Also, is the neck / fretboard width fluctuate between these 4, 5 and 6 string basses?
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NBD Rickenbacker 4003sw
- Thread starter Ric5
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- nbd rickenbacker
Yeah, but I'm not sure I'm up for stripping the chrome and getting it powder coated black. Don't see them for sale very often in any color at a reasonable price. Anyway, chrome seems to be it, sprayed with black appliance epoxy paint, it might work.
- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
- Disclosures
- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
I make a little money at this ... some of the work is time consuming and I have to buy some parts to do this, and some of the work is tricky. I have a full time job as a BIM and IT manager for a local Architectural firm. So this is a hobby that I started doing because I also play bass and I wanted to modify my own basses to meet my specific needs. Then other people became interested in me doing mods for them. And now I decided to buy new and used 4003 basses and modify them and sell them off. I might do 3 or 4 a year or do 2 a month depending on the demand.
Also the string spacing on my 4003 conversions is 2 1/4" at the bridge and the nut 1 11/16" with the older 4004 basses I can get 2 1/2" at the bridge.
Ric5, she's a beauty. I look forward to seeing the final product!
Man, I wish there were other basses that sounded the same as a Ric 4001/3. I love their snarling tone, but I need 5 strings, and the idea of saving up for a year or so to buy one, only to drop more money and mod it permanently into a fiver when it's still sparkling new is something I know that I'd struggle with doing.
Ric5, around how much do you think you'd ask for one of your converted Rics? Feel free to PM me if you want... It would be a while before I could afford it, but it would be nice to know what I should aim for.
Man, I wish there were other basses that sounded the same as a Ric 4001/3. I love their snarling tone, but I need 5 strings, and the idea of saving up for a year or so to buy one, only to drop more money and mod it permanently into a fiver when it's still sparkling new is something I know that I'd struggle with doing.
Ric5, around how much do you think you'd ask for one of your converted Rics? Feel free to PM me if you want... It would be a while before I could afford it, but it would be nice to know what I should aim for.
Just some clarifications:
It appears that RIC made a few 4004Cii/5 basses as late as 2004 (not 2001), but still . . .
The Rick 4003 tailpiece is not "steel" at all, but cast zinc (or perhaps a zinc alloy?).
The width of the fingerboard and neck of the 4003S/5 and S/8 was the same as the standard four stringers. The only five-string Rick that had a wider neck was the aforementioned 4004Cii/5. It was probably wide enough to be comfortable for seasoned five-string players, but obviously too wide for the pickups supplied on that bass. Response of the B and G strings was diminished (by most players' accounts) and RIC ceased production to rethink the design/pickups. They've been rethinking it for eleven years now.
There is only anecdotal info on the existence of a 4005 five-stringer, but I've never seen photos of it or reports by anyone who has seen it/them. If it ever existed, like Ric5 says, it was probably a custom-made one-off for a special customer
It appears that RIC made a few 4004Cii/5 basses as late as 2004 (not 2001), but still . . .
The Rick 4003 tailpiece is not "steel" at all, but cast zinc (or perhaps a zinc alloy?).
The width of the fingerboard and neck of the 4003S/5 and S/8 was the same as the standard four stringers. The only five-string Rick that had a wider neck was the aforementioned 4004Cii/5. It was probably wide enough to be comfortable for seasoned five-string players, but obviously too wide for the pickups supplied on that bass. Response of the B and G strings was diminished (by most players' accounts) and RIC ceased production to rethink the design/pickups. They've been rethinking it for eleven years now.
There is only anecdotal info on the existence of a 4005 five-stringer, but I've never seen photos of it or reports by anyone who has seen it/them. If it ever existed, like Ric5 says, it was probably a custom-made one-off for a special customer
- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
- Disclosures
- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
- Disclosures
- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
I have a jetglo with black trim that I will be asking $1999 for and the walnut 4003sw5 I am thinking of asking $2300. Basically between parts and labor I need to add at least $500 to what I pay for the bass. So it will be hard to sell one of these for less than $2000 ...
Sounds good Jeff! Thanks for the info - your prices are very reasonable.
Don't set any aside for me as it's out of my reach for the next little while, but I'd love to get one eventually.
Yep, but they make what sells, and they sell all they make. I think a 4003SW/5 with a slightly wider neck (say, like the original 4004 neck specs or a tad wider) would sell great.
- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
- Disclosures
- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
The problem is Rickenbacker has never designed a pickup for the bass guitar ... they simply use guitar pickups ... this works great for 4 string basses and 5 strings basses with a narrow spacing ... standard unmodified Rickenbacker pickups cannot handle a string spacing more than 2 1/4".
Nice bass- did you get it from Wildwood by chance? It looks like the other one they had gotten in when I got mine- sisters!
- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
- Disclosures
- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
The guy I bought my 4004 from a few years back had actually put some guitar Hi-Gains in, with the normal pole-pieces switched out for allen-wrench set-screw style poles. It actually worked pretty well to cover the wider string spacing, though I eventually had Brad at Classic Amplification make me a set of custom pickups for it.
Ah cool- it looks so much like the other one they sent me pictures of when I chose mine!
- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
- Disclosures
- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
The toaster pickups are 6 pole pickups and they work great for 4, 5, 6, and 8 stringed instruments.
I checked mine again, the scary thing is that it does have the "two additional screws" fix already, the lifting is all behind that, still enough that it doesn't offer sufficient down force on the saddles. I think I'll try an interim solution - carve a piece of maple to fit the gap, wedge it in there, and anchor the strings in that, at the original height, rather than the now-lifted tailpiece holes.
No, you have a five-screw tailpiece. Way back, the only screws attaching the tailpiece to the body were three underneath the bridge. When the tailpiece was redesigned (slightly) in '73, they added two more behind the bridge but in front of the oval string routes. When they started having the folding problem (especially with the five- and eight-string models and the blackened ones) they added two more screws on the wide face of the back end of the tailpiece, now for a total of seven screws. Not all five- and eight-string basses got these seven-screw tailpieces. More in the book.
Thanks, guess I need to buy the book.
Great! Of course, from my perspective, EVERYBODY needs to buy the book!
- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
- Disclosures
- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
