thanks for all the comments guys, i appreciate them. the neck on this one i would say is fairly skinny, i had tried the limited run of walnut burst models and those necks were really chunky my opinion, the grain on the neck is just incredible the caribbean rosewood, the E string is spot on on this bass also, always a worry on rics. honestly no complaints with this bass growling straight out the case, all i had to do was raise the treble pickup slightly and restrung with rotosounds. excellent bass. very happy to have a rickenbacker at my side, i had great fun today playing and was pain free. thanks guys. George