sound and does more than one company do it?

When you have righty pots wired lefty (like the idiots at RIC and Fender do), you don't have any gradual taper of volume or tone. The pot just acts pretty much like an on/off switch.

This is a good question. If a pot is "linear", then there is no difference. The resistance value goes up at a constant rate, 0-100%. In this case, there is no difference in wiring it lefty or righty. Some people prefer this type of pot as volume and tone adjusts consistently as you turn it.

However, most pots in guitars and basses are "logarithmic," also referred to as "audio taper" or "non-linear." This means that as you turn the knob up, the resistance value of the pot goes up fast at first, then slows down. This is desirable because you get to use most of the turn of a pot to adjust within 60-100% to really dial in the right amount of tone and volume. The drawback is that from 0-40%, it is hard to adjust, but it is unusual to use less than 40% unless you want it all the way down to 0. So you get accuracy in the high range at the sacrifice of accuracy in the low range.

The problem that arises when an audio taper pot is wired backwards is that it operates opposite of normal: when you turn the knob up, the resistance goes up very slowly, then shoots up to 100% really fast. Now you are sacrificing accuracy on the high end where you usually want it to get accuracy on the low end where you really don't need it. It is much more difficult to dial in the correct volume or tone as there is a very narrow window of position that the knob has to be in to get the amount of volume or tone that you want, and the knob can then also get knocked out of that position easily. To get around this, manufacturers need to use "reverse audio taper" pots for left-handed guitars and basses.

Don't hold me to those numbers - I just guessed to demonstrate the point.

Does that make sense?

This is amazing info and I see my bank account gradually dwindling as I consider which basses I want to make this fix on.

Very cool info!
I think that on all of my basses, or they are right handed or right handed wired lefty. I'm clueless about this stuff.
Where can I buy these out of this planet things?
Does they have a proper place that sell left handed pots for Fender basses? Not righty wired lefty?
Would be cool to give it a try!

I recently replaced the pots on my Ric 4001V63 with these pots from allparts.com. Completely changed the tonal character of the bass. You know ... like someone lifted the blanket off of the speaker cabs ... made it a lot brighter and punchier. Still growly, but in a different way that I find hard to describe, tho it's not a bad thing. I'm still dicking around with pup height because the horse-shoe magnet is so damn loud! I'm also dicking around with my amp and compressor settings trying to dial in what I want to hear.

Allparts Lefty pots

Allparts Lefty pots[/quote]
Thanks for sharing the link and everyone else for sharing the knowledge!
I may be ordering some time soon to give it a try!

Sorry been offline for some time! Thanks, Death! I noticed how my tone is just on/off. Kinda sucks as mine has the cool old school/modern push/pull bridge pot. I'll definitely have to look into that. The blue one has been amazing so far, but eventually it'll catch some upgrades like everything I own. I hate not customizing things.