geofio Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 hi guys , has anyone else had the experience that i have been having with new 4003 basses?? i had the money to buy a brand new 4003 went into a shop in glasgow, they had 8 brand new rickenbacker,s including special edition walnut burst models, i was offered a very good cash deal on any rickenbacker that i wanted, so i was keen to buy one!! every single one of those basses was not up to standard, i have been playing these basses for 30 years, and understand the sound they should make. these new ones had terrible E strings they did not sound right or feel right, it was almost as if the strings were muted. i was very keen to find a good one out of that lot, even the guy in the store was amazed. no decent basses out of 8 brand new rickenbacker basses. what is going on at rickenbacker does no one test these basses out before they leave the plant!!!! as you guys know i am a rickenbacker fan, but i am shocked at these new basses. to buy one of these , you would never have had to have experience with them as that is the only way they will sell them, i have checked the stock from the shop in glasgow and it remains the same , none have been sold. i picked up a fantastic used 4003 2006 model and it plays as it should, nice piano like ring to every string.does anyone else share my thoughts out there??? cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloudburst Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 I checked the midnight blue one they had a while ago. It didn't seem too bad. Perhaps that's why it was first to go. Have you looked at the midnight blue 4003 in the other shop nearby? Check out the bubbled chrome plating on the bridge. Very poor QC at RIC was what I thought to myself. CB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musicman20 Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Really? Today I was thinking about testing a few out. I'm very picky about QC so maybe I should give it a miss?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geofio Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 give it a go musicman20 , i would be interested in your opinion, be interesting to see if the shop you go to has a better quality stock of the bass!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geofio Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 (edited) hi cloudburst, it was me who bought the midnight blue, it was borderline there was nothing better in the shop at the time i moved it on a while ago, and i only lost £25. i havent been in the other shop as they dont get the 4003 too often , i have seen that pitting before on them it is very common, just think how that will look in a few years!!! Edited July 18, 2012 by geofio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thodrik Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 I haven't tried the new ones, but the last two 'new' Rickenbackers I have tried were both fairly good. Still for the money they are charging you would expect them to play fairly well from the get go rather than being a classic Fender 'good bass hiding under a bad set up' job. In terms of shoddy QC (poor bookmatching of body pieces, bubbly chrome etc), I put it down to Rickenbacker having a slightly more 'agricultural' approach to finishing and quality control, compared to something like a Sandberg, Musicman, Sadowsky Metro etc. There is also the rumour/fact that the best Ricks generally never leave the USA. I'm not usually that fussing on purely cosmetic QC, so long as the bass sounds and plays good/great/fantastic, but if these Ricks were playing and sounding poor that is a bit worrying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Foxen Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Do what the famous Rick players all did and score a 70s Japanese copy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geofio Posted July 19, 2012 Author Share Posted July 19, 2012 (edited) there are good rickenbackers out there , it just seems that the better ones are around the1999- 2005/2006 era in modern times, thats im my own experience of course , i have set up around 60 4003 basses for various people, the newer basses tend to have a different sound from what most people would recognise as a rickenbacker tone eg geddy lee/bruce foxton/graeme murray etc, growly piano like tone!!! the new ones just do not sound like my expectation of what a good 4003 should sound like, from 2009 on the bass just sounds mediocre in my opinion. i could pick up any £200 squire bass off the shelf and have a better playing/sounding bass . dont get me wrong i love the sound of rickenbacker basses and i hope this sound/playing problem is limited to me and my experience, the new ones have just horrid E strings, and for a bass costing around £1799 rrp , that thing should be singing out the box, not a bass players nightmare. the ones that i tried would need major set up and even then i dont know if i could get them to sound good, i had a 2011 fireglo and i sat it beside my 1999 jetglo and to look at the basses they were almost the same, i tried to figure out why the jetglo sounded like a true rickenbacker and the fireglo did not . the biggest difference i could feel was in the bass was the neck, it just did not feel of the same construction as the 1999 bass, the 1999 4003 had a sturdier feeling neck also the 1999 was made of a much denser piece of wood. i set up both basses up the same , pickup height etc, action and the rest, i just could not get that bass the fireglo to sound anything like the 1999 jetglo. so something has changed at rickenbacker be it construction or materials. at the end of it all you would have a bass that sounded ok , but i dont want ok!!! i want a rickenbacker sound when i buy a new one. your thoughts please guys?? Edited July 19, 2012 by geofio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrismuzz Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 The A string on my bass is very very slightly muted compared to the other strings, but I only really notice it if i hammer out an open note really hard. Nothing a decent setup won't fix... That's not on a Rickenbacker though, it's on a Peavey that I bought off my mate for £50 Wouldn't accept that crap from a bass that cost well over a grand! That's pretty shameful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevB Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 If they really are that poor then sales will ultimately reflect it I guess. Having said that there probably aren't many music shops in the UK that would have as many as eight 4003's available to cross check against each other. I have a 4003 but it was made in 2000 and I've never played another ric that was more recent than this that I recall. I wouldn't expect any instrument that's been shipped from any distance and hanging around in a shop to be completely 100% perfect straight out of the box with absolutely no setup at all. For me that's part of the extra service you expect from a shop rather than buying online. A good music shop should be giving instruments as expensive as this a thorough going over to make sure they are right and sending back anything that isn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4000 Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 I've probably played 4 recent ones; two I really liked and two I could take or leave. Can't say I noticed the problem you're describing though. That's worrying. A couple of things; did you play them through amps you're familiar with and that you know suit them (I'll assume you did as you sound pretty experienced with them)? Rics are funny beasts and don't work well with some amps, hence my often having to run two separate rigs, one for Rics and one for non-Rics. I also find that some rigs (even very high quality ones; mine sounded pants through my Epifani gear and not much better through EBS or SWR) don't seem to reproduce the low strings on Rics very well for some reason. Which isn't to say of course that there isn't anything wrong. I would tend to say even many of the best Rics (whatever they are) don't tend to kill you with the might of their Es, which doesn't bother me because of my style but I know would bother many. The other thing I would say is that all Rics vary from instrument to instrument(as pretty much all brands do), but the newer Rics I've played definitely don't sound like the older ones (mainly down to pickups etc). The 2 I played in Dawson's really were very different animals than my two '72s, which exhibit far more of that famous hollow grind; horses for courses I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmo Valdemar Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 A lot of Ricks I have played tend to have a quieter E string (listen to the intro to Cygnus X-1!), but with the current models it's an easy fix with the adjustable pickup poles. It is a bit lazy that RIC don't do this before they ship them out. For the record, I have owned a few 4001/4003 basses and my last one, a 2011 Mapleglo, was by far the best - and had that 'classic' Rick tone without a doubt, if a bit more robust. A big +1 to 4000's point above about the amps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geofio Posted July 19, 2012 Author Share Posted July 19, 2012 i played the rics through top of the line ampeg amp and 8x10 ampeg cabinet, a classic combination for the ric. i have tried adjusting individual poles on the pickups , it does not make any difference to the sound of the E string apart from making it a bit louder, the point is the E does not sound right !!! as i said there will be good ones out there thankfully, i am just concerned as a ric user, and i am more concerned for guys who are about to buy one and maybe who have never played a ric and think that the sound the new ones make is a normal rickenbacker sound, the whole experience is disappointing when you like a certain brand of bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xilddx Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 I have had a sneaking suspicion that maybe RIC release substandard instruments and sell them at a discount to retailers. A friend of mine has six Ricks and he has seen some really quite shoddy ones that are offered at 'good' prices. It's just my suspicion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bremen Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 [quote name='silddx' timestamp='1342708733' post='1739720'] I have had a sneaking suspicion that maybe RIC release substandard instruments and sell them at a discount to retailers. A friend of mine has six Ricks and he has seen some really quite shoddy ones that are offered at 'good' prices. It's just my suspicion. [/quote] Thaty doesn't sit well with their witchhunt of Rickenfakers and forums that offer them for (2nd hand) sale... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xilddx Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 [quote name='bremen' timestamp='1342709043' post='1739729'] Thaty doesn't sit well with their witchhunt of Rickenfakers and forums that offer them for (2nd hand) sale... [/quote] Just to make it doubly clear, it is just a suspicion I have. I don't want John Hall's bent tailpiece up my arse or anything Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geofio Posted July 19, 2012 Author Share Posted July 19, 2012 lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4 Strings Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 For that money, I'm sure the shop could put on a different E string for you? Also, the bridges have mutes don't they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spongebob Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 I've owned a good few of these. TBH, I wasn't too mad on the early '00's basses - but there's good and bad in every batch I suppose. Had a lovely Midnight Blue '08 which I foolishly sold when the market was at it's best - got good money, but TBH, I should have kept the bass. My most recent experiences haven't been good - an '09 which suffered horrendous pickup problems, and another with an angle on the body so sharp, it was almost painful to play! A 2011 which had pitting on the chrome from new - and within 6 months, had a very large crack in the lacquer from the neck right around to halfway down the back. Disgraceful QC. As for the sound, it had changed over the years, no doubt. The most recent (2011) I played had a massive bottom end - a complete 360 from the 'old' Ric sound, compare to an un-modded 4001 - no bass at all! I think our guitarists Strat has more floor-shake than my 4001! For me, it's the 'old' sound I prefer - granted, you can achieve something similar with the vintage tone selector - but I had one go haywire, and vowed to always play one without. I'm currently down to one Ric - through choice, really, one I'm really happy with and just want to play forever, bit like Geddy's Jazz! However, I've still got a list of others I need to one day have......so the hunt is always on..... Great basses, lousy QC....and I'm an unapologetic fan-boy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geofio Posted July 19, 2012 Author Share Posted July 19, 2012 very interesting thanks spongebob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spongebob Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 See you over on RR! Wouldn't have this conversation over there would we? Instant flaming and probable lifetime ban! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stag Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 I had a 2011 Ric in JG and it was an AMAZING player, fastest Ric neck ive ever had the pleasure of playing... Dood will testify to how good it was! Unfortunately (sigh... i still miss it) the paint started shearing away from the body near the bridge... And it was only a few months old! So there's definitely QC issues there. Also, the bottom mute pin of the bridge fell out on the way to a gig in the case, that was odd... As id never touched the setup at all! Sound wise it was incredible, all the bottom end you could want, and the VT knob was an added bonus. My review of it is still on BC somewhere. My current squeeze is a 2002 Ric in BG, and that sounds just like how you'd expect it... Although the neck PU has a weaker output than the bridge one, could be a setup thing perhaps. And finally my trusty 1982 Ric 4001... That doesnt have any issues... Except that one of the Grovers fell to bits in the case on the way to a gig as well! Lol. Basically I havent come across any with low E output issues, and ive played a lot of them never mind the ones ive owned... But im sure there are some "did it last thing on a Friday" Rics out there! They've all got *that* sound... And if thats what you want, you gotta find the right Ric. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stag Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 (edited) And yeah... Dont say it on RR lol... Seen you on there recently actually Spongebob! Edited July 19, 2012 by Stag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geofio Posted July 19, 2012 Author Share Posted July 19, 2012 your right spongebob i dare not bring this subject up over there for sure lol, which is bad as you should be able to discuss bad rics as well as good rics but you know what its like over there. glad you are a happy ric man stag, as i am, when you find the right one for sure, if you do get a good one, hang on to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 All this angst about shoddy Rickenbakers, should have just bought a Fender......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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