If you were to Change the bridge on a Rick what would you get for it?

[sam 2000]

Yea when i got my rick the bridge had the word Steve carved into the chrome and the chrome needs polishin anyways becuase its all scratched up and the string mutes are almost gone so i was thinkin about gettin a BadAssBridgeII so i was just wonderin if should simply replace it or just get a diffrent one

[sam 2000]

and what about changeing the bridge pickup?

[jreed]

I have a 4003 model. It sounds really good. IMO, I would just replace it, a Rick has a very unique sound, and if replaced with something different it might change that sound, and/or, playability.

Or, maybe the bridge wont change the sound or playability, and it'll sound just fine (without have "steve" carved into it).

[Hepnurecords]

I put the bad ass on my 4001 years ago. bBig difference. IMO an improvement but not all would agree.

 

I just don't like the design of the Ric bridge. It begs for intonation problems.

 

Pick ups? Be careful. I put a bartolini stack J in the bridge position. I like it but a lot of the Ric character is lost.

 

D.

[sam 2000]

i have an old 4001 to and i just cant get the deep ness out of it that i want to yes and the bridge definantly going to go badass then

thanks

[dcr]

Chris Squire seems happy with the stock bridge. Geddy Lee seems happy with the BadAss bridge. I guess they're both right!

 

You need a good bridge. It sounds like the one you've got is not a good bridge.

 

Being something of a purist, I'd replace it with another Rick bridge; they come up on eBay all the time. However, the stock bridge is a real pain in the @ss to intonate (see hep's post). But there are things you can do; go here & do a search of the forums:

 

http://www.brunnet.net/cgi-bin/rickresource/discus/discus.pl

 

One idea I've read is to take the actual piece with the intonation screws & turn it around so that the screws are towards the neck & not the tail; then if you rout out the grooves through which the strings pass over the mute, so that they're deep enough to expose the heads of the screws in the now-reversed intonation piece, you can access them that way instead of the other way. Either way, I think you're going to need an offset Phillips screwdriver. This could be a fairly quick job with a new (uninstalled) bridge & a good Dremel.

 

Good luck!

[wraub]

Back when I had a Ric, I did the Badass thing, just like Geddy with the plastic surround, and it was the best thing that I ever did for that bass. Sounded better, and set up was a breeze by comparison.

I would leave the PUs alone, though, and alter your sound with EQ or effects.

Or, get another bass. The Ric sound is in the pickups, to a large extent, and IMO, the road to a more bottom end sound leads to a different bass. A P bass.

Of course, I don't know what amp you are using, you just might need more power/speakers/EQ tweaking to get there.

 

Peace,

 

wraub

[musicalhair]

I have three ricks (including a 5 string) and I changed the pickups and bridge on one of them, which was mono.

 

I went with the BadAssII, and I'm happy with it. I also put Alembic replacment pickups with the Stanley Clark electronics in it. It doesn't sound or act like a rick anymore. Actually it kinda never did. It didn't sound quite as good as my other two (the five string or a stereo fireglo one).

 

I'm really happy with the altered ric, but I'm also happy with the unaltered ones, and between them I have a wide range of tones, they can serve very different mods or styles.

[dcr]

Yeah, I'd leave the pickups alone. They make it a Ric. If that's not the sound you want, get the bass that makes that sound.

 

With the right item in the chain (nothin' fancy), I've gotten massive low end out of a Ric that can move a wall! That's not the "natural" mode of a Ric, but if you want it it can be done.

 

I'm wondering, though, whether you're just basically unhappy with this bass. If that's it, then switch.

[sam 2000]

well it is old and the previous owner took crap care of it the hole bass need to be re finshed paint job new pick guard definantly new bridge new pick up covers new Knobs probably new wireding the sieral # plate is scratched up and not even sure if the ricko sound works yea guess i might sell it then... and to think how beautiful it could have been....

[musicalhair]

I have to agree with DCR about using a stock ric in situations where it might not seem to fit-- if that makes any sense. I played with a tuned down to D heavy heavy metal once, and the bass I used was a stock four string rick. I used my moogerfooger low-pass filter, not to get the evelop filter or wah thing going but to tweak the tone down. It worked great an I was thundering like they wanted. To bad I wasn't really into the music.

 

I see there is another thread related to this same bass (the beat up rick the guy is thinking about switching bridges), I'll read that before I consider addressing the whole sell or not to sell idea which I think the guy if kicking around. my gut instinct tells me not to sell something you just bought, I mean you must have bought it for some reason.

[Cup]

I'm not really one for changing anything from stock. The Ric has a sound that's not to everyone's liking 100% of the time, though I'm sure you knew that when you bought it.

 

Stock pickups were put there for a reason..whoever designed the Ric put them there because they deliverred that "ric" sound. Same goes for the bridge (which IMO is one of the sweetest looking bridges out there).

 

Maybe you should buy a more versatile bass, or like Wraub said, take a weekend and explore every sound that can come out of your amp. I've a Ric and though I can't get that Fender J sweetness out of it, I can certainly come close...a J would be hard pushed to get a Ric bite out of it!

 

Please don't wreck the Ric, sell it on to someone who will really appreciate it.

 

Cup

[sam 2000]

I still want to know why every body has a problem with customizing a ric not really diffrent from customissing a car to the owners specifications. the thing only cost $500 in pretty poor conditons so whats wrong with making it a new creation. Ohh just got an impossible idea. what if the diffrent types of pickups could just snap into place? wow that would be answome bass if that were possible and easly adjustable bride that had presets for the diffrent pickups..... oh when i get through colledge and out Iam going to spoil us bass players and maybe thenguitar players to.

[Banta]

Unlike their old counterparts Fender & Gibson, Rics are perfect as equipped. There is no real advantage to replacing the bridge, although a Badass II or Schaller are decent replacements. If it were me, I'd find another Ric bridge and replace the phillips saddle adjustment screws with allen head screws.

 

No pickups sound better in a Ric than Ric pickups. Barts are ok, but not as good as the real thing.

[dcr]

"replace the phillips saddle adjustment screws with allen head screws"

 

Now THAT idea I like! I've thought about that, & I think now I'll definitely do it.

 

FWIW, Dave Meros (Spock's Beard, Eric Burdon) has a Ric that he got dirt cheap at a pawnshop, & had it customized so that in addition to the stock Ric pickups & circuitry, there was also a set of J pickups, in the standard J positions, & a J circuit; the toggle on the Ric was then used to switch between, or blend, these two circuits. SWEET. And I can tell you this bass does it ALL. It's the only bass he uses on "Snow," & the tones range from Squire/Lee Ric tone to growly fingerfunk jazz, as well as a nice trad Fender sound. Oh, yeah.

[musicalhair]

Originally posted by Banta:

If it were me, I'd (...) replace the phillips saddle adjustment screws with allen head screws.

That sounds like a great idea, I'm going look into that. Thanks for posting it.

 

Originally posted by Banta:

No pickups sound better in a Ric than Ric pickups. Barts are ok, but not as good as the real thing.

I absolutely love the way my two stock Rics (a mono 5 string and a stereo 4 string-- but I'm not talking about the extra string, or the stereo which I rarely use) sound and play. They sound very different though, even with strung with the same strings. The "five" is much warmer sounding, and the "four" sounds exactly like I expect a Ric to sound. The other four string rick I altered for some reason didn't sound as "good" as the one I left stock.

 

The Ric which got the badassII and the Alembic replacement pickups w/ Stanley Clark electronics now is really versatile and get just an incredible range of sounds. It doesn't sound like a ric anymore, but the range of tones is just stagering. The on board filters are almost as effective as my moogerfooger low-pass filter for that Bootsy wah-wah thing. I love it.

 

I use the stock four string and the modified one about the same, but that very much depends on what I'm using it for. For the rock and roll attitude it is the stock ric all the way. Anything that might be a little jazzy or progressive though the modified is my first choice.

 

Funny thing is, whenever I play the five string the people that I play for (or with) often perfer the five string Ric. I don't like the string spacing on the five string though, the one thing that I like about the ric five string is that between the slightly shorter scale and the tighter string spacing, I can comp some really sweet chord voicings. Not really typical bass playing stuff, but very musical and out of the ordinary.

 

I guess I'm way off the bridge topic that started this thread though.