Having three Rics wasn’t intentional. My first bass was a ‘78 4001 that I bought in 1980, and it was stolen in ‘89. I played mostly Fenders for years after that, a ‘72 Tele Bass and then an ‘82 Vintage ‘57 Precision, but always kept my eyes open for my white 4001 to turn up somewhere. One day in 2015 I was looking through eBay again hoping to spot my old 4001 when I saw a new 4003 Fireglo with a gorgeous fretboard, and it turned out it was at a shop not far from me. Via email I tried to make a trade for my ‘72 Tele, which I hadn’t played for about a decade at that point, but the numbers didn’t work out for them. I went down to check out the Ric anyway, and my credit card somehow flew out of my wallet and I went home with it. Then, not a week later, I was lazily looking through Craigslist when I spotted an ad from someone looking to trade a Ric 4003 for a Tele Bass. What were the chances? Met up with the guy, we liked each other’s instruments, and that’s how I ended up with my ‘83–two Rics within a week. Then at some point early in the Covid pandemic I decided I needed a fretless for the jazz band I play in. It took a few months of searching to turn up a decent one, a ‘92 4003, and that’s the bass I play 95% of the time now. So, why do I still have three Rics/what are the differences? The answer with the fretless is obvious. As for the other two, the ‘15 is more aggressive sounding, the ‘83 is more polite. But the action on the ‘83 is unbelievable; I could lower the strings right down to the frets if I wanted to, and since it still has the hairpin-style truss rods, the neck is super stable and I’ve not needed to adjust it since I got it. The only mods were to add the push/pull cap bypass circuit and straplock buttons from modern Rics, and to get the dead neck pickup rewound by Tom Brantley. I’ve sometimes run the mental exercise of which of the two fretted Rics I’d sell if I had to, but have never made a definitive decision. I happen to be one of those people for whom a Ric is far more comfortable than a Fender, so there is little motivation. I’ve hardly touched my Precision since 2015 (and haven’t missed the Tele Bass at all), and in fact on the few occasions in the past several years that I wasn’t playing a Ric, I went for one of my more oddball basses (such as a ‘64 Ampeg/Burns Vista Sonic, ‘70 Dan Armstrong/Ampeg See Through, or ‘87 Guild Ashbory).
