Rickenbacker - Why do you love/hate it?

[BassoSaku]

I like mine. I doubt I will ever sell it. It's great for recording, you can really get the vintage klang out of it but at the same time you can get a fairly modern rock bass sound. As for the ergonomics, I'd probably get an "4003S" version now. I didn't really have a choice back when I got mine as it was a preowned Rick that presented itself out of the blue. Also I did try out a LOT of Ricks before I found the prefect fit in terms of neck depth. I am not sure, but I noticed a lot of variance from bass to bass.

 

[edcars]

i love mine. i really like the neck, the tone of it paired with my verellen amp, i dig the shape of it and love people's reaction when you pull out your ric on stage when you set up.

 

[bob atherton]

Had LOADS of them. My first call bass for about 25 years.

Loved: the versatile sound (no really), slim , fast neck on most anyway. Looked as cool as f##k . Slightly shorter scale.

Not Liked: Body binding on 4001/3 . Fat neck around the first fret. Not versatile sound on some of them. Twin truss is a PITA to tweak. Painted necks can get a bit sticky.

Have now migrated to Fender Jazz and the odd P. Not really better just different and suits my music now.

My favorite Rics were my '72 4001, with all the blingy bits. '86 4001S and '73 4000.

The one in my photo was the first prototype of the V63. This very bass shown in the 'Smith' book. Bought if off the guy from Sham 69.

Thinking about getting a 4003S in Walnut for old times sake.

 

[baileyboy]

Why do you love/hate Rickenbackers?

Love the look, hate the tone.

 

[bobyoung53]

I have a variety of basses, including Fenders, Gibsons and Rics. I've been playing the Fenders lately for the most part, they are strung with flatwounds as I play a lot of blues and vintage rock and they kick a## for that kind of music. I picked up the Ric 4001 a few days ago as I'm doing a modern kind of indy-type gig in a few days and the Ric with round wounds has the perfect sound for it. I pick it up and start playing it, noticing how easy it is to play, how clear as a bell the sound is, how nice the neck is, how it just kind of fits my arms, my fingers and my body, it feels like home and sounds very inviting to my ears, clear with a nice deep bottom along with a ringing very musical top end. That is why I love my Rickenbacker. I don't use it for everything but I will never be without one again, nothing sounds and plays like a Ric bass.

 

[bobba66]

Once you find the right Fender, you will throw rocks at your Rickenbacker.

 

[bigswifty1]

4003's:

LOVE:
Looking at them
Hearing them

HATE:
Playing them

DON'T UNDERSTAND:
The bridge

 

[bobyoung53]

Once you find the right Fender, you will throw rocks at your Rickenbacker.

I found the right Fender AND the right Rickenbacker, wouldn't part with either one.

 

[5StringBlues]

Love the look, hate the tone.

Which one?

 

[el_Bajo_Verde]

I just wish they actively made basses with more than 4 strings as well. I'd buy one in a heartbeat, WITHOUT wife's approval.

 

[Mark76]

View attachment 1158876 I love Ricks with 5 strings

View attachment 1158873

View attachment 1158874

View attachment 1158875

What's the first one and does it come in 4?

 

[Gibsonguy696]

I loooove rickenbacker both guitar and bass. They look amazing, they feel amazing and the sound is amazing.

 

[Thumb n Fingers]

I'm rather ambivalent to them. Admittedly, I've only really put 2 or 3 in my hands over the last 33 years, and one sticks out as awful... but that was more about set up and its neglected condition than anything.

I neither love or hate the design. Same with the tone. I've heard some cool sounds come out of Rics, but I've also hear tones that are just 'not me' for lack of a better way of stating it. But I like the idea of the range of tones they put out.

 

[mellowinman]

The only thing I love about mine is that one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen says it looks sexy, and I look sexy with it; that it is a beautiful, well-crafted instrument; that I can play it in stereo into two amps; that it sounds fantastic, and has a wide variety of available tones making it one of the most versatile basses I have played; and that it is infinitely playable, feeling great in my hands.

But that's the only think I love about it.

 

[wishforbass]

I hate the sound
I hate the neck
I hate the lack of tone I like .
I feel it's sound like sterling ,and I hate sterling too .
It's old stuff ,
I hate Overpriced


I like look of it a little .
I like the legendary change they made in history .

 

[Spirit of Ox]

I've owned three and disliked them all in different ways. If I were to buy another it would be a 4004.
I love the 4004, it's a killer bass. Of course, Killed by death makes me want one even more when he shows his and talks about them!

 

[coreyfyfe]

I have a variety of basses, including Fenders, Gibsons and Rics. I've been playing the Fenders lately for the most part, they are strung with flatwounds as I play a lot of blues and vintage rock and they kick a## for that kind of music. I picked up the Ric 4001 a few days ago as I'm doing a modern kind of indy-type gig in a few days and the Ric with round wounds has the perfect sound for it. I pick it up and start playing it, noticing how easy it is to play, how clear as a bell the sound is, how nice the neck is, how it just kind of fits my arms, my fingers and my body, it feels like home and sounds very inviting to my ears, clear with a nice deep bottom along with a ringing very musical top end. That is why I love my Rickenbacker. I don't use it for everything but I will never be without one again, nothing sounds and plays like a Ric bass.

This post feels very familiar. I've had a lot of basses, narrowed my stable down to a select few these days but I have my fenders, gibson, and rick. The 4001 doesn't get used in every situation but it fits some so perfectly, and it's a beaut to play.

 

[PrairieThunder13]

I'm definitely a Ric lover. On the playability side, the body shape caters perfectly to my freaky right hand technique and the necks (be it the real thin, wide neck of the super hip 60s-early 70s or the super thick, round mid-late 70s feel all the way up to the new super thick square of today) always feel perfect to me, i do have a pair of bear paws on me though... The slick finish is exactly that: a finish. I never did catch on to the rough hand sanded oil finishes everyone freaks over. As for the sound, i love every noise these things make (and they do produce a hell of a lot of different tones like some may think that all they do is everything from Chris Squire to Geddy Lee, but truth is the get all the way down the line to Pauly Mac and smoother like Nick St. Nicholas or like Donavan and many more), i guess the cats that call them one trick ponies aren't hip to the idea that knobs turn for a reason and also that "useless" foam mute in the bridge actually works. Talking construction, they aren't meant to cater to the impatient modern bassist expecting to be able to just shove in an allen wrench and give it a good crank and be back in business or to be able to just whip out a screwdriver and adjust the intonation of their low b string on their modern multi scale 35 fret active tap slapper mid song. They've got all the classy appointments that vintage freaks like me expect like lots of chrome and ornate old school cool. That bridge: it's not a 50's hood ornament that a lot of friends find it to be. A lot of design went into that thing like the mute - sure you can't palm mute, but there's a real foam mute there, and the intonation adjustment? It's just as much a pain as a gibson tune-o-matic and you don't here our six-string slinging companions bitching about those. Plus how often do you need to adjust your intonation? The action is a hell of a lot easier to adjust than a fender style bridge too (2 screws for the whole thing or 2 screws per string). The tail lift is also very rarely a problem. Adding on to the adjustment argument, cats bitch about the two truss rods, but i'd rather take the extra time to adjust the second truss rod than have to live with a twisted neck. Those old hairpin truss rods, while they do take more effort to adjust are a lot more stable than the standard truss rods found in other instruments. The new ones are no different from other instruments. Plus, if all the old school style and sound found within the souls of the 4000,4001(s),4003(s) basses don't get you going and you see all the features and appointments as design flaws, they fixed everything people had a problem with in the 4004 series. They even produced a 5 string! (that wasn't very good by the way)

For something i hate, definitely the customer service! More than a couple of the cats that work there are serious dolts man!

For those that thing a bass needs to have more than 4 strings and 20 frets (unless its a precision) and a rough oil finish and active electronics and a skinny, narrow neck and all that, sure, rics are terrible, but for the old school cool lovers of the freaky sounds of the 60's they are pretty insane!

Thanks for making it this far friends!

 

[lbbc]

I owned a Montezuma Brown Ric for a short time. Loved the look and sound but couldn't bond with the ergonomics...so I sold it and bought a used Alembic Persuader.

 

[Skybone]

When I started playing, I always wanted one, because a number of my favourite bass players had used them. I could never afford one though, so I had always ended up with something more or less based on one of the Fender models (predominantly either P or J).

I'd had a few opportunities to get one, but always manage to dissuade myself from taking the plunge, either too expensive, too "road worn" or just not the right time.

After some 20-odd years, I finally bit the bullet and got a 4003 (Jetglo, from 2005). It took a while to get used to playing it, the neck felt "different" because of the lack of taper in the depth of the neck compared to the Fender based and Fender inspired necks that I'd been used to. Saying that, it felt completely natural, and it also sounded great. Not your "classic" Ric sound, (it was built before the "Vintage" circuit was standard), but a solid, beefy bass sound non-the-less.

Yes, you do have to play a Ric slightly differently to how you would play a Fender/Fender Inpsired and/or Gibson bass, but it's definitely worth trying out, because it makes the Ric more "competitive".

Anyway, back to the topic:

Love:
Shape (iconic)
Sound
Style (Scratchplate, TRC, triangle inlays, pickup positions, binding, etc.)

Hate:
Bridge adjustment
Neck adjustment
Weight

I know people hate the bridge pickup cover, I removed it from my 4003 simply because it was in the way when I played with a pick. Now I use my fingers and play closer to the neck, the cover is no longer a problem.

For all the naysayers, like I said earlier, you have to approach playing a Ric slightly differently to how you'd approach playing a Fender/G&L/MM/etc. They need to be "played from the hip", kind of as you would play a Thunderbird IMO.