NBD Custom built Rickenbacker 4005 'tribute'.

[4000]

12 hours ago, onehandclapping said:

This is a 64 repica made by the Rick guru in the US....He repaired Sir Pauls when it went back to Rick

Still one of the nicest “Rics” I’ve ever seen, real or otherwise. 

[prowla]

3 hours ago, Jus Lukin said:

Wow, very cool! I'd be interested to hear how you get on with the Kahler.

Does the five string have tuner at the bridge? Never seen that before!

Yep - it's a Wilkinson conversion bridge I've had in my parts box for a while.

I've got a real Ric with a Kahler too; surprisingly it's good for subtle stuff rather than dive bombers and pyrotechnics.

[Jus Lukin]

-

Edited March 8, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[Maude]

14 hours ago, prowla said:

http://www.rickenbacker.com/service_g_schematics.asp

Thanks for that link, I did my series switch ages ago but a useful resource none the less. 👍

[Maude]

8 hours ago, 4000 said:

Still one of the nicest “Rics” I’ve ever seen, real or otherwise. 

I'll second that. The flame under a translucent finish is stunning, I love a dark fireglo. HW did a dark fireglo 4005 a few months back, it was beautiful. 

[NikNik]

On 08/10/2020 at 00:24, onehandclapping said:

This is a 64 repica made by the Rick guru in the US....He repaired Sir Pauls when it went back to Rick

PW or DW?

[onehandclapping]

4 hours ago, NikNik said:

PW or DW?

DB

[msb]

Simply gorgeous. I get a little weak in the knees looking at something like that!

Congratulations!

A new bass can initially feel a bit odd , but simply putting the time on it will remove that. Over the years I’ve acquired a good number of different basses and no longer have many specific preferences.

[msb]

On 11/10/2020 at 17:38, onehandclapping said:

DB

I thought MA did that one.

[onehandclapping]

9 hours ago, msb said:

I thought MA did that one.

It was made by Dale

[msb]

It’s wonderful that those guys have achieved an internet guru status in the Rickenbacker world. I’ve messaged Dr Quist about set up things and his replies were prompt and specific. Amazing to have that resource!

[msb]

3 hours ago, onehandclapping said:

It was made by Dale

I was referring to the work on MacCartney’s bass done by Rickenbacker , not the repro.
I wonder if Dale still making the odd acoustic or if that has ended with John Hall’s retirement.

[Maude]

13 hours ago, msb said:

A new bass can initially feel a bit odd , but simply putting the time on it will remove that. Over the years I’ve acquired a good number of different basses and no longer have many specific preferences.

 

The new nut and thumbrest made an enormous difference. 

After I'd sorted these, this was my sole gigging bass in the Mod band up until Covid put a stop to it all. 

As of yet, we haven't got going again due to a few reasons. 

I'm going out of my mind not gigging. 

 

[msb]

I’m in quarantine at the moment , tested positive with almost no symptoms. I did two gigs last weekend and think I picked it up in the backstage area at the changeover at a festival. 
I suppose the inevitable is inevitable , I had been so careful over the last three years.

Since things have reopened after the last closure I’ve noticed crowds are not what they once were , and some venues are now gone. It’s been a rough go for bars and restaurants. I’m just a blue collar musician mostly playing mid sized rooms. But I love the work. And pray we’ll find a new normal. 
I love that bass ! And hope you’ll be out in public again with it.

[ezbass]

2 minutes ago, msb said:

I’m in quarantine at the moment , tested positive with almost no symptoms. I did two gigs last weekend and think I picked it up in the backstage area at the changeover at a festival. 
I suppose the inevitable is inevitable , I had been so careful over the last three years.

Since things have reopened after the last closure I’ve noticed crowds are not what they once were , and some venues are now gone. It’s been a rough go for bars and restaurants. I’m just a blue collar musician mostly playing mid sized rooms. But I love the work. And pray we’ll find a new normal. 
I love that bass ! And hope you’ll be out in public again with it.

Hope it stays asymptomatic and clears up soon.

[msb]

Thank you.

Already coming down to the home stretch , I was lucky to have a very mild variant. But know quite a few friends that were hit hard.

I hope to be back in the saddle next week.

[msb]

I have two Rics , an 80 4001 , bypassed the cap , strung with Thomastik flats , and a 76 4000.

Mostly use short scales these days , but I love those Rics.

 

[prowla]

3 hours ago, msb said:

I have two Rics , an 80 4001 , bypassed the cap , strung with Thomastik flats , and a 76 4000.

Mostly use short scales these days , but I love those Rics.

 

A 4000 - nice!

[miles'tone]

On 26/12/2018 at 13:17, Maude said:

I did something silly a couple of weeks ago which resulted in me owning this gorgeous bass. I've always said the only Rickenbacker I'd ever own is a 4005 due to me not really gelling with any 'normal' Rick basses I've tried, but the 4005 being one of the best looking basses ever made, IMO. The price of 4005's being what they are meant I'd never be owning one anyway so it was kind of a running joke with our guitarist who owns eight Ricks.

This bass popped up on my fb feed on one of the selling pages, one of those random posts that pop up from pages you don't really follow, I thought 'ooh that's nice', but it was in Chester and I was in Cornwall. Gigging commitments meant I couldn't go and look at it and I couldn't expect someone to post it really, could I? Anyway who knew what it would be like being a custom build and it was more than I wanted to spend, plus I was didn't need any new gear being happy with my own. 

Roll on 24hrs and I'd agreed to buy it 🤣

It's a faithful tribute to the 4005 (ok ok a copy) built by the luthier ***** *****(the names have been changed to protect the innocent😗), whom I've never heard of, body I assume is maple but would like any thoughts from the experts on here, it's got some nice grain and quilting, block binding, maple and walnut laminated neck, partial genuine hardware, not sure about tailpiece but it looks the part and the pickups are custom wound House of Tone toasters to give a Macca neck, Geddy bridge mix. 

The previous owner (don't know if they're on here) sent it by Parcelforce to arrive before midday next day, after a tense three days it arrived at work (Christmas backlog) and I'll admit I was a little nervous unpacking it, firstly was it in one piece, secondly what was the build quality like? It was in a Gigblade semi hard case which is actually a very nice case and when opened I had a wave of relief wash over me, it was beautiful. The quality of ***** *****'s work is awesome, the woodwork is great and the fit of everything is excellent, my only slight bug is the lacquer finish but it's not as bad as I thought from the sellers pictures. Most people wouldn't see anything wrong but I'm a fussy tw@t when it comes to paint. Too be honest it's not really bad enough too bother refinishing but time will tell if it bugs me enough. 

Anyway pictures, you must be bored of my ramblings. 

A couple close ups to try and show the quilting, as always it looks better in the flesh but you can see a bit of it. In real life some of it almost looks like velvet, it has a real depth to it. 

The neck is really well made, maple and walnut, bound and crushed pearl inlays. 

Lovely signature Rickenbacker carving around the bout. 

As you can probably tell I'm over the moon with the looks, but, and it's a big but, I don't like how it plays. Given that I don't gel with Ricks it's no surprise but my thought when I bought it was with it being a copy I won't feel guilty fiddling with it. Some of you may have noticed the thumbrest, it's a very crudely chunk of wood I've doublesided taped on to just try out. Because of the style of bridge the strings are very long way from the body, nice low action on the neck but string to body is huge and using pickups as thumbrests isn't working for me. Using the bridge PU as an anchor is just too close the bridge and using the neck PU just feels too sloppy for my style of playing. It has to be right or I won't end up using it. I'll make a nice wooden rest and tape it on so that it can be removed if sold. I'm making a new nut as the string spacing is wider than I like and the strings are very close to the edge of the neck, a few times I've slipped the G string off the neck while playing. 

Now for the sound, it's very nice but the PU's are quite low output, it doesn't seem to have a lot of punch but that's probably down to the placement, reading up a bit this seems to be the way the real ones sound. Either PU on its own sounds good but together I get that Jazz phase problem only worse and the volume drops. I might wire a series switch in and call on the electrical guru's of the forum for help. 

All in all I love it and once I iron out a couple of niggles, which are my fault not the basses, I'll be over the moon. 

It's certainly imposing, it's massive, and although I'd never claim to be the real thing with the mojo of the real thing, it's quite possibly better quality than the real thing and certainly doesn't look like your average Rickenbacker copy. 

Just checking in to see how life with your 4005 (tribute) has worked out for you as I'm hopefully going to be on the same journey...

[Maude]

On 27/06/2024 at 17:16, miles'tone said:

Just checking in to see how life with your 4005 (tribute) has worked out for you as I'm hopefully going to be on the same journey...

Apologies for the delay in replying, I saw your post and meant to reply later when I had more time, then promptly forgot. 🤦

 

The 4005 is still my main gigging bass, but that is as much for aesthetics as it is sound. However, if I could only have one bass I could quite happily live with just this one. 

The downsides are, it's big, it's not light and without modding the sound wasn't exactly what I was after, but it might be what you're after. With the pickups at extreme ends of the available space it doesn't have a prominent mid bump, lots of bass and lots of treble, but not a lot of mids like a Precision. Being in a Mod band I wanted/needed those mids but adding a series switch and some careful EQing helped enormously. 

As for the size and weight, I'm 6' so I like a large bass and I don't struggle with the weight. It's not overly heavy but if you're looking for lightweight, it ain't. 

All that said, it looks gorgeous, plays lovely, sounds great and it is beautifully built. A real eye catcher that people do notice. 

I don't see myself moving it on for a very long time. 

 

[miles'tone]

20 minutes ago, Maude said:

Apologies for the delay in replying, I saw your post and meant to reply later when I had more time, then promptly forgot. 🤦

 

The 4005 is still my main gigging bass, but that is as much for aesthetics as it is sound. However, if I could only have one bass I could quite happily live with just this one. 

The downsides are, it's big, it's not light and without modding the sound wasn't exactly what I was after, but it might be what you're after. With the pickups at extreme ends of the available space it doesn't have a prominent mid bump, lots of bass and lots of treble, but not a lot of mids like a Precision. Being in a Mod band I wanted/needed those mids but adding a series switch and some careful EQing helped enormously. 

As for the size and weight, I'm 6' so I like a large bass and I don't struggle with the weight. It's not overly heavy but if you're looking for lightweight, it ain't. 

All that said, it looks gorgeous, plays lovely, sounds great and it is beautifully built. A real eye catcher that people do notice. 

I don't see myself moving it on for a very long time. 

 

Cheers for that mate. Good to hear. 

I am on that journey now so I will soon find out if it's for me (ETA roughly 8 weeks from now). I'm not in a band at present so it's just for me doing my thing at home or out at a rehearsal room with friends for a free jam. I like playing a mix between dubby stuff fingerstyle and folky banjo melodies with a pick so I should be good (on paper, in my head 😄)

I've gone for the Retrovibe '69 something pickups. They can be individually wired in series so that should be interesting. 

Can't wait! A 4005 is my last bucket list bass to own and the first bass I ever wanted. Seeing Mani playing one with The Stone Roses way back was what made me want to play bass in the first place.

Will do a NBD when I've given it a good go.

Cheers!

[Maude]

I'll look forward to reading your NBD post. 

I don't think you'll be disappointed with it. They are different but that's what makes them so special. 

Can you say what finish you've gone for or do you want to keep it secret until the big reveal? 

Whatever pictures you've seen, the Guru's work looks even better in the flesh (wood). 

I'm actually excited for you now. 😁

[miles'tone]

I've gone for mapleglo but with a personalised trc and tailpiece...to be revealed! 😄

Cheers Maude 👊