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The Rickenbacker Club Part Nine

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#601
I got mine in 2010 from MF and had no issues at really, with the exception of having to do my own setup (which I knew going into it), but this is the reason that the bigger RIC dealers enjoy the very good reputation that they have.

It's good old fashioned customer service, while MF is just a big box store that can sometimes offer bigger discounts.

Nice to see all is now well, and a very nice classic bass it is.
 
#602
kcole4001 said:
I got mine in 2010 from MF and had no issues at really, with the exception of having to do my own setup (which I knew going into it), but this is the reason that the bigger RIC dealers enjoy the very good reputation that they have.

It's good old fashioned customer service, while MF is just a big box store that can sometimes offer bigger discounts.

Nice to see all is now well, and a very nice classic bass it is.
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Yeah thanks!

If you recall that whole fiasco, MF was shipped an entire batch of bad JetGlos that all had cracked finishes at the tailpiece.

Glad yours didn't have any of those problems. In fact, the guys at Wildwood helped confirm that they too recalled having similar problems with JetGlos that year for a few months until the problem was resolved at the factory. In the case of MF, since as you say, they just ship boxes, their shipment was never inspected, and the customers were the ones who were left to discover the problem, often times years later, when the cracking had gotten really bad just sitting in the case. Not good!

But as I said, I am glad that everything worked out the way it did. I LOVE this 2013 I ended up with, and if all the other crap hadn't happened in just the way it did, my timing would not have been right to line up with me getting this one I have now, and that thought is kind of scary, since this bass is one of the nicest 4003/4001s I've ever played.

Definitely rivals the feel of the 72 4001 I was trying to recapture with this purchase. I actually got a lot closer with this one than I thought was possible. The three 2011s I got to test drive didn't quite hit this level of satisfaction for me.
 
#603
GG7 said:
.... In the case of MF, since as you say, they just ship boxes, their shipment was never inspected, .......
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That's the truth, I got a good one and it was only 2 months old when I bought it (built in late January 2010, purchased in early March).
Mine arrived in a box that was sealed at the factory and never opened until I got it.

GG7 said:
Definitely rivals the feel of the 72 4001 I was trying to recapture with this purchase. I actually got a lot closer with this one than I thought was possible. The three 2011s I got to test drive didn't quite hit this level of satisfaction for me.
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That's great to know, I've never seen an early 4001 in person, at least one can come close to that now.
I'm extremely happy with mine, it's the best bass I've ever played.
Glad to see that you're happy with yours.
 
#604
Finally got all 3 out for a family photo.
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#607
Didn't want my family portraits to get buried on the bottom of a previous page. ;)

GG7 said:
Here is my latest 4003 in JetGlo. Factory fresh and free of cracks or neck warping problems! - I ended up returning my 2011 bass cause it just had too many issues to bother with!

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Its got a lot of red pigment in the wood, so it looks more like the now discontinued Bubinga/African Rosewood boards of yesteryear than most of the new fingerboards I have seen.

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This one was purchased from Wildwood Guitars, a well known Ric dealer in Colorado for $1499.00 brand new. I sent them a set of DR 45-105 Nickel Lo-Riders which they put on the bass before setting it up. I had them keep it for a full week to let it settle in with those higher tension hex core strings. They ended up having to tweak the truss rods four times over that period as the neck settled in over time.

It was defintely worth taking these extra steps cause the bass arrived with a fantastic action, a perfectly silky and "straight" neck and one of the nicest looking Carribean rosewood fingerboards I have seen so far.

Here it is in the 7 space rack along with most of my other guitars...

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Only thing I have left to do is pull the bridge pickup cover off and install one of those standard bezels from Tubeampology. I've got one on the way, and can't wait to be able to play this without that infernal cover in my way!

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As some of you know, if you count all the problems with my original 4003 purchase from MF back in March, this was probably the biggest hassle I have ever gone through in the purchase of a new guitar, but in the end it worked out great! I just happened to call Troy Benns over at Wildwood the same day they had gotten their next shipment ETA from Rickenbacker, so I only had to wait a few days from my first touching bass phone call until the bass I purchased arrived from the factory!

If this had been my original purchase experience, I would have a completely different opinion on the 4003 buying experience.

According to the serial number, my bass was made the week of July 15th, 2013. My birthday month! (July 1st) :) So everything about this bass has been perfect from start to finish!

After all is said and done, I couldn't be more pleased with the way this whole long story turned out! :)
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#608
kcole4001 said:
That's the truth, I got a good one and it was only 2 months old when I bought it (built in late January 2010, purchased in early March).
Mine arrived in a box that was sealed at the factory and never opened until I got it.

That's great to know, I've never seen an early 4001 in person, at least one can come close to that now.
I'm extremely happy with mine, it's the best bass I've ever played.
Glad to see that you're happy with yours.
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You too! You're absolutely right! Nothing plays quite like a Rickenbacker 4000 series neck and fingerboard!

My 72 4001 also had that awesome "checked" binding on the body which really looked slick and retro against the black JetGlo finish. I would have LOVED to have been able to special order a 4003 with the checked binding (they still use that on some of their guitars), but the wait would have been an eternity not to mention I would have had to pay full retail instead of the $1500.00 I got this one for.

Don't know why they no longer offer that binding as an option and make some production runs using it instead of the plain white. To me, it really is the iconic Rickenbacker JetGlo look, and why I cherished that 72 4001. Not to mention the fact that it played like a dream! Still the best Rickenbacker Bass I have ever played.
 
#609
The checkered binding comes from only one source, and is very expensive to make. Something like a million dollars a cubic meter. I think if RIC offered it as an extra cost option, they'd run out real fast, even if it were a couple hundred bucks a pop.
 
#613
BassGen said:
Hey GG7, glad you finally got the bass you wanted! It is a beaut!

Is that a Geddy J I see back there too? We could start our own "I have a black Geddy J and. Black 4003 ckub!"
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Thanks BassGen! Yeah! It is nice to finally close the book on the whole Rick 4003 saga! lol!

I actually gave up on it for most of the year after I returned the third and final 2011 4003 when it was determined that the neck on that one was too warped in the middle to fix with the truss rods. Thats when I returned it to MF and bought the LP Blue 64 Jazz and then started focusing on other gear for my home studio retooling project. I then came back to filling out my guitar collection a bit more and added the short scales, and finally one last attempt at scoring a 4003, but this time from a dealer that would inspect and set it up with a set of DRs before it got shipped to me. Wildwood takes HD photos of all their guitars as they come in, so I already knew what the fingerboard looked like and whatnot. I basically picked this one out of a lot of four JetGlos they received over a two week period. It was hands down the best wood of the four.

My black jazz is actually an American Deluxe with the active electronics and stuff in it. That was the first new Jazz I bought. I wanted something close to my original 76 Jazz that I had at my commercial recording studio in LA back in the 80s. For a time I owned two Jazz Basses. The 76 and an original 64 in LP Blue and the 72 4001 in JetGlo with the checked binding. Now I have all three again! New and reissues, but they look and play as good or better than the originals, so I am not complaining! :)

The 76 I had looked a lot like Geddy's original pawn shop black and white early 70s vintage except mine was one of those less common black and whites with the maple fretboard and Pearl inlays instead of the more common black inlays like his has.

I have since seen him playing a black and white with the pearl inlays, and damned if that bass he has doesn't look like the one I sold! It had a couple of distinctive dings in the body, and that one he has looks to have those exact same dings! I read that he got that one in LA, so I am pretty sure that Geddy now owns MY bass.

I have some photos of that 76 in a box of slides somewhere, and I am still trying to find them. Wanted to compare to the RUSH concert photos when he was playing that bass I think might be the same one.

If that is the case then I am happy! I did a lot of sessions with that thing, and it is on a lot of albums I played on, and now perhaps, it is playing RUSH tunes with the master for millions! It was a killer Jazz Bass, so it certainly deserves all the fame and album credits!

Here is a photo of my American Deluxe leaning up against my Bassman rig... I popped off the black pick guard and put on a WD Music Products white pearl instead. I much prefer the black and white combo over all black like it came from Fender with.

bassman_rig.jpg


I put one of those same pick guards on my 64 too, along with a REAL solid Rosewood finger rest. Look close and you can tell it is actually wood and not that stupid hollow black plastic one it came with. (The originals had solid Rosewood rests on them)

64_Jazz.jpg
 
#614
Thought I'd share this pic with y'all. I was doing FOH for a concert on Sat. A fellow bassist pulls out his '76 Ric. He bought it brand new and still has the case candy and all. It's in excellent shape and plays beautifully. And sounds as good as it looks.
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#615
GG7 said:
Thanks BassGen! Yeah! It is nice to finally close the book on the whole Rick 4003 saga! lol!


Glad you got it all sorted out. Finding the perfect 4003 can be a challenge, but its very much worth the effort when you do. :cool:


P.S. Nice bookends you got there SuperDick! :D Maybe BassGen is on to something about starting a B&W J&R club! :) :bassist:
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Thanks!
I pretty much play only Spectors these days, but its fun to break out the 'ol bookends & go through a few dozen Rush songs every now & then...:bassist:
 
#616
superdick2112 said:
I'll join if you start one... :D

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Nice bookends you got there SuperDick! :bassist: What year is that 4001?

I think BassGen was on to something with starting a club for owners of B&W Rics and J Basses!

I'm totally game! Where do I sign up? :):bassist::hyper:

P.S. I see you got rid of your pickup cover. Did you put one of those Tube Ampology bezels in the hole? I can't tell from that photo cause of the low light level. I ordered a standard one Sunday night. I can't wait to get that stupid cover out of my way! It looks cool and all, but I put my pick right down at that spot on the strings. Just ahead of the bridge pickup, where the best pick to string BITE is born! Why on earth did they make it so hard to take off?
 
#617
superdick2112 said:
Thanks!
I pretty much play only Spectors these days, but its fun to break out the 'ol bookends & go through a few dozen Rush songs every now & then...:bassist:
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Cool!

I am still looking for the remaining shots from a single roll of slide film I shot in 84 that had photos of ALL of my vintage guitars including all my basses, either by themselves or with me posing with them.

Here is one of those photos I did find... This is me in 1984 with the crown jewel of my collection at that time.

A mint condition, all original 1962 Fender Stratocaster in CAR with matching headstock. I had the original case too.

62_strat_1.jpg


Hopefully, lurking in one of these hundreds of boxes of old slides we just found at my late Dad's house where I grew up and where these photos were taken, is a group photo of all my vintage guitars together which included the 72 4001, the 64 Jazz, the 76 Jazz, a 64 Bass VI, my 68 Les Paul Gold Top and a few others.

I did manage to find a couple stand alone shots of the Les Paul

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All my guitars were mint condition. I shudder to think how much this collection would be worth today! At least I have been able to buy reissues of most of them that I wanted back. The Strat can never be duplicated though. It was a one of a kind. Played like a dream, light as a feather but had sustain like a heavy ash body does, but was a pleasure to play live with.
 
#618
Jazz4 said:
Thought I'd share this pic with y'all. I was doing FOH for a concert on Sat. A fellow bassist pulls out his '76 Ric. He bought it brand new and still has the case candy and all. It's in excellent shape and plays beautifully. And sounds as good as it looks.
764001_zps1d3531c2.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
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Sweet!

I bought that Strat from an older gentleman who was the original owner. One of those dream scores! He put an ad in the local paper, and I called him first. $250.00! Back in the days when you could still buy old Fenders and Rics for used guitar prices!
 
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