R.I.P. 4004 Series basses

[tim gueguen]

The first Rick bass I saw in the flesh was a green 4004 that turned up in the west side Saskatoon Long and McQuade 2 or 3 years ago. I suspect Saskatoon probably never had a Rick dealer until L&M came into the market, and even then no one at L&M seemed to order in any until that 4004 showed up.

 

[gwangi]

Too bad because those had much more reasonable bridges and overall design IMO.

+1

 

[DiMarco]

. The 4001/4003 still is the one I like most, especially my v63.

Thrilled they're planning on building valid five string models now altho I do not agree yet with those triangular shaped pups... Maybe they just take visually getting used to.

 

[wishforbass]

Is that right? The necks on the specimens in this thread all look fairly svelte. But then I guess Ric changes up the neck profile on the pieces quite a bit from year to year.

Most necks of them suckes ,here there eas only 10 of them that enter country but after bassist try the shop sold only 4 of them .
Other 6 was available till the shop sell them to another shop in Italy and instesd enter fender .
The fender sold out in 2 days .
So that shows something with this basses is wrong .
They have great sound but the neck and body weight is downside especially in country that marketing don't have a huge role on choosing instrument .

 

[higain617]

I briefly played one in a store once. It played nice, but it was red with gold hardware. I've always liked the black/nickel ones, but have only seen these mythical beasts in pictures.

 

[Cassivellaunus]

Well somebody was trying to promote these...

 

[Mvilmany]

The 4004 was a problem. Part of the mystique of a Rick is the weird horseshoe pickup, and that crazy, overbuilt and under designed bridge. If you take those away and you replace them with normal functioning hardware, then, where’s the fun in that?

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Here's one folks won't believe.
When I first started playing the Ibanez SRX & BTB with the PFR (Passive Full Range) pickups, I thought they sounded like my 4004 Laredo.

Now that I've got my Ibanez SR1800E with the Big Singles, the SRX seems dark & sometimes muddy to me.
Partly my own fault though, because I wired up my 4004 with all 4 coils in series!

If I had it to do over I'd have wired all the coils in parallel to bring out the extra brightness, but...
I'm not going to drop $2K on that experiment.

 

[mapleglo]

Just swapping out the volume and tone controls for the correct values solves any sound quality issues with the 4004. Mine was pretty dark prior to the swap. Now it's a Ric.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I switched out the three 250K Ohm pots for 1 MegOhm pots (mine had been modified to V/V/T), but my error was in putting all the coils in series. Stupid of me, but I just wanted the extra output at the time. It was so weak in comparison to my G&L ASAT.
even with the ASAT in passive mode

Even with everything in series, still not as much juice as the ASAT's MFD pickups.
but they are the highest output passive pickups in the business, AFAIK

Thinking back, to my ears the ASAT could pull off a RIC sound with the switch to treble boost, and now the Big Singles are giving me the sound I expected from a RIC.

 

[Spectrum]

Too bad the general consumer is a dolt...

I love threads like this, where people not liking what you like quickly divides the whole thread into haters and fanbois who have to insult and dig at each other in a vain effort to alleviate butthurt.

 

[DigitalMan]

Paul Weller's bass player, Andy Lewis, plays one.

The 4004 is the model that corrected all the dopey spoilers on the 4003, from bad bridge to finger-gouge pit.

But as with Fender's attempts to improve the product, the consumers don't want it. They like their Coke classic, and big fins on their Caddy.



View attachment 2903957

This was back before Ric lost their minds and jammed the neck pickup right next to the heel of the neck. A much nicer looking bass than the later 4004 models IMO.

 

[ProgressiveDoom]

They have had a nice 25 (thereabouts) year run, too bad most folks were not interested in these. I have owned four of them (I still have two) and played a great many others over the years.

R.I.P. 4004

Will that drive the price up or down?. A collectors item now?, more than the average used Rick?.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I'm reading now that they are not discontinuing the 4004, but just on hiatus with that model.
This means they're probably going to start putting those weirdly-shaped pickups in them when they come back:

I am wondering if these new pickups have a reverse-wound bridge pickup.
That's one of the 4003's biggest quirks, no hum canceling when both pickups are full-on.

 

[MarkoYYZ]

The 4004 is the model that corrected all the dopey spoilers on the 4003, from bad bridge to finger-gouge pit.

But as with Fender's attempts to improve the product, the consumers don't want it. They like their Coke classic, and big fins on their Caddy.

I think the mistake here (if there is/was one), is that they fixed the main quirks while changing the look a little too much. Put a 4003 stye pickguard and a chrome pickup cover on the bridge pup and the 4004 would sell a whole lot better. Let's face it, a lot of the Ric "thing" is the look. You can improve the quirks without the drastic change in looks. I think that's a possible mistake with the new 5s also... put any pickup you want under there, but put a chrome trim ring and cover on that thing and/or make the one at the neck look similar to the one on 4 string models.

IMHO and all that stuff...
.

 

[ctmullins]

The 4004 was a problem. Part of the mystique of a Rick is the weird horseshoe pickup, and that crazy, overbuilt and under designed bridge. If you take those away and you replace them with normal functioning hardware, then, where’s the fun in that?

Allow me to answer that by repeating myself:

Too bad the general consumer is a dolt...

 

[Spidey2112]

I love threads like this, where people not liking what you like quickly divides the whole thread into haters and fanbois who have to insult and dig at each other in a vain effort to alleviate butthurt.

I love that my vocabulary is expanding...

... my two new favorite words are brickbat and butthurt... .

 

[davelowell2]

Both gold pickguards are clear acrylic,back painted gold. Thanks!

Please PM me where you purchased these. Thanks, @woodyng2!

 

[Son of Wobble]

I love that my vocabulary is expanding...

... my two new favorite words are brickbat and butthurt... .

Mine are "ankle blaster" (i.e, 4x10 or 1x15 cab) and "grandpa burst" (sunburst). Likewise always learning and growing

 

[Trouztrouz]

This was back before Ric lost their minds and jammed the neck pickup right next to the heel of the neck. A much nicer looking bass than the later 4004 models IMO.

I read somewhere (probably here) that the reason they moved the neck pickup all the way up was to provide access to the truss rods at the neck in case there was a problem. Apparently they previously had to rout into the body and then cover the hole after the repair was done.