I have owned a January 2009 4003 for 8 months from new and I am now going to trade it / sell it (there's a thread on it BUT I'm posting to answer your question, not to try and sell it to you).
It's a great bass but [u]not me[/u], hence the sale. The Q/C at Rickenbacker is sky high. They make less basses and keep the quality up that way. Where they fall down, and it's a mute point, is they don't wipe the necks down properly before varnishing so you get a slightly poor looking finish on the neck. It's purely asthetic and my friend who makes guitars pointed this out to me on mine. Big relief, I'd wondered if the wood was splitting!
The neck is a fairly chunky one, lots of tone and surprisingly light. The 33 1/2" scale doesn't feel different to a standard 34" and there is a lot of tone. It's a great bass and I must admit buying it I did feel like I'd entered the world of some exclusive club. If I wasn't so set in my Fender like ways I could see me being a Ricky player but I'm too long in the tooth to change now.