Please tell me why I should avoid getting a Rickenbacker!

[prowla]

4 hours ago, 4000 said:

Think it was advertised on eBay by the same seller. May not be the same bass but the fingerboard looks familiar. Is this yours?:

Nope, that’s not mine. The seller did have another one going not long after mine. Out Wiltshire way, I recall. 

[madshadows]

These recent posts are giving me Rickenbacker gas !!  😛

 

John 😎

[4000]

2 hours ago, prowla said:

Nope, that’s not mine. The seller did have another one going not long after mine. Out Wiltshire way, I recall. 

Nice bass either way (both of them)!

Edit: I’ve just looked again at yours and so far as I can tell the finger boards look identical, even down to the dark mark at the 12th fret. Weird!

Edited October 30, 2019 by 4000

[4000]

33 minutes ago, Meddle said:

My 2009 Rickenbacker 4003 is blasphemous. The finish on the body, neck and fretboard is stripped and I've refinished it using a Danish Oil mix (and some light staining to make the figuring pop in the maple). The pickguard is matte acrylic, and I cut it myself using a design blended from the stock pickguard and a '70s pickguard. 

I built my own wiring harness for it, recycling the 'vintage' capacitor as a treble bleed on the bridge volume control. The pickups are JBE Joe Bardens (expensive...) and I fitted a Tubeampology bezel as well. The base of the bridge pickup is a Retrovibe unit.

The Bardens give it a solid, sure-footedness in the low mids that the stock pickups don't deliver. Mids seem to get absorbed by the maple. Rickenbackers sound great, but they make a sub-sonic rumble and a stinging treble sizzle, and both can go missing in a complex band mix unless you turn the bass up to 11 (ala Chris Squire). 

My Rick can just about keep up with my Fenders. It is less ergonomically friendly, arguably more fragile, less easy to work on, finicky, fiddly... but it is a Rick! Nothing sounds like a Rickenbacker. 

 

Lastly, I made my own brass nut for it from a block of brass.

I’d quite like to try a set of Bardens, but it’s an expensive experiment if they don’t suit. My 2nd CS came with a SD bridge pickup (which I replaced) and I hated that pickup.

Of course one other way to add mids is to back off one or the other of the pickups slightly. Jazzes also have that mid scoop with both pickups full on.

Edited October 30, 2019 by 4000

[Jus Lukin]

-

Edited March 4, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[4000]

Just now, Jus Lukin said:

I'd like to try the Bardens, too. Quite steep though, and I'd need another Ric to try them in as I like the stock sound enough to want that as well!

Oh, they wouldn’t go in my vintage basses, but I have a custom Ric that it’d be interesting to try them in. But I’m unlikely to buy any any time soon.

[prowla]

1 hour ago, 4000 said:

Nice bass either way (both of them)!

Edit: I’ve just looked again at yours and so far as I can tell the finger boards look identical, even down to the dark mark at the 12th fret. Weird!

Mine's got the couple of battle scars from the (not-so-)zero-mod.

[4000]

20 hours ago, prowla said:

Mine's got the couple of battle scars from the (not-so-)zero-mod.

Ouch!

Serial number on the other is 12(?) 51021. How close is it to yours, given the fingerboard similarity? 

 

[prowla]

45 minutes ago, 4000 said:

Ouch!

Serial number on the other is 12(?) 51021. How close is it to yours, given the fingerboard similarity? 

 

Oh - that is it!

12 51021

11/10 for spotting that!!!

I bought it just over a year ago (Oct 2018).

Edited October 31, 2019 by prowla

[4000]

1 hour ago, prowla said:

Oh - that is it!

12 51021

11/10 for spotting that!!!

I bought it just over a year ago (Oct 2018).

Ah, what a coincidence! Must’ve been you beat me to it. I was dithering as a consequence of my anxiety, which was very bad at the time. 

Actually, that begs a question, on the pictures it looks like the rear upper bout has a slight forearm chamfer. Is that actually the case, or is it just an optical illusion? I have seen some Laredos with the chamfer, but most of the 4004s seem not to have it, they just have that very small chamfer round the edge of the body, which is the bit I didn’t get on with on mine, hence why I sold it.

[prowla]

There's the s/n.

The upper body edge.

And again...

It seems to give the impression of being a bit more substantial than a 4003, partly due to the quality and smoothness of that finish.

Due to the "zero-mod" holes (you can just see one above the treble pickup), I've been thinking about having it refinished; I might do something subtle, like have a two tone metallic which goes from that blue to black.

[4000]

Yep, it does seem to have a subtle chamfer. Interesting.

A two tone finish sounds cool, although I do love the colour as is, but I understand re the holes. Did you get it new or did it have the holes when you got it? If it did you must have bought it after I was looking at it because it didn’t have them then.

[artisan]

Just done my first gig with my Rickenbacker on Saturday night & am exceedingly happy with it,my P bass is now relegated to backup duties.

The Rick is so much easier to play & really fills out the band's low end with masses of punch,the whole band mentioned it.

I even had a couple of punters mention how good it sounds & also how cool it looked too.

[prowla]

On 01/11/2019 at 21:57, 4000 said:

Yep, it does seem to have a subtle chamfer. Interesting.

A two tone finish sounds cool, although I do love the colour as is, but I understand re the holes. Did you get it new or did it have the holes when you got it? If it did you must have bought it after I was looking at it because it didn’t have them then.

It was 3rd hand when I got it. 
I took off the zero-mod. (I tried it on a 4003 but didn’t like it.)

[4000]

5 hours ago, prowla said:

It was 3rd hand when I got it. 
I took off the zero-mod. (I tried it on a 4003 but didn’t like it.)

Ah, I think it was new when I was procrastinating. Looks like a cracking bass either way!

[Al Krow]

Anyone tried one of the 4003S-5 models? Thoughts?

[Wolverinebass]

51 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Anyone tried one of the 4003S-5 models? Thoughts?

I don't need to try one. Any bass where the pickups look like they came from a low budget 1980's sci fi horror film are a definite no from me.

[merello]

Main reason....can’t re-sell on BC!😎

[prowla]

17 minutes ago, merello said:

Main reason....can’t re-sell on BC!😎

That's a plus - why would you sell a Ric?

[prowla]

40 minutes ago, Wolverinebass said:

I don't need to try one. Any bass where the pickups look like they came from a low budget 1980's sci fi horror film are a definite no from me.

They are a bit (erm) radical, aren't they?

But in the same breath there are people who say that Ric don't innovate, so I guess they can't win!

[Wolverinebass]

12 minutes ago, prowla said:

They are a bit (erm) radical, aren't they?

But in the same breath there are people who say that Ric don't innovate, so I guess they can't win!

Like all heritage brands, they can't win. They could however, try to not screw up so readily. They could have just used the same kind of design as their 4 string pickups instead of something as bad as those triangles. Not that it matters as I don't play 5 strings. My Rick kills and I use it dropped to C# standard in one band. Just fantastic. 

[Woodinblack]

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Anyone tried one of the 4003S-5 models? Thoughts?

Never seen one in the real world. The only place that sells rics that I have seen is in PMT. And with their policies of not putting prices on anything, it kind of kills interest for me.

[Silvia Bluejay]

When @Happy Jack and I had a quick catch-up with John Hall (I know...) at NAMM, he assured us that they're sending over and selling quite a lot of their fivers in the UK.

Their booth had all the models on show, once again hanging from the usual brackets, and tied at the headstock so they couldn't be taken off their hooks. (Photos will eventually follow!)

Happy Jack wrote a review of the fiver two years ago - attached.

Jacks NAMM Rick 5 review BGM 154 March 2018.pdf

[prowla]

41 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Never seen one in the real world. The only place that sells rics that I have seen is in PMT. And with their policies of not putting prices on anything, it kind of kills interest for me.

If you've got to ask, you can't afford it... 🙂

[Woodinblack]

25 minutes ago, prowla said:

If you've got to ask, you can't afford it... 🙂

That is exactly the method I use. I don't ask, so their policy means it isn't worth looking. I have told them, they ignored it, that is their choice. If I a looking at a wall of basses, one of the important thing for me is the price of them. WIthout that, they become less interesting.