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NBD Rickenbacker AGAIN horrendous frets

#61
I have said this here before.

I am firmly convinced that the folks over at Rickenbacker have either a "take you kid to work, to do work," day, or perhaps they pick one porter or loading dock guy on every third Thursday to try their hand at puttin a few together.

I have owned and sold many, and they are positively hit and miss with regard to QC.

Sorry about that fret job. It looks bad enough to actually cut a finger.
 
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#62
That fretwork is inexcusable. Its possible that temperatures in GC's warehouse possibly are involved and so far they've made good on replacing defective gear for the OP which is the right thing to do. One of the pics looked like the fret skidded out of place unless it was very funkily (new word) installed and lifted immediately and if it was left like that by Ric that's a sign of crappy craftsmanship and QC on their part, but it wouldn't surprise me if GC's warehouse was at or below freezing long enough to do some damage to expensive instruments and depending on the packing job, UPS and FEDEX leave gear in warehouses and trucks all the time with freezing temps. There's certainly better neck-thru instruments and better overall basses, but at this price point one expects a lot more so whatever the reason move forward with caution.
 
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#64
ahbradot said:
Thank you and I know you guys are urging that I reach out to Rickenbacker directly and I believe I would like to eventually.
Call me Crazy but I'm going to try one last time and order another one.
If I receive another dud then I will escalate this matter and purchase it from another place that will make sure it's satisfactory before it is shipped out to me.
Click to expand...

Yeah you might as well try Sweetwater one more time, since you're already knee-deep in the return(s) cycle.

I wouldn't bother notifying Rickenbacker about it, probably fall on deaf ears anyway. lol

If the 3rd one from SW is a POS too, maybe try another online dealer?

Willcutt Guitars are showing a few in stock. They treated me very well on a new Fender once upon a time. Although, that was 10 years ago, so....

Good luck on your Ric quest!

willcuttguitars.com

Bass Guitars

willcuttguitars.com willcuttguitars.com

Edit: Sorry, I just remembered you bought from GC, not Sweetwater. I'd suggest getting a full refund and forget about GC altogether. They can definitely suck sometimes. :sour:
 
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#66
Iridescentone said:
Yeah you might as well try Sweetwater one more time, since you're already knee-deep in the return(s) cycle.

I wouldn't bother notifying Rickenbacker about it, probably fall on deaf ears anyway. lol

If the 3rd one from SW is a POS too, maybe try another online dealer?

Willcutt Guitars are showing a few in stock. They treated me very well on a new Fender once upon a time. Although, that was 10 years ago, so....

Good luck on your Ric quest!

willcuttguitars.com

Bass Guitars

willcuttguitars.com willcuttguitars.com

Edit: Sorry, I just remembered you bought from GC, not Sweetwater. I'd suggest getting a full refund and forget about GC altogether. They can definitely suck sometimes. :sour:
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I think OP mentioned that SW is heavily backordered. If they do their job on QC, and have to send back more basses like this from the factory, who knows how long you might wait? I would switch to a different brand or buy used.
 
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#68
Once was bad enough, but TWICE? Something is going on. Hopefully it's enough of a hassle for GC as well for them to raise the issue with Rickenbacker, a large scale retailer like that is going to have more sway than a frustrated end user, unfortunately.

I really hope the third one comes in with better attention to the details, and you don't have to wait until September for Sweetwater to get one in. Pretty cool that they're willing to honor the discount though.
 
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#69
FRoss6788 said:
Doubt it
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I've owned at least 25 Rics starting with a new one in 1977 and have never experienced 99% of the things people here claim to have experienced with Rics. Have they all been perfect, no but nothing like that. Not saying that it didn't come from the factory like that but I doubt it very much. I know one thing, GC has terrible quality control.
 
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#70
bobyoung53 said:
I've owned at least 25 Rics starting with a new one in 1977 and have never experienced 99% of the things people here claim to have experienced with Rics. Have they all been perfect, no but nothing like that. Not saying that it didn't come from the factory like that but I doubt it very much. I know one thing, GC has terrible quality control.
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So does Rickenbacker.

Two in a row like this, GC isn’t messing with frets like that.

Gimme a break.
 
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#71
A friend in the business told me that these QC issues may be a result of the decline in volume compared to the level the factories were at during the Covid lockdown days, when demand for instruments was high. You would think with lower volume they could build to higher standard, but that is not the case. It is possible that they downsized and now are running their lines thin, or even over capacity, even though outputs are lower. May have lost some of the more skilled workers too?

I do not know if this is correct, but I've seen examples of this in other industries. You cut to reduce costs and then cannot meet demand when it starts to pick up, and product or service quality suffers.
 
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#72
bobyoung53 said:
I've owned at least 25 Rics starting with a new one in 1977 and have never experienced 99% of the things people here claim to have experienced with Rics. Have they all been perfect, no but nothing like that. Not saying that it didn't come from the factory like that but I doubt it very much. I know one thing, GC has terrible quality control.
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How could Guitar Center have caused that? Fret ends are rough, they’re not seated properly.

Those frets would never pass the Philip McNight nylon sock test!
 
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#73
ahbradot said:
I just drove over to GC and returned/exchanged the bass for another new one that they ordered.
My local Guitar Center is working with me to make everything right.
GC has 4 more Rickenbacker basses at their warehouse in Kansas City.
They're instructing a Kansas City Gear Advisor open up all 4 of the Rickenbacker factory sealed boxes to check and make sure that it's satisfactory before they ship to my home here in Florida.
In the meantime, I also contacted a Sweetwater sales engineer and he will honor the exact same Guitar Center discounted matched price if I choose to purchase from Sweetwater.
But the Sweetwater Rickenbacker 4003SW will be back ordered to September.
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There’s plenty of small dealers online with these in stock. I wouldn’t limit your purchase to a big box store.
 
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#74
I do not believe for a moment there is a Guitar Center gremlin lurking in the massive 700,000 ft.² Kansas City warehouse and he magically performs voodoo on factory sealed-unopened boxes of the Rickenbacker 4000SW bass causing frets to protrude from the sides of the neck with sharp edges and also lift the frets from the the fretboard.

It's more plausible that the Rickenbacker bass came from the Rickenbacker factory with poor fretwork.

The Rickenbacker bass never stepped foot inside of a Guitar Center retail store.
The bass was delivered via UPS directly to my home.
 
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#75
ahbradot said:
I do not believe for a moment there is a Guitar Center gremlin lurking in the massive 700,000 ft.² Kansas City warehouse and he magically performs voodoo on factory sealed-unopened boxes of the Rickenbacker 4000SW bass causing frets to protrude from the sides of the neck with sharp edges and also lift the frets from the the fretboard.

It's more plausible that the Rickenbacker bass came from the Rickenbacker factory with poor fretwork.

The Rickenbacker bass never stepped foot inside of a Guitar Center retail store.
The bass was delivered via UPS directly to my home.
Click to expand...
Yes, the fault is directly on rickenbacker. But a small local store may actually do intake QC. A big box store like GC will just put it in a warehouse and ship it when there’s an order. Sweetwater is better than GC, but is out of stock like you said.
 
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#76
ahbradot said:
Terrible frets.
Frets are not even seated all the way into the fretboard.
Sharp frets everywhere.
The frets on this Rickenbacker are even worse than the Rickenbacker that I bought and that I returned last week.

Brand new Rickenbacker bass.
Just delivered via UPS from Guitar Center warehouse.

I would just love to receive a Rickenbacker 4003sw that is correct from the factory.
I will not give up.


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That is horrendous. Where are they made now?
 
#77
GC does no "quality control", they are in the business of selling guitars exactly as received from the factory, like Walmart or Target is for other consumer goods. Honoring returns on a certain % of defective merchandise is expected, and part of the cost of doing business. They open the carboard box, remove the bass, and put it up on the wall. They do no setup whatsoever unless a customer actually commits to buy. In the case of pre-sold instruments (like most Rics) they never even open the box. I remember when the Squire VM series first came out and everyone was raving about how good they were for the price, I took my son to a GC to try a VM Jazz, and it was literally unplayable, 1/4" high action. I asked the sales guy about it, which is how I found out the "no setup prior to sale" policy. Let's recall that Ric had a "bubbling" and flaking finish problem for 10 YEARS, and totally stonewalled it, under John Hall's leadership, so their response to blatant manufacturing defects has always been either "User Error" or "Ship it back to CA (on your dime) for warranty repair". This has been a remarkably effective way to discourage warranty claims. When Ric gets QC right, particularly for finish work, there is none better, but when they get it wrong, as in this case, pursuing it with Rickenbacker Inc. is usually a waste of time and money, at least for anything easily fixable like fret sprout. GC had nothing to do with this.
 
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