Wondering if I should return my Ric

[Lowness]

I sold my Ric and bought a MIJ Steve Harris P-bass.

I played the Ric occasionally when I forced myself.

I play the SH every day.

 

[Jonithen]

Hey TB,

I bought a 2016 MapleGlo Ric last week from my local GC. It was a used model that they had for a good price, and I was even able to haggle them down another $100.

It's a really cool bass. I love the look and the fact that it inspires me to play differently than how I normally play on my Jazz or Ray. That said, I'm not in love with it and I wonder if it'd be smarter to return it while it's still in it's 45 day no haggle return window.

I like to tinker and do my own setups, and the Ric isn't easy to do this on. I'm a little perturbed that these basses don't come with their own truss rod tool, and the process of installing and removing the pickup cover is a small burden. The bridge is another matter all together with its floating saddles.

Anyways, I wanted some opinions. Anyone buy their first Ric and learn to love these oddities? Anyone buy one and ended up saying the juice wasn't worth the squeeze?

Play the eff out of it for 40 days. If you can, try to not play anything else. See how you feel.

 

[1stnamebassist]

I think they are great. The neck is no more difficult to setup than any other bass. You turn two nuts instead of one, no big deal. Set it to whatever strings you want to use and it will stay where you put it. Adjusting the intonation can be a bit of a pain but its not that bad. The bridge design sucks for string muting however. As far as the pickups having uneven volume you adjust the bridge pickup lower than the neck pickup until you get it balanced out. The one thing I do suggest is you play it standing up quite a bit and see if it's comfortable. Ricks do hang a bit different. That's the only way I can think of to describe it. Some don't like the neck because it has little taper like a jazz bass for instance. I prefer it that way. They sound great fingerstyle but they sound greater IMHO with a pick. They sound great with flatwounds. I have EB Cobalt flats on mine and the bass sings! Fantastic sound! DM Blue Steels for rounds are what I prefer when I like to switch things up. I have the 4003s which has no binding and no stereo option. I like it better than the 4003 but that's just personal preference. I've owned both and types and they were fine. I say give it more time and play it standing a lot and see if it works for you. If not get rid of it and move on. But don't rush it you still have plenty of time before you have to return it. Good luck!

 

[Jeff K]

I feel your pain. I've had two 4003's over the years (Fireglo and Montezuma Brown). I wanted SOOO bad to love them, but I didn't. I've always been dazzled by their beauty; but just never connected with them like I do my Fender J's & P's. Not nearly as comfortable (for me); and I agree about the set-up difficulties (compared the the easy set-ups of the Fenders).

Of course you need to decide for yourself, but I've never missed mine. Well, I HAVE missed their aesthetic beauty, but I'm very happy with Fenders. Some folks feel the exact opposite. Chocolate and vanilla and all that...

 

[Gizmot]

I've been playing a Ric since '79 and I love it. I also agree with others that suggested that you need to get used to it. Give it a few more days and make friends with it.

Before you make any adjustments, wait until you put the strings on you're going to use. Once you get everything dialed in, they're pretty stable.

Rics are unique and have real soul - I think you'll love it

 

[fakeneckplate'65]

I had one for about 4 months, loved it, fell out of love with it & sold it on CL in less than 24 hours.

I've since tried a Stingray & I honestly miss the Ric a little.

I say play it for 30 or 40 days, & see where it goes.

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

View attachment 1071584

Wow... I'm a Fenderish guy but I'll sure keep that beauty.
Better trying to dig out some heavy bass lines from it rather than returning it IMI.

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

return it & wait to find a 4004 for the right price

I haven't played one but i have some doubts about the tone contribution of the neck pickup which seems to be too necky as in the case of the Fender telecaster bass with two wide range humbuckers ...
What's your opinion in this regard Killed?

 

[Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati]

Also

Like the bass but also the dark girl ...

 

[ialma]

Bought one because of the magic.
Magic did not work on me and sold it three days later.
Its ergonomics was not compatible with me

 

[prowla]

View attachment 1072094 I've had these two - a Desert Gold 4003, and a Jetglo 4001 - for quite a while now. Personally, I like them just how they come from the factory. But, I also like to play them the way (IMO) they were intended to be played; using the built in mute, between the pickups, with a pick. My Fender P-Bass has the mute in the bridge cover, and heavy flatwounds... but I'm an oldies kind of guy, and I have other basses I can play when I don't want to live in the past. Yes, Ricks are fiddly and time-consuming to set up; but, as others have said, they usually don't need to be messed with any more after that. Mine certainly haven't. That said - if you are a compulsive tinkerer, a Rick is most likely not the bass for you. It will be a lot of time-consuming work, with not much to show for it. IME, Ricks are what they are, and reward tinkering with little, if any, improvement. Taking the pick up cover off, and maybe replacing the bridge (and the replacements have their own problems), is pretty much all the tinkering there is with one of these. Once a 4003 is set up to your preference, changing the strings will be a major occasion in your life...

You can put a D-tuner on one (if you can find one and if the machines aren't too close together).
And, of course, you can tinker around with running pickups to separate amps (via pedals).
If it's an older one you can see if the vintage/modern pot is an option to tinker.
You can replace the treble pickup (I have an SD on one, with series/parallel & single coil switches).
You can replace the neck pickup (but I wouldn't).
Bartolini do a supplementary pickup which goes in the string mute cavity. (I've sometimes wondered about putting an E-Bow or Gizmo type thing in there!)
Some people add more pickups, including a "humpbacker" to fit between the treble pickup and the bridge.
You can replace the bridge.
You can change the pickguard/scratchplate.
You can split the pickguard/scratchplate to allow access to the controls without having to take the whole thing off (like a 4003(?)).
You can put a surround inside the treble pickup mount to close off the surrounding hole after you've taken off the cover (which you must do, unless you have one with the horseshoe magnets). The slot-in items there usually have a thumb rest.
You can add a thumb rest across the top edge of the pickguard.
You can add shielding to the body cavities.
You can replace the strap buttons with schaller-compatible straplocks.
If you like soldering irons you can modify the output jacks to 2 x mono instead of mono/stereo.

Apart from that, there's not much you can tinker with...

 

[jhfishn]

I had a maple finish 1975 bought brand new back in the day and hated the pickup cover so I took it to the guy that did my setups and had him take it off and cut and match a piece of plastic to look like it was all a one piece pick guard. Basically the maple finish with white pickguard similar to a pbass situation. That made it really playable for me since the pbass was my standard feel

Let me add .... new back in 1975 for a 4001 ran me $450. That was huge money considering my brand new 1976 pbass cost me $250. Ah.... those days are sadly gone. LOL!

 

[guy n. cognito]

If you love to tinker then return it. Ricks are more set it and forget it. Mine was good off the shelf and I haven't touched it since 8/2015. The action is sick. I play by the neck and didn't remove the pickup cover either.

I DID add a zero-mod thumb rest however.

Disagreed. The dual truss rods (completely unnessary) require a tool that typically does not fit and must be modified before the simplest adjustment can be made. The pickup cover can't be removed without completely removing the pickup (and I know a few guys that don't have the skill to do that right). Bridge design is faulty and often needs modification or replacement to function. Pickups must be dramatically modified or replaced to be hum cancelling. Lacquered, bound frets and a luthiers nightmare when they need replacing.

I would agree they are set and forget. Once you go through all that to get it set, you want to forget you did it.

 

[12stringbassist]

I have 4 4003's and fortunately haven't had to do anything to any of them. Yes the pickup cover gets in the way sometimes, but you can get a bezel to re-mount the pickup and I've heard it's simple enough to do.

But if the bass is not grabbing you like it should, send it back. If you don't like it, it's not the bass for you. Let it go to someone who really wants it and get something you really want.

 

[4001]

I was fifteen when I got my first 4001 and I removed the pickup cover right away. I didn't find it too difficult at all to do.
The bridge?.... yeah, the Ric bridges and saddles are a bit of a pain. I deal with it.
My 4001 didn't come with a trussrod wrench either back in 1981. I think that they would have preferred that people take their basses to a repair tech instead of possibly doing the adjustment incorrectly, so maybe that is why they do not include one and still don't to this day?? It's just a 1/4" socket wrench and maybe get an extension.
Get a second amp and run it in stereo with a fresh set of Rotos. You won't be parting with it any time soon after that...

 

[Worldeeeter]

Return it. Don't let a name/brand cloud your judgement. A bass you don't mesh with is exactly that and nothing else, regardless of brand. I have learned that, like women, many basses look and sound really good hanging from someone else's shoulder.

 

[Mantis Tobaggan]

Disagreed. The dual truss rods (completely unnessary) require a tool that typically does not fit and must be modified before the simplest adjustment can be made. The pickup cover can't be removed without completely removing the pickup (and I know a few guys that don't have the skill to do that right). Bridge design is faulty and often needs modification or replacement to function. Pickups must be dramatically modified or replaced to be hum cancelling. Lacquered, bound frets and a luthiers nightmare when they need replacing.

I would agree they are set and forget. Once you go through all that to get it set, you want to forget you did it.

Mine didn't need adjusting and every Rick bass I have ever played at the store felt like it already had a great setup and very low action. The bridge is not faulty. The frets will likely never need to be replaced. Just don't fool with it and the bass is fine. Tinkering with a Rick is not necessary unless you buy a used one where someone already tinkered with it.

 

[ricfunk74]

I played Jazz basses until I got my first Rick. It was a beautiful '73 Jetglo 4001. I didn't like it at first and I avoided playing it, but I loved the tone that other players had gotten out of Ricks and I decided to force myself to make the Rick my main bass. I had to learn how to play it and master it's quirks. If you love the Rick look, tone and mystique, you will not mind making the effort. My experiment lead to a decade of playing only 4001s! I have successfully played Motown and reggae on a 4001 with flats. You know what those basses sound like in the hands of the masters. How badly do you want that?

 

[Mantis Tobaggan]

I played Jazz basses until I got my first Rick. It was a beautiful '73 Jetglo 4001. I didn't like it at first and I avoided playing it, but I loved the tone that other players had gotten out of Ricks and I decided to force myself to make the Rick my main bass. I had to learn how to play it and master it's quirks. If you love the Rick look, tone and mystique, you will not mind making the effort. My experiment lead to a decade of playing only 4001s! I have successfully played Motown and reggae on a 4001 with flats. You know what those basses sound like in the hands of the masters. How badly do you want that?

Yeah it took me about nine months and now I am locked in. Love my Rick. Definitely a different feel that takes some getting used to but once it takes, there is no looking back.

 

[guy n. cognito]

Mine didn't need adjusting and every Rick bass I have ever played at the store felt like it already had a great setup and very low action. The bridge is not faulty. The frets will likely never need to be replaced. Just don't fool with it and the bass is fine. Tinkering with a Rick is not necessary unless you buy a used one where someone already tinkered with it.

Disagreed again. Most I've tried (new, not used) need significant setup. ANY bass will need adjustment when strings are changed. All frets need to be replaced at some point if you actually play it.

"Tinkering", known to most as normal adjustments, are necessary on all basses. And they are more difficult on a RIC.