Fretless Rickenbacker 4003fl

[Rickenbrother]

Good question! I've never used a Ric 4003FL with rounds. Apparently the bubinga is tougher than most wood (not as tough as ebony though) so it could likely stand up to rounds in a way other woods like Indian rosewood might not.

Rickenbrother, that's a really great recording of "Georgia On My Mind", and your fretless tone is marvelous--as I've said elsewhere. Really glad to hear a recording using the Ric foam mute too.

Thanks! Love the tone of your 4003FL too. Your playing is excellent.
I hope soon I'll have a nice recording with my 4003FL, which does have roundwound strings.

 

[Root 5]

The thing I hate about fretless 4003s are the position of the dots on the fingerboard. Whoever the moron is who designed that model - he/she never understood fretless bass. For the fretless model, the position dots should be moved directly where the note is instead of kept where they are for a fretted model.

 

[Ric5]

That indeed sounded pretty good but anyone got sound clips of a fretless Ric strung with rounds?

A fretless Ric will have a bubinga fretboard with a conversion varnish finish. If you string it with rounds then you will chew up that finish in a short time. If you really want to put rounds on a fretless Ric then replace the fretboard with ebony. The 4002 basses had an ebony fretboard but they weren't fretless.

 

[iunno]

The thing I hate about fretless 4003s are the position of the dots on the fingerboard. Whoever the moron is who designed that model - he/she never understood fretless bass. For the fretless model, the position dots should be moved directly where the note is instead of kept where they are for a fretted model.

I've never seen a single bass with face dots like that. Usually the side ones are where the lines would be.