NBD 2024 Jetglo Rickenbacker 4003

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I'll report back once I have received the Split Meld and the TRS cable, but I believe the centre socket in the Split Meld takes the TRS cable from the bass and each of the other two take a standard guitar cable into an amp (or mixer/interface)

 

TRS = Tip-Ring-Sleeve referring to the three contact segments of a stereo jack

TS = Tip-Sleeve referring to the two contact segments of a standard guitar cable's jack.

[prowla]

50 minutes ago, spongebob said:

I’m really interested in this.

 

I’ve been playing various Rickys for 25+ years, and I’ve never used the RoS feature once! 

Thomann now list it as out of stock……but I’ll keep an eye on it.

 

Please forgive the thread hijack, but I saw 3 unmarked inputs on its front……and I’m a bit confused by TRS and TS? I’d always assumed that RoS needed a splitter cable? 

I'm guessing then the box then gets jack cabled to the two amps? 

Do excuse my complete pathetic-ness on this…..but I’d love to get mine working too! 👍

See my pic above: TRS in one side and 2x TS out of the other.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I have now received my 3m 6.3mm Stereo Jack to 2 x Mono 6.3mm Jacks Audio cable from amazon (it was seven quid with next day prime delivery). It isn't really suitable for plugging into two amps, but it is perfect for plugging the bass directly into my Focusrite scarlett 2i2 interface for recording. Going into the interface with stereo direct monitoring I can hear each pickup going to its own side & confirm it is working using the pickup switch.

 

I'm going to have some fun with this in logic.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Here's my instrumental cover of 'The beat goes on' with rick-o-sound bass from my 4003 recorded direct into logic using both channels of my focusrite scarlett 2i2.

 

The bass pickup is going into a virtual B15 and the treble pickup going into a virtual plexi with virtual distortion, vintage drive and roto phase pedals.

 

In the intro, the bass has just the bass pickup for two bars, then just the treble pickup for two bars.

 

The guitar is a fender Ben Gibbard mustang. The drums, organ, amps, fx and mastering all use Logic's native features — ie no 3rd party plugins.

 

 

When recording this and adding distortion to the recorded tracks, it was apparent how noisy the single coils are, so it will probably be worth my time doing the copper tape faraday cage thing to keep noise and slugs out.

 

 

Edited Friday at 11:21 by Jean-Luc Pickguard

[Misdee]

This is a lovely bass. Jetglo is still the most essential Rickenbacker colour, no contest. I would be very interested to hear if the new design bridge on the latest models like this negates the need to swap it out for the Hipshot replacement version if you want a low action.

 

I hope you will forgive me asking the question, but do you not find it a little troubling or at least unusual that a fairly new, rare and valuable bass like this has turned up in Cash Converters? These basses are in short supply (try finding a retailer with one in stock) and this one has conspicuously turned up at that outlet, of all places. I just wonder what circumstances would lead to the original owner taking it to Cash Converters if they needed to sell. They must have been desperate or very ill-advised is all I can suppose.

Edited Friday at 14:50 by Misdee

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

4 hours ago, Misdee said:

I would be very interested to hear if the new design bridge on the latest models like this negates the need to swap it out for the Hipshot replacement version if you want a low action.

 

I like a low action and I'm very happy with the action on this bass. It is easy to adjust the bridge and I could  probably take each saddle down at least another two or three millimetres if I needed to. I specifically wanted the latest spec to avoid the hassle of dealing with the old bridge or twin truss rods. I'm pretty confident that no one in their right mind would have a good reason to replace this bridge with a hipshot.

 

4 hours ago, Misdee said:

I hope you will forgive me asking the question, but do you not find it a little troubling or at least unusual that a fairly new, rare and valuable bass like this has turned up in Cash Converters? These basses are in short supply (try finding a retailer with one in stock) and this one has conspicuously turned up at that outlet, of all places. I just wonder what circumstances would lead to the original owner taking it to Cash Converters if they needed to sell. They must have been desperate or very ill-advised is all I can suppose.

 

I don't think it is my place to wonder about what circumstances led the previous owner to take it into cash converters. I have had several guitar/bass bargains in recent years from CC and encountered no problems. I certainly don't find it troubling or unusual — there are many legitimate reasons for someone to have sold it to the shop, from buyer's remorse or shiny object syndrome, to needing quick cash to make the rent/mortgage payment.

 

Andy Baxter has the exact same model/colour bass for sale with a price of £2500, and listed, like a lot of Rics he sells, in the secondhand section but as unplayed. I saved £500 on Andy's price by taking a punt on this used one which like most CC listings had terrible photos and very little description.

 

Given that there was an (at best) intermittent issue with the output socket, which presumably was not apparent when/if cash converters tested it. Not everyone has the same autistic level of patience and ability to research for answers to technical problems that enabled me to understand and fix the issue for myself, maybe the previous owner decided to get rid of the bass for quick cash thinking the issue was more serious and potentially difficult or expensive to remedy.

 

 

 

 

Edited Friday at 19:04 by Jean-Luc Pickguard

[prowla]

I have a V2 bridge on one of my 2010 Rics.

 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

15 minutes ago, prowla said:

I have a V2 bridge on one of my 2010 Rics.

 

If only you could halve the number of truss rods — then it'd be perfect 😜

[prowla]

4 hours ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

 

If only you could halve the number of truss rods — then it'd be perfect 😜

Arf!

I like the twin truss-rods. 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

And I like the chromed plastic pickup cover.

 

Life would be boring if we all liked the same things.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I've just picked up the 4003 for the first time today, and visually checked I was plugging my cable into the socket marked 'standard.' I put it down to my poor memory that I thought it should have been the other socket. Once plugged in I was disappointed to find that the bass pickup was not working at all. Initially I thought I'd need to fix it again, but was concerned that if it failed so quickly after it was working, there must be something more serious wrong with the socket(s) than I realised.

 

After about fifteen minutes it hit me — when I had fixed the issue I was having, I removed both sockets from the plate and must have put the plate back on the wrong way around. I tested this hypothesis and I had indeed flipped the plate so both sockets were still working as they should, but the labels were the wrong way around. I'll put it right tomorrow. What an idiot!

[Cosmo Valdemar]

On 20/12/2024 at 16:22, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

 

I'm pretty confident that no one in their right mind would have a good reason to replace this bridge with a hipshot.

 

 

Unless you need to palm mute, of course 😁

 

I put a Hipshot on mine because of the mute getting the way, but I did notice an improvement in tone as well.

[prowla]

1 hour ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

I've just picked up the 4003 for the first time today, and visually checked I was plugging my cable into the socket marked 'standard.' I put it down to my poor memory that I thought it should have been the other socket. Once plugged in I was disappointed to find that the bass pickup was not working at all. Initially I thought I'd need to fix it again, but was concerned that if it failed so quickly after it was working, there must be something more serious wrong with the socket(s) than I realised.

 

After about fifteen minutes it hit me — when I had fixed the issue I was having, I removed both sockets from the plate and must have put the plate back on the wrong way around. I tested this hypothesis and I had indeed flipped the plate so both sockets were still working as they should, but the labels were the wrong way around. I'll put it right tomorrow. What an idiot!

My '64 - I'll put the plate on the right way one day...

 

Edited 18 hours ago by prowla

[prowla]

1 hour ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

Unless you need to palm mute, of course 😁

 

I put a Hipshot on mine because of the mute getting the way, but I did notice an improvement in tone as well.

You can palm mute on the normal bridge/tailpiece assembly.

I have found an appropriate place for one of my Hipshot bridges, though:

 

 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I need to see more pics of your '64 (my y.o.b.)

 

...plus your address and dates/times when there will be no one home.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

1 hour ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

Unless you need to palm mute, of course 😁

I stand corrected