I actually picked this up last week, but spent the last week bonding with it /just posting about it now. Here is my new 1989 Rickenbacker 4003 in rare ruby red finish.
I walked into a local shop on my lunch break last week, not looking to buy anything, kind of just to kill time and noodle on some p basses. I saw this thing hanging on the rack next to a 74' 4001. I didn't pick it up initially, just thought "oh cool you never see that color in the wild". Then as I was leaving I noticed the price tag was much much lower than what I would have thought. So I decided to plug it in and wow! This thing sounds fantastic. Now I've had 7 other ricks in the past, but none of them sounded this growly and lively. And very very acoustically resonant. Like geddy on hemispheres. So I put it back on the rack and let the initial impression of the bass haunt me for the next two days. After telling my wife about it she encouraged me to buy it, which was the push I needed haha.
Once I got it home and gave it a proper once over, I noticed that this thing is 100% original and has not been monkeyed with, the solder joints have never been touched, there's no wear on the truss rod nuts, I don't even think the pickguard has ever been removed as all the screws have zero tooling marks. Whoever had it must have played it primarily sitting down judging by the wear on the lower horn. It was also very very dirty so I spent last Sunday afternoon cleaning/scrubbing/polishing and did a quick fret level/re crowning. This thing rips now!! The only issue is some pretty bad tail lift, causing the finish issue on both sides of the bridge.
Apparently this is a pretty rare finish for the time period, and 1989 was the last year it was available until around 2011 when it was reissued. It has some pretty awesome checking all throughout the body and neck. I love this era of Rickenbacker, with the thicker horns, rounded medium neck profile, and the neck being set further into the body which makes the balance and reach that much more comfortable.
Well enough talking, here it is.
I walked into a local shop on my lunch break last week, not looking to buy anything, kind of just to kill time and noodle on some p basses. I saw this thing hanging on the rack next to a 74' 4001. I didn't pick it up initially, just thought "oh cool you never see that color in the wild". Then as I was leaving I noticed the price tag was much much lower than what I would have thought. So I decided to plug it in and wow! This thing sounds fantastic. Now I've had 7 other ricks in the past, but none of them sounded this growly and lively. And very very acoustically resonant. Like geddy on hemispheres. So I put it back on the rack and let the initial impression of the bass haunt me for the next two days. After telling my wife about it she encouraged me to buy it, which was the push I needed haha.
Once I got it home and gave it a proper once over, I noticed that this thing is 100% original and has not been monkeyed with, the solder joints have never been touched, there's no wear on the truss rod nuts, I don't even think the pickguard has ever been removed as all the screws have zero tooling marks. Whoever had it must have played it primarily sitting down judging by the wear on the lower horn. It was also very very dirty so I spent last Sunday afternoon cleaning/scrubbing/polishing and did a quick fret level/re crowning. This thing rips now!! The only issue is some pretty bad tail lift, causing the finish issue on both sides of the bridge.
Apparently this is a pretty rare finish for the time period, and 1989 was the last year it was available until around 2011 when it was reissued. It has some pretty awesome checking all throughout the body and neck. I love this era of Rickenbacker, with the thicker horns, rounded medium neck profile, and the neck being set further into the body which makes the balance and reach that much more comfortable.
Well enough talking, here it is.
