4005 gets the shunt!

[ilan]

Played a friend's all-original '67 FG 4005 today. The bridge pickup sounded, as expected, very thin and weak. A .0047mF cap on a pickup so close to the bridge is lethal.

So I suggested shunting it. Five minutes later we plugged her in. Wow!!! HELLO bridge pickup! Where have you been hiding in the last 47 years?!

The bass sounds soooo much better now both in the bridge position (previously totally useless) and with both pickups on.

Bypassing the cap in a 4005 is much more dramatic than in a 4001/pre-'85 4003.

[ilan]

Nice bass... unfortunately not mine

[Highlander]

I'll second that observation... looks pristine...

I love losing caps from the equation, but I'm more heathen than you'll ever be...

[ilan]

It was a GTG with four other bass players, Gil brought 4 of his Ric basses - '67 4005, Blueburst fretless, '72 4001 MG, and Sept. '86 Shadow, all in the picture, and a '68 (I think) 12-string 366/12 with the "comb", left out of the pic. I brought the two hollow-bodies - the '64 Gretsch 6070 and the '65 Höfner Senator.

[4stringer77]

It's good to know that something positive can be achieved with a word that sounds like a horrible portmanteau of two even worse words.

[Highlander]

Goodness... not a Gibson to be seen...

[godofthunder]

 Kenny your eyes must be going  there is a fretless Ripper sitting right in the middle of things!

[godofthunder]

  I have always been enamored with the 4005 ever since I saw a fireglo one hanging in the small mom and pop music store I took lessons in. Must have been around '72, I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. In the end the store owner told me you don't want that thing. I still dream about it.

[Pilgrim]

  I have always been enamored with the 4005 ever since I saw a fireglo one hanging in the small mom and pop music store I took lessons in. Must have been around '72, I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. In the end the store owner told me you don't want that thing. I still dream about it.

I agree.  That is one gorgeous instrument!!!!!!!!

[ilan]

the store owner told me you don't want that thing

I can only guess what he would have said had the cap in that bass been bypassed.

[Rob]

I can only guess what he would have said had the cap in that bass been bypassed.

"You don't want that thing you can't even change the tone? 

[Dave W]

Not a fan of the tone even with the bypass. That pickup is just too close to the bridge for a bass.

They do look good, though.

[Highlander]

Kenny your eyes must be going  there is a fretless Ripper sitting right in the middle of things!

Oops...

Where'd I leave the dunce cap...? And my glasses, come to that... could be worse, could have been an aviation thread, then there'd have been Hellcats to pay...

[Paul Boyer]

Oops...

Where'd I leave the dunce cap...? And my glasses, come to that... could be worse, could have been an aviation thread, then there'd have been Hellcats to pay...

Oh, another cross-interest person; I thought I was the only one. My principal interest is aircraft, U.S. military aircraft in particular, and models of them is my concentration.

[godofthunder]

Oh you'll fit right in! Poor Kenny made the mistake of calling a F4U Corsair a Hellcat. We won't let him for get it.   My stash, it's grown since this pic was taken.