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Rickenbacker 4003: The Struggle is Real
- Thread starter JPbass77
- Start date
I'm one of the guys who used to complain with a love the sound/hate the bass hardware- on the regular-for years here on TB. But with the new bridge, that all disappeared for me. Now I just love the bass all around. Personally, I'm not bothered by body edges, and I don't palm mute. Palm muters find the Ric to be nearly impossible to work with, as the bridge is long, and the built in mute compartment covers the strings at the palm mute spot.
I have the Video on my Mac but unable to Upload to Talkbass(Too Large). Could you PM me an email address or Phone # for text MSG? I can send it to you that way.
I'm a Ric lover but haven't owned one since 1978 . I bought my Ric used in 1973 , traded a Guild Starfire II in on it . Coming from 30" scale basses like the Guild and a Gibson EB-3 before that I found the Ric easier to play than Fenders . The neck fit me better than the Jazzes and P basses and I had no problem with ergonomics. Beautiful clear tone and some Ric grind to the sound if I dug in .
I didn't know anything about truss rods back then and only knew how to adjust bridge saddles to get a low action . I had it for 5 years as my only bass and played more gigs than I can count on that bass and never had any trouble . I could put it in the case at the end of a gig and it would still be very close to in tune next time I took it out . I used Rotosounds most of the time but used SIT round wounds once in a while . I played mostly rock like Joe Cocker or songs by The Band but later used it on Country . Loved it and never had any problems with it .
Here's the only picture I have of it about 1974 .
I didn't know anything about truss rods back then and only knew how to adjust bridge saddles to get a low action . I had it for 5 years as my only bass and played more gigs than I can count on that bass and never had any trouble . I could put it in the case at the end of a gig and it would still be very close to in tune next time I took it out . I used Rotosounds most of the time but used SIT round wounds once in a while . I played mostly rock like Joe Cocker or songs by The Band but later used it on Country . Loved it and never had any problems with it .
Here's the only picture I have of it about 1974 .
Something i saw on FB
John Entwistle playing a Rickenbacker 8 string bass with potato headstock. There were 2 of these basses made by Rickenbacker. The other one went to Chris Squire from Yes.
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John Entwistle playing a Rickenbacker 8 string bass with potato headstock. There were 2 of these basses made by Rickenbacker. The other one went to Chris Squire from Yes.
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That "potato" headstock was an… interesting…choice aesthetically, but the basses sound epic. IIRC, didn't they do another version with a more traditional headstock shape too?
I was playing my Rick every day for a few weeks. Today I swapped over to my Stingray Retro '70(Also donning Dogal Flats).
Please forgive my sloppy playing. This is with Neck Pup @90% & Bridge Pup @100% both tones almost completely off.
All RIC needs to do at this point is fit the 4003 with a modified version of the V1 tailpiece with the mute section cut away ..... wasn't it @Aceonbass that did that? Apologies to @Aceonbass if I got the wrong guy....my senior moments are coming much to frequently these days and I couldn't find a photo of it over in the club thread even though I know there's several shots of it. That being said...I have '23 & '24 S models and I love them... palm muting disfunction aside.
Edit: Maybe it was Ric5?
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i'm sure it was @Aceonbass. He's a good metal worker, and sends them out to be re-chromed. I remeber there was a mod some peple did, putting a "dummy" single coil pickup in thre mute cavity for hum canceling, that also required the mute "teeth" to be cut out, though not as neatly as @Aceonbass bass did it.
Yes, those tailpieces were my work. I still have a V2 tailpiece that needs to be replated after the mods I did to it. RIC5 is good at drilling holes and using a sawsall to mod basses....
I saw Chris play his in the mid '70s in Pittsburgh (Relayer tour).
I have spent a lot of time on an Ampex ATR-100 in the early '80s (those tape recorders in front of John in that photo). A friend of mine has it now in his small home studio. They are superb machines to do razor blade editing on.
Bartolini used to make a Hi-A pickup to fit in there, replacing the mute assembly; don't know if they still make it or not.
No issues with my 2009 Mapleglo. PO installed a Hipshot bridge. Also have the original bridge.
There's a whole world of basses out there that are different than Leo's stuff.
There's a whole world of basses out there that are different than Leo's stuff.
And therein lies the Rub, so to speak. If you get a "good one", nothing better. Luckily these days the % of good ones vs. Dogs is pretty high. Consistent QC has been an issue for Ric over the years, but the current run seems pretty good, at least from the sample of (2) I've actually seen for sale in a store recently. (Mr. Music, Allston MA). I saw two Jetglo's there a while back, both immaculate.
Years ago I had a V63, I was very excited to get it as I had fallen in love with Geddy and Chris' Rick tone. And it delivered, sounded fantastic. Unfortunately, after the honeymoon period ended and I looked at it more objectively, I just couldn't get on with it. The neck was a 2x4, with very little shaping. Felt like straight shoulders with a sharp radius into a flat back of the neck, and chunky. My tele bass had a baseball bat neck too, but at least it was shaped properly. It's not the only 4003 I played from the late 90s/2000s that had a chonk of a neck, seemed to just be the general shape of them back in that time, though some I've played are at least shaped better.
I found the neck toaster to be really imbalanced with the RIHS, I even removed the grommets on the underside of the pickguard to try to get the toaster closer to the strings to balance better. It sounded great solo'd, but did not get along with the RIHS. I also had an issue with the nut/slight warp in the neck, where no matter what I did (even setting action very high), I had fretting out on the first 3 frets on the G string. I'm sure it could have been fixed somehow, but at the time nothing I did, nor the techs I took it too, could get rid of that, best we could was get it to less fret buzz. At the time, between it and my '62 AVRI Precision, I could get 90% of the tone I wanted out of the Precision (mostly using just the horseshoe, as the neck pickup was just too weak when blending the two), and it played way better. Eventually it was sold to someone who really loved the v63 models.
But I couldn't get the Rick shape/sound out of my mind. I'd moved on to Thunderbirds, and had picked up an old Greco II model and loved that, and eventually saw that Greco made clones of both the 4001 and the 4001S. I picked up one of their PMB (Paul McCartney Bass) models, and it was leagues better than the old V63. Has the fat fretboard, dot inlays, 1/2" pickup spacing, and a fantastically shaped neck. Funny enough, its actually a lot closer to the newest Ricks, in that it has the center skunk stripe and single truss rod. Added bonus was the extra wide skunk stripe as used on the original 4005 basses, which I love the look of, as well as tuners with full sized posts (never got on with the tiny posts on the actual Rick). All that said, I have played older 4003/4001 models that were fantastic, a studio I recorded at had an early 4003 that was stellar, really hard to tell it and the PMB apart in terms of playability and sound. And early 70s 4001 models are something else, love them when they are set up/maintained well.
While I love my Grecos, the recent changes to the 4003 make me want to check one out at some point. From what I've seen and heard, they sound like the best basses Rick has made in decades. Only thing I'd like to see/have to do if I ever picked one up is move the neck pickup to the 1/2" spacing, I prefer the tone and just think that spacing looks right.
I found the neck toaster to be really imbalanced with the RIHS, I even removed the grommets on the underside of the pickguard to try to get the toaster closer to the strings to balance better. It sounded great solo'd, but did not get along with the RIHS. I also had an issue with the nut/slight warp in the neck, where no matter what I did (even setting action very high), I had fretting out on the first 3 frets on the G string. I'm sure it could have been fixed somehow, but at the time nothing I did, nor the techs I took it too, could get rid of that, best we could was get it to less fret buzz. At the time, between it and my '62 AVRI Precision, I could get 90% of the tone I wanted out of the Precision (mostly using just the horseshoe, as the neck pickup was just too weak when blending the two), and it played way better. Eventually it was sold to someone who really loved the v63 models.
But I couldn't get the Rick shape/sound out of my mind. I'd moved on to Thunderbirds, and had picked up an old Greco II model and loved that, and eventually saw that Greco made clones of both the 4001 and the 4001S. I picked up one of their PMB (Paul McCartney Bass) models, and it was leagues better than the old V63. Has the fat fretboard, dot inlays, 1/2" pickup spacing, and a fantastically shaped neck. Funny enough, its actually a lot closer to the newest Ricks, in that it has the center skunk stripe and single truss rod. Added bonus was the extra wide skunk stripe as used on the original 4005 basses, which I love the look of, as well as tuners with full sized posts (never got on with the tiny posts on the actual Rick). All that said, I have played older 4003/4001 models that were fantastic, a studio I recorded at had an early 4003 that was stellar, really hard to tell it and the PMB apart in terms of playability and sound. And early 70s 4001 models are something else, love them when they are set up/maintained well.
While I love my Grecos, the recent changes to the 4003 make me want to check one out at some point. From what I've seen and heard, they sound like the best basses Rick has made in decades. Only thing I'd like to see/have to do if I ever picked one up is move the neck pickup to the 1/2" spacing, I prefer the tone and just think that spacing looks right.
My 2019 Ric felt that way, I couldn't get used to that, otherwise it sounded great. I can't seem to get an answer if '23/'24 Rics are like that or not. Now that I think about it, tried an '18 4003S in Ireland and it had a great shaped neck.
My '93 4003 is awesome, neck has nice C shape to it. I'll probably have to look around this era since I'd like another.
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Yeah, you might want to look at '86 and a few years going forward if a rounded C is what you're after. The new necks definitely have more broad shoulders, but they're so thin now that most do not feel like 2x4. I love the feel of the new necks. Definitely worth looking into. Sad to report though, that I'd give QC low grades. Seeing things now that I never would have expected.
