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Rickenbacker 4001 - - - Love or Hate?

#42
I have now owned 90 Rics....I currently have one...I have a soundclip posted on the myspace link in my sig....I have fenders and others too, somehow, i always come back to the ric. I use them and have used them for sessions and live....never have an issue....if it is your thing, go for it...if not s'all good too....
 
#43
Jaymi said:
I have now owned 90 Rics....I currently have one...I have a soundclip posted on the myspace link in my sig....I have fenders and others too, somehow, i always come back to the ric. I use them and have used them for sessions and live....never have an issue....if it is your thing, go for it...if not s'all good too....
Click to expand...

Nice sound. I like what you've got going there.
 
#47
What gets me personally about the 33.25 scale is that I don't look at my at my bass neck when playing live. (Always thought it was 33.5, my mistake) I always fret right next to the fret wire, like you're supposed to, and when I switch scales, my playing gets sloppier than I'd like. Also when making a big jump on the fretboard, I tend to miss the note I'm going for. That doesn't happen on my P-basses or Jazzes.

As for the QC comment, just look and see if you're pickups are on straight, or if they're really crooked. Or if your bridge is in the right spot...
 
#49
As I'm sure a lot of folks here are already aware, the 4001's tone can be beefed up if you remove or shunt the bridge pickup's inline capacitor that acts as an always-on high pass filter. A very simple operation for a tech or yourself if you're not a complete disaster with a soldering iron.

Anyway, well, what I like and dislike about 'em (and the practically-identical 4003) has pretty much been summed up by others (love the unique tone, hate the binding cutting into my forearm, and the stock bridge is just poop... Hipshot replacement bridge for the win.)
 
#50
Jaymi said:
I have now owned 90 Rics...
Click to expand...

:eek:
that is ALOT of rics!
anyways,i've only played one.a mapleglow 4003.i thought it was alright,the neck was absolutly not what i expected.i thought it would be jazz bass thin,but it was thicker than my epi bird's neck..which is pretty thick.and also,i don't think i got the full potential of it's tone.i only played it in one of the jacks,and forgot about trying the other.and i think it was the regular jack i had it in,cause it didn't seem too punchy,so yeah..forgot about the "rick-o-sound" or whatever it is.wish i tried it though.
 
#51
Love:
- the distinctive styling, the body, the headstock, the triangle inlays.... mmm, timeless classy good looks
- the way it sounds in the hands of Paul McCartney, Geddy Lee, Chris Squire

Hate:
- the sound when I play it
- the fact that I sold mine for $450 around 1990 (if I would have kept it for 10 more years, it would be worth triple the price).
- the fact that it got lost in the mail when shipping to the buyer (somewhere out there in bass land, there is a hot [stolen] Azureglo 4001 which was probably pawned for drug money)
 
#52
ggoat!!! said:
Oh and one other thing I hate is the new full width inlays. It's not the "full width" that I dislike, it's the cheap pearl plastic that's now used to inlay the neck. Looks like ass. The design of the last almost 30 years was a labor intensive poured technique that was always beautiful and it LOOKED like it was a bitchful of work to do properly. Now they've gone the cheap route with the plastic inlays...hell, they could have at least chosen an expensive looking pearloid plastic. The guys on the Rick forums love them no matter how they look...cuz if John Hall says it's better, then it MUST be better. If they had made the new full width inlays the same as the original full width inlays (i.e., like they put some effort into it), I'd be sold. But now...no thanks. Yuk.
Click to expand...

Whilst I agree theyre not as nice as the old crushed pearl stuff, I much prefer the new full-widths to the poured inlays which always looked anything but beautiful to me (one reason why I get them replaced with "sparklies").

The new stuff makes the neck much stronger too as there is far less material taken out of the neck, and it also is much quicker to do (2 reasons - in addition to the aesthetic one - why they chose it).
 
#53
infamusblkdeath said:
:eek:
that is ALOT of rics!
anyways,i've only played one.a mapleglow 4003.i thought it was alright,the neck was absolutly not what i expected.i thought it would be jazz bass thin,but it was thicker than my epi bird's neck..which is pretty thick.
Click to expand...

To me a Jazz bass only has a thin neck if you never get past the 5th fret. Beyond that they are way bigger than a Ric neck (I don't like Jazz necks at all). To clarify though, some 4003s have much bigger necks than others and than any 4001s. Having said that, they all vary across the years, as do the instruments themselves. Don't judge them until you've played a lot.

My '72 is the best sounding bass I've ever played and I've played and owned a great deal of exotica. However my '80 wasn't up to much. I've played many very good ones, some brilliant ones, a few dogs; same as for any other make really.
 
#55
The original full width inlays were plastic floor tile.

ggoat!!! said:
I've got 17 of them. I love them. The only thing I dislike is the quality control regarding the fit/finish on the paintwork in the nooks and crannies and lack of attention to fine detail. I hate the way the company artificially creates backorders in order to nearly the double the actual street price...I paid $800 new with shipping throughout the 90's, and up until a couple years ago I paid $999 from The Rickenbacker Page.

I love the tone, the playability (once you set them up), the look, pretty much everything.


Oh and one other thing I hate is the new full width inlays. It's not the "full width" that I dislike, it's the cheap pearl plastic that's now used to inlay the neck. Looks like ass. The design of the last almost 30 years was a labor intensive poured technique that was always beautiful and it LOOKED like it was a bitchful of work to do properly. Now they've gone the cheap route with the plastic inlays...hell, they could have at least chosen an expensive looking pearloid plastic. The guys on the Rick forums love them no matter how they look...cuz if John Hall says it's better, then it MUST be better. If they had made the new full width inlays the same as the original full width inlays (i.e., like they put some effort into it), I'd be sold. But now...no thanks. Yuk.
Click to expand...
 
#58
What's not to love?

ric.jpg


Love the way it cuts through the mix with two sloggy distorted punk guitars.
Love the look.
Love the fact it's mine!
Love I only paid $250 for it.

Hate that it's missing the silver label on the treble volume knob.
Hate it has a hairline crack in the pickguard between neck pup and top.
 
#60
Well I just checked, and it seems I'm still in the "love" catagory. I understand the complaints about some of the necks, but honestly, though I've had several 70's thin-necked 4001's, the semi chunky necks on both my 4003, and 4004 are just about as perfect a bass neck as I've ever wrapped my hands around. The lack of any real taper makes playing anywhere on the neck feel the same, and for me, that's comfy.
 

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