2018 Rickenbacker 4003 (4 or 5) - Pros & Cons?

[Pier_]

Great bass, but I recommend thinking about what type of music and or genre of the band you’re playing and insure it will be a fit.

actually, that's one of the reasons I've never bought one, even in the years when the prices were right. however, years ago I saw this video:



I still remember the fact that I noticed, back when I first saw it, the bass player in this orchestra playing a Rickenbacker (seems a mapleglo), and loving the sound, which seems to be just fingers.

also, Fabio Pignatelli from Goblin (the italian prog band from the 70's, who wrote the soundtracks for Dario Argento's movies Profondo Rosso and Suspiria) uses a 4001s, and another unknown Rickenbacker player is Giovanni Baldini, another italian bass player from the 60's/70's, who's known for playing bass for Mia Martini (one of our most acclaimed singers in those years):

here's a couple of examples:

this is "Minuetto", her most successful song in the 70's



this is "Padre davvero", her first iconic single:



here's the bass:

http://www.beatsessanta.it/images/Posteri/Inconcert3.jpg

http://www.beatsessanta.it/images/Posteri/Inprova-con-miama.jpg

I've always loved the sound in her 70's records, and when I found out it was actually a Rickenbacker, I couldn't believe it.

 

[Pier_]

I attached the baby, and despite what I thought, it's a 2013, not 2018.

I thought of 2018 because the seller told me that it was 7 years old, but probably that's when he bought it.

one question: the pickup cover is the one with the cut in the middle, I've never seen a 4003 like this.
I only seen it on the vintage 4001 like McCartney and Squire.

who should I ask? Rickenbacker directly?

 

[Jeff Scott]

one question: the pickup cover is the one with the cut in the middle,,,

A previous owner added a C64 RI HS PU to the bass.

 

[Pier_]

A previous owner added a C64 RI HS PU to the bass.

I asked the owner, and yes, he even told me about it but we speak different languages and I didn't understand it and thought he was talking about his CS64.

is actually a v63 Horsehoe. mystery solved.

I have to tell that I like it, because the output is similar to the neck pickup.

what do you think about it?

 

[Jeff Scott]

I asked the owner, and yes, he even told me about it but we speak different languages and I didn't understand it and thought he was talking about his CS64.

is actually a v63 Horsehoe. mystery solved.

I have to tell that I like it, because the output is similar to the neck pickup.

what do you think about it?

The V63 shoes are flat, not angled up like those of the C64. I modded the two V63 pickups that I had (the first one I bought one secondhand, the second one is the RI HS PU that is in the April '98 4001V63 I had years ago) to produce the angled up look for a couple of reasons, the main one being to give more room under the shoes to allow for lowering the V63 HS PU to balance it out better with the scatterwound toaster's lower output.

This is the V63 PU that I had installed in my old July '73 4001 before I modded it.

This photo below shows the shoe's after I modded them.

The C64's HS PU have less windings on the bobbin to give a lower output than that of the V63's HS PU to balance better with the scatterwound toaster as stock from the factory.