Delberthot

That's the ground wire I had a look under the pickup and the holes in the base plate had been drilled at an angle making the pickup at an angle but I'm unsure what would happen if I undid them. It looks like there is wire underneath the screw and I don't want to damage the pickup on a brand new bass. Someone suggested on another forum of enlarging the screw holes so that you could move the pickup around to suit but that would mean using a big washer in order to secure the screw to the baseplate to stop them going right through

I got that email as well but when I went onto the site to check who was doing it, it seems that it is only available in the US as far as I could tell. That's a shame as I have just used my last set of EXL165s and was thinking about trying something different.

And the wonky pickup

After a couple of emails and a quick call with Richard at Reidys the bass will be picked up on Thursday and another one sent in its place. He did tell me that he had a look at the ones they have on display and they all have squint pickups so mine isn't the only one. The reason for sending it back is the paint finish at the back of the neck. I managed to capture a couple of pictures that don't really show it as bad as it feels It's from the glare from the flash towards the right hand side you can see a sort of rippling of the surface

If you get the chance, give the D'addario EXL160BT set a try. The E is a 120 but doesn't feel overly high tension

This might come in handy

Well it looks like it will be going back but hopefully just to be exchanged. I took the pickup cover off to fit the bezel and noticed that the pickup has been fitted to the base at an angle so sits completely squint. One I had the cover off I noticed a couple of areas of chrome on the surround that were slightly bubbled during the chroming process Not an issue as such but one of the screws holding the truss rod cover was only screwed half way in. I did take all of the screws off to make sure there were no surprises underneath I had a look at the back of the neck and from the area right behind the nut to about the 5th fret there is a section about 1cm across that looks like the paint has rippled. I'm wondering if the bass has been laid down before the paint completely hardened(?) Not impressed on a bass with an RRP of £2350 and not impressed that not only did it pass through the Rickenbacker QC but also the store that I bought it from didn't notice any of this. The bass had been out of the packaging as the case had dirty marks on it when I got it which came off easily so someone had looked at it prior to me buying it. I still want a 4003 but not this one. I've emailed the shop to see about exchanging it for another. I will make sure that they check it thoroughly before sending it out to me, assuming that their website is accurate and they still have another one. It's a shame as this one was set up perfectly right out of the case which would have been a first for me

Ah, I thought you meant, him

I suppose it depends on how much your strings cost and how much use you get out of them. If it was a set of TI flats for a 6 string bass and I'd only used them for a few hours occasionally over the past while in the house then I would be on the verge of going postal as they are just under £100 for a set. Fortunately I use D'addario EXLs and get about 3-4 months out of them with regular gigging. The last time I bought them they were £22 for 2 sets. Having said all of that I honestly don't recall the last time I broke a string. It may have been when I was living at home which would be 1997ish and I changed the bridge on my Bass Collection SB465 as I kept breaking strings. I had to do it the old fashioned way and call the Bass Centre. None of this new fangled interweb at that time.

Which one? there are 3 if look closely - I take it you mean the "made in the USA y'all" one? 😋 Bezel arrived today. I don't have time to fit it now but I'll get it on tomorrow. I nearly forgot but when I initially plugged it in it sounded a bit thin and bassless so I thought I'd pull out the control to activate/defeat the vintage thingummy and it turned out that it was already out so I pushed it back in and instant bass and warmth.

1:43 is one of my favourite bass lines and indeed bass tones ever

Actually last night was the first time that I have used an 8x10" in a rehearsal studio and still been able to hear myself when the whole band were playing. It normally descends into mush so I'm liking the fact that it can cut through

I've decided to go for the tube ampology bezel. It is expensive for what is a piece of chromed plastic but I haven't seen anything else suitable. Back in the day I had one of the pickguardian ones which were pretty basic. This one seems to be designed a lot better. It actually has a really incredible slap sound which I am surprised at. I'm going to persevere with the factory strings and if I don't get on with them then I'll put my old favourite D'addario EXL160 string on. I've checked and know that they will be lower tension than they are on my Sterling due to the slightly shorter scale. For all I know Rickenbacker could be using D'addario to make their strings as I believe that they have used several string companies over the years And the next time someone asks "what's the best bass for genre of music A or B" well consider that I will be playing this in a wedding/function band covering everything from ceilidh to rock, pop, funk , disco and whatever is the flavour of the week chart single.

Even I didn't see this coming - there I was minding my own business on holiday in Scarborough and I walk past the Guitar Gallery on Bar Street and see not one or 2 but 3 brand new 4003 basses in the window. I hurredly walk past pretending I didn't notice them but the damage is already done. For the next 4 days those Rickenbackers are on my mind until it gets too much. Once I get home I am online checking out the prices and who has what. I already know what I want and luckily a few online stores have them. About 10 years ago I was in Glasgow and bought a new 4003 in midnite blue. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen but a week or so into ownership I noticed that it had the dreaded running paint. The paint under the lacquer actually ran over the binding causing it to go pale blue. I took it back to the shop and was told that it would need to be returned to Rickenbacker but they didn't have any more in stock by that point so I got a full refund. So mind made up I bought this bass on Saturday, it was waiting for me when I got home tonight and took it straight to the rehearsal. I absolutely love it so far. I keep finding myself trying to place my hand where the pickup cover is but I can't work out if it is because that is where I would find playing most comfortable or just because I can't play there because of the pickup cover.

I love D'addario strings and tried the EXL160BT balanced tension strings but I found them a wee bit too high tension for my liking and have since jumped down to EXL20BT set which are pretty good and not in the lightest bit floppy considering they are 40-95 gauge. I can even drop the E to D and they still sound good. When I was using Chromes I made my own balanced set as at the time I could buy them as singles cheaper than as a set and used 45, 60, 80, 110. They were right on the money and I was detuning the E to D back then as well

Ride like the Wind but it goes between the Christopher Cross version and the Saxon version randomly The song for getting other songs out of my head is Sikamikanico by the Chilis

I always cut all of my strings when fitting regardless of construction and haven't had one fail on me yet. This was including the E string having a Detuner to take it down to D. I can't say that I noticed any issues with Chromes when I used them. They are about as smooth as they come

I've been playing for 30 years now and been using D'addarios for about the past 10. Initially using Chromes but since I got my Musicman Sterling I've been using EXLs. I'm currently using the EXL220BT light gauge set which still sound good when the E is dropped to D but I've been thinking about trying the NYXLs as they are brighter and I've found myself looking for a brighter sound of late but don't want steels. I've also never had a duff string in all of the sets that I have bought over the years and proudly wear my D'addario t-shirt that I got with my players points to most gigs, D'addario clip on tuner at the ready 👍

"put something good on" directed at a live band always makes me laugh

Is he not related to Hugh Jass?

personally I disagree about the spotify thing about listening to what was in the charts when you were young but I may be in the minority - in 1991 when all of my friends were listening to 808 State, I was listening to Pink Floyd. The music I listen to has since about 1994, with the exception of the Chilis & Faith No More, been firmly rooted in the 70s and mainly rock music. There is music that I like before and after this period but it's mainly the 70s and I owe it all to Virgin Radio when it began in 1993. Right at the beginning it was mainly 70s rock music that they played and I discovered, ELP, Yes, Kansas, Zeppelin and loads more. For some reason I really despise most 60s music

One I don't think that you can really do anything other than to flag them to the mods is when you read a well put together advert and go through all of the additions to the thread, you're thinking that this might be something that you'd like to buy and discuss with the buyer and on the last post it says "sold" Grrrr

Fantastic - Listening to SWLABR at the moment. A huge inspiration to me when I was learning to play.

That's where you're going wrong - you're meant to film yourself playing bass

Apart from an 18 month break I've been with the same keyboard player / singer since 1995 and guitarist since 2001 Most of the guys I played with at school gave it up which was a shame, there were some decent players back then