How can you tell? I've got my 4003 in front of my here and it looks the same except for wear and tear. The Allparts has chrome saddles instead of the rick matte cast metal. Are there differences I'm missing?
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Considering a 1978 Rickenbacker 4001...
- Thread starter LostJohnny
- Start date
How can you tell? I've got my 4003 in front of my here and it looks the same except for wear and tear. The Allparts has chrome saddles instead of the rick matte cast metal. Are there differences I'm missing?
The string hole shape is slightly different from OEM to Allparts, otherwise functionally identical. Supposedly better castings on the OEM bridges, though I’ve had an Allparts on my Ric clone build for going on 5 years with no sign of tail lift, so I think the negative association you hear about Allparts bridge is just sour grapes from Rickenbacker. I don’t know the history of how Allparts managed to reproduce this part without getting sued, but it’s been on the market for years. Having finally abandoned the V1 for the V2 design, kinda tough for Ric to argue the V1 was a superior design. At 1/3 the price of an OEM V1, if mine ever lifts, I can buy two more and still make out ok, but it seems plenty solid. It’s a very faithful reproduction, flaws and all.
I've had the Allparts on mine since I got it 11 years ago, and the wear/tarnish it came with when I bought it suggests it had been on there at least another 11 before that. They seem quite solid.
I have a ‘79 Ric that I bought new and I still love. The Rics of that era have thinner necks and play much nicer than the newer models. All that needs to be done is to replace the bass tone control with a push pull and make a small mod to bypass the high pass filter. You’ll be amazed at how much better the bass sounds and you’ll appreciate the additional flexibility. If you really want to get serious, replace the stock bridge with a chrome plated brass Hipshot
The Hipshot comes in brass or aluminum, the brass being heavier. The common wisdom seems to be to go aluminum if your bass is already well balanced, and brass to cancel any minimal neck dive. The 70's basses did have thinner necks in general, but they werent all that stable IME, so its a tradeoff. The modern 4003 push/pull wiring harness that takes the treble cap in or out gets you most of the 70's tone. They are supposedly going back to thinner necks now that they are switching to a single DA rod, a welcome change for most, the current crop is too chunky for my taste.
First I have heard of this and that may well get me back to playing a RIC. The newest offerings I have had a chance to play had necks that were just too chunky for me, so I do hope that they are slimming down the necks on their next batch of basses.
Fishheadjoe
The trick will be actually finding one in a store to test drive, virtually nonexistent in my area (Boston/Cape Cod). The last time one actually hanging on the rack for sale at GC was about a year ago, and that was AFTER GC was supposedly dropped as a dealer by Ric, must have been NOS or a return, though they were selling it as new.
