Rick 4003SW - US quality rant...

[Snowglo]

@swamp2, FWIW, those SW's are absolutely gorgeous. I like them better than the standard 4003W's. It was between a SW and a Ruby S until I found my Snowglo.

I hope it all works out for you brother.

 

[el_cody_loco]

Honestly.. that's unacceptable. I played a 4003S and a 4003W in the local Guitar Center (amazed that they had two Rics at one time, considering how lame this particular store is). the 4003W played flawlessly, and felt like I always imagined these elusive basses were supposed to feel: perfect. The downside was that the output jack was a little loose, and the pickup selector was sketch, kind of like the one you describe getting. On the other hand, the 4003S was perfect, as far as electronics go, but setup was mediocre at best, fret ends were bad enough to gut a fish, and there was buzzing all over the D and G strings. I have played two other S series Rics and they had bad QC issues as well, come to think of it...

The optimal choice would be to order one online and go for the gold, return it if it isn't up to par, etc. But that 4003W... I wish I could have bought it, flaws and all. The amazingness of the instrument made up for the work I was going to have to do. It had great grain on the body, no dead spots, perfect action, and the sound, when it wasn't choppy, was exactly what I wanted. If I didn't know how to fix it, I would have learned for that baby.It came down to the fact that I didn't want to risk losing that perfect feel in order to bypass a little soldering.


TL;DR - Your experience was absolutely unacceptable, and you deserve to have things made right by Musician's Friend. But in my opinion... if you have the skills to fix it, it's something worth overlooking if everything else feels perfect.

 

[TMARK]

Let's keep a sense of proportion here. This thread started with a bad switch and turned into Ric QC is a terrible nightmare and they are unreliable etc etc. This thread is about a switch

You kind of missed my point. What if it wasn't a switch? Maybe it was a bad pickup. Not likely but possible. I owned one 4003. It had a bad pickup. Ric didn't give a poopie either. Awful CS on that one. But if the OP messed with the bass and it had a bad pickup, where would the responsibility then fall - the OP for messing with it or Ric for letting a P.O.S. out the door? I messed with my EBMM and it almost cost me $500. The OP was smart for not playing with the switch or whatever was wrong with the Ric. Let Ric fix it. It's THEIR baby. That was my point.

My point is that people should retain a sense of proportion. This is about a switch. on a bass the retailer took back.

 

[TMARK]

I want to tour for 8 years!

Playing my Ricks of course.

I toured for a few months at a time every year , but I played four gigs a week for 8 years. I played my way through college.

 

[Captain Chaos]

I bought a used 2011 rick for Christmas and tbh it's the nicest bass I own.

 

[Wandering Bastard]

Lets not blow this "joke of a QC" thing out of proportion. This is a bad switch. And no one is paying $2k.

That is not to say that it's OK that the switch was bad. But it is a switch, not a twisted neck.

Indeed, in this case we're talking about a bad switch, thing is, this is not an uncommon problem, according to my mate who owns quite alot of 'em (3 4003 and one 4001 I believe), which feels a bit jokey to me.

Well honestly, and I reiterate, this is purely in my experience. The last time I picked up a new Rickenbacker, with the neck pickup being extremely quiet, uneven finish on the neck and cracked paint on the headstock, I really felt like if someone was pulling a prank on me. A bad apple maybe. An unacceptably bad apple for such a famed and overall great manufacturer...
And I'm talking in Canadian dollars, yes we are paying $2k, and more

 

[stacker]

1 year on the finish, 5 years on everything else. There never was a lifetime warranty, where did you hear that?

Can't remember. Probably misheard it. Thanks for the correction.

 

[phillipkregg]

Ok, this is coming from a guy who owns a 3,000 dollar bass....

Honestly, you shouldn't have to pay over a grand for a great bass today. Everybody is using the same CNC technology, and every company has the ultimate goal of cutting costs and making profit.

A production instrument from the US is no better than a production instrument from Korea or Indonesia for the most part. Don't waste all your money on mythology.

(Besides we all know Japan is the best manufacturer in the world anyway )

 

[stacker]

Last time some legitimate gripes about some issues with a new Ric were aired on the Rick Resource Forum, Ric CEO John Hall quit the forum in a huff and never came back.

There's the problem with that company!

 

[stacker]

Wow. I would never spend that much on a bass that needed to have the frets filed and finger board rolled... But that's just me.

Agreed. But, to be fair, I had to do that with a Gibby 335 and a Firebird.

 

[stacker]

Lets not blow this "joke of a QC" thing out of proportion. This is a bad switch. And no one is paying $2k.

Yeh? Over here, I spotted the new 4003 series in GuitarGuitar for US$2615.

 

[Mantis Tobaggan]

Look, i dont expect you to like rickenbacker. I have a weird obsession. I would just fix it and keep playin it cause it is magical. But you sound jaded and stuff so i guess return it and buy a fender or whatever.

 

[stacker]

Look, i dont expect you to like rickenbacker. I have a weird obsession. I would just fix it and keep playin it cause it is magical. But you sound jaded and stuff so i guess return it and buy a fender or whatever.

Are you John Hall?? For that's the kind of statement he's been known to come out with!

 

[Aceonbass]

There's the problem with that company!

I was in on that thread from the beginning, and I can tell you there was way more to it than John Hall exiting the RRF after a minor criticism. The threads OP had gone to GC and bought a new 4001S GC Special at $3200. A latch on the case was broken, and the bridge saddles weren't notched exactly in the center, resulting in the strings not being directly over the center of each pickup pole. That's all it was. Instead of having the case replaced under warranty, or exchanging the bass, he got his money back, then started the thread about it. Things just escalated from there with some people piling on RIC over these two issues, even though the OP had no pics to back up the second issue. Some even criticised the particular model for not having all the vintage features they wanted, and that it was too expensive. This in spite of the fact that RIC built the exact special model GC requested, which GC set the price on with NO discounting at all. The OP never gave RIC the option of honoring their warranty. He just started a thread to slam the company about a bass he thought was overpriced. That so many jumped in without any pics from a new member to criticize the company in post after post eventually made John Hall decide his participation wasn't appreciated, so he left. Then the OP went over to the RIC corporate forum and tried to start the same thread where he didn't find a particularly warm reception.

 

[Aceonbass]

And as for the particular Switchcraft switch RIC uses, I use them too in the custom harnesses I build for Ricks, and I can tell you I've gotten a few bad ones lately. The problem is that they were assembled misaligned/twisted, which causes them not to stay in one or more of their three positions. As a result, in addition to running a continuity test, and measuring the pots on all of the harnesses I build, I also have to check the switches for proper operation, and occasionally re-align them.

 

[MD Stingray]

Product x has a minor malfunction.

The seller is is great about it, mailed a pre-paid return & will replace it. The faulty product will most likely be repaired, and will find his way to a new owner.

Receiving a new bass that has an issue is very dissapointing, I could not be more sympathetic with the OP.
But I really don't understand why this topic turned into a RIC/John Hall bashing.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

For the record I would probably do this too, but that really isnt the point, is it? I mean, does Ric themselves know that they have a reputation for spotty QC? If they know this, and they are ignoring it, their apathy would be a key deterrent for some individuals to purchase one, and that would translate to falling sales figures...

Sounds like more a design flaw than QC as it could have been working when it left the factory. Maybe it stopped working even before it go to the store.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

You wouldn't consider that a flaw in manufacturing layout or quality control? A 1/2 a cent wire tie or making sure nothing is moving because 100% of their basses get shipped to somewhere don't they? At their price point the consumer just needs to lay hands on fingerboard and either turn it up or down, not worrying about self service.

What would concern me is if the flaw is as suggested, then it's a design flaw and could happen taking it to a gig. Whether a cable tie would work (you'd have to clip the tie before putting the scratchplate back on, so it might not fix the problem) I don't know, but there might be some minor redesign that would avoid the problem.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Yeah this situation is simple RIC made an error in quality control by sending it out like that, I mean it's silly to blame shipping for a wire moving because what happens when it gets used? it's going to get moved around so If it can't handle this without malfunctioning imagine what will happen when it actually gets played.

Technically QC checks that the quality is as specified, i.e. to the design. If the design is that the wire at issue should be 5cm +- 0.5cm and it currently works then it will pass QC. If the design is wrong and leads to a number failing after shipping it's more of a design issue that QC probably can't address. From a user perspective a flawed design may be seen as lower quality, of course, but quality has a more specific meaning in production terms.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

RIC's warranty is one year from date of *manufacture*, so it's entirely possible to buy a new bass that has no factory warranty at all.

We're lucky in the UK that the warranty on a product is with the dealer, and for as long as it should be expected to last, up to five or six years, if it is a manufacturing fault. Although if the dealer goes out of business before that time is up, it's trickier. It also needs to be of 'merchantable quality' which can cover design flaws in some instances (a design flaw that caused your bass to spontaneously catch fire every full moon, etc.)