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Rickenbacker basses
- Thread starter One_Dude
- Start date
I went down to London to get one of the first 4003 Blue Boys to hit these shores. Within a matter of months the finish took on a light green tint which niggled me, as the BB finish was what attracted me to the bass. Then it began to develop random, tobacco-like blotches. I highlighted this issue on the RIC forum and was immediately attacked by John Hall, who accused me of not keeping the bass clean, of not keeping it in its case (!!!), and of keeping it in direct sunlight, or under fluorescent lamps.
The man was simply unwilling to admit he had a finish process issue, and his aggressiveness put me off ever buying a new RIC product again, The BB got moved on pronto, before it ended up looking like the contents of a baccy pouch.
Beautiful instruments.
A couple of notable examples for me:
Lemmy's carved "oak leafs and acorns" is absolutely stunning. And can be found in offshore copies.
Linus of Hollywood plays a Rick but it looks to have been gutted and a Fender Pbass pickup installed.
A friend of mine plays one out on occasion... he tells me there is a leaning curve associated with set up.
IIRC they seem heavy.
And they sound really good with roundwounds and a plec. Sadly, I use flats and fingers exclusively but I have used a plec if the song absolutely requires it.
Rick's for some reason remind me of formica and vinyl diner's, maybe it was an early memory.
And lastly... If anything, I would buy the Lemmy carved copies... but that would be sorta cheesy... super-cool carving tho'
A couple of notable examples for me:
Lemmy's carved "oak leafs and acorns" is absolutely stunning. And can be found in offshore copies.
Linus of Hollywood plays a Rick but it looks to have been gutted and a Fender Pbass pickup installed.
A friend of mine plays one out on occasion... he tells me there is a leaning curve associated with set up.
IIRC they seem heavy.
And they sound really good with roundwounds and a plec. Sadly, I use flats and fingers exclusively but I have used a plec if the song absolutely requires it.
Rick's for some reason remind me of formica and vinyl diner's, maybe it was an early memory.
And lastly... If anything, I would buy the Lemmy carved copies... but that would be sorta cheesy... super-cool carving tho'
My 74 also had several of those.
The zymol removed them, but it took quite a few applications.The back of the headstock had a foil dealer sticker, you can see a considerable color difference where it was. The bass pretty much came back to that color after my polishing.
Yeah, the whole “bubbling finish” fiasco was not Ric’s finest hour. An apt analogy: You buy a brand new car. The paint starts peeling off the hood after a couple weeks. The dealer tells you “you’ll have to ship it to CA on your dime for warranty repair”. Imagine your response. Obviously a car is worth a lot more, but this should not have happened on a $2k + bass, and the Illustrious John Hall stonewalled it, Hard. His son Ben Hall is running the show now, and so far I haven’t heard as many CS or QC horror stories. Every brand has some production issues sometime, but the measure of a good company is how you deal with it fairly. Dumping it into the buyers lap is not too cool. At any rate, they finally solved the paint issue somehow, but a lot of people got stuck with peeling finishes, usually around the bridge or other hardware. Good riddance to John Hall. Luckily the more reputable dealers like Sweetwater will honor returns on any real lemon, or weed them out before shipping.
Yeah, it’s a get it , or not thing with Rics.
Personally, I love them.
But ya gotta find the right one.
I would have kept this if it didn’t have a twisted neck.
Mackintosh even "flirted" with Art Deco long before Art Deco was a thing, in the west entrance to the GSA.I always associate that font with Charles Rennie Mackintosh, so more Art Nouveau, no?
That's more like it. And his bass is right up in the mix.
I love the imagery Mackintosh used, particularly in his furniture designs, but have you ever tried sitting in one of those "ladder" backed chairs? Straight back! Stiff upper lip! I lack the Moral Fortitude to sit in such a chair, but I'm not ure that was their intended purpose anyway. The GSA is on my Bucket List for sure. Going to a wedding in England this spring and planning on taking a train up to Edinburgh, but we only have a few days, don't think I'll make it to Glasgow.
I don't know about "grim", but I think it's essential to approach most Monk tunes with lightness and a sense of play, and that particular arrangement is just heavy heavy and heavy. So slow. So heavy. If you play the tune more like Monk played it, the dissonances just add a nice flavor of spice to it instead of whacking you over the head.
Sorry, great musicians, but I don't dig it.
Well, I think Monk would have loved that interpretation, as do I. Brilliant Corners is heavily dramatic, not light and playful, and Monk played it with as much darkness and force as he could with the instrumentation he had available.
Paul Motian’s EBBB recorded an album of Monk and Powell tunes that is one of my absolute favorites. With Steve Swallow on bass. Some tunes get a lighter treatment on that album but not Brilliant Corners.
I cannot speak to the basses. When I tried the guitars, I found the necks very uncomfortable to play. They sounded like a Ric though
I may get flak for this but the older Rickenbackers were better quality more unique instruments.
I have a owned a 78 and 84 4001 in the past and recently a 2024 4003.
The older basses had to me the much cooler chunkier horned body's vs the more 60s thinner horns. None of them very comfortable to play. You have to work more to play a Rick vs say a jazz bass, one of the reasons why Geddy switched.
The overall quality, well that's also subjective. Again to me, the old dual hairpin truss rods where part of what gave the older basses their own magic spice and set them apart. The necks resonated more like a tuning fork and I had to set them once and not touch them again for the most part.
Today they ship with a regular single truss rod like at other bass.
Finish, correct me if in wrong but didn't they have to switch to a more modern poly from the older conversion varnish due to some California epa crap?
Anyways, the finish on the new instruments is the same type of plasticky thick poly that's on any other instrument made anywhere in the world. Another detail that took the uniqueness away.
Styling, the 4003s still have vestigial features such as the big giant bridge pickup route and chrome cover/surround. Yes it's stupid and uncomfortable but it gives the basses the iconic look. If it was gone it would take away identity.
I always laugh because if you have been around since the beginning of the internet you may be familiar with Rickenbackers old CEO's obnoxious sue happy attitude. The guy would just talk crap and threaten to sue everybody constantly for IP theft. Then the CEO's son takes over and blatantly and poorly copied the treble bezel which fills the bridge pickup hole and provides a thumb rest.
For the price they lost some uniqueness and closer to any other mass produced bass. A very plasticky one at that. The new bridge is great minus the useless/unusable mute still incorporated into it, another styling identifier that is really just for looks vs function as it's a flat piece of foam trying to mute radiused strings.
A lot of money for a bass that feel wise is no different than any import imo.
That being said, a vintage 4001 with the new bridge would be a killer instrument with a unique sound.
All being said I still would still start selling other basses off in a heartbeat to pay the money for a new one if they finally introduced the "Rick James signature. White Ricks are my favorite but the crack rock prices they are asking today is laughable.
I have a owned a 78 and 84 4001 in the past and recently a 2024 4003.
The older basses had to me the much cooler chunkier horned body's vs the more 60s thinner horns. None of them very comfortable to play. You have to work more to play a Rick vs say a jazz bass, one of the reasons why Geddy switched.
The overall quality, well that's also subjective. Again to me, the old dual hairpin truss rods where part of what gave the older basses their own magic spice and set them apart. The necks resonated more like a tuning fork and I had to set them once and not touch them again for the most part.
Today they ship with a regular single truss rod like at other bass.
Finish, correct me if in wrong but didn't they have to switch to a more modern poly from the older conversion varnish due to some California epa crap?
Anyways, the finish on the new instruments is the same type of plasticky thick poly that's on any other instrument made anywhere in the world. Another detail that took the uniqueness away.
Styling, the 4003s still have vestigial features such as the big giant bridge pickup route and chrome cover/surround. Yes it's stupid and uncomfortable but it gives the basses the iconic look. If it was gone it would take away identity.
I always laugh because if you have been around since the beginning of the internet you may be familiar with Rickenbackers old CEO's obnoxious sue happy attitude. The guy would just talk crap and threaten to sue everybody constantly for IP theft. Then the CEO's son takes over and blatantly and poorly copied the treble bezel which fills the bridge pickup hole and provides a thumb rest.
For the price they lost some uniqueness and closer to any other mass produced bass. A very plasticky one at that. The new bridge is great minus the useless/unusable mute still incorporated into it, another styling identifier that is really just for looks vs function as it's a flat piece of foam trying to mute radiused strings.
A lot of money for a bass that feel wise is no different than any import imo.
That being said, a vintage 4001 with the new bridge would be a killer instrument with a unique sound.
All being said I still would still start selling other basses off in a heartbeat to pay the money for a new one if they finally introduced the "Rick James signature. White Ricks are my favorite but the crack rock prices they are asking today is laughable.
