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 December 20, 2024 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 December 20, 2024 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 December 20, 2024 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 December 21, 2024 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

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

 

I had a bit of time today so I have done the copper tape shielding, and as I would have to strip all the components off the pickguard for this I took the opportunity to try the black rickysounds pickguard.

 

I started by putting copper foil on the back of the pickguard, but not quite up to the edges to ensure the copper doesn't show when it is fitted.

 

 

Shielding the cavities was a bit of a fiddly job but I managed to get everything back together and working.

 

I think the black pickguard looks rather good on the jetglo finish.

 

 

I had a smidge too much relief on the neck, so it needed a truss rod tweak which gave me the opportunity to try my repro black truss rod cover for even more of a blackout/ninja/stealth/batmobile look, however I think I prefer the contrast of the original one so that went back on. I somehow managed to drop and lose one of the original TRC screws whilst doing this, but all was not lost as I had some spares that are close enough in size.

 

 

More important than the aesthetics, the shielding has made the bass a lot quieter in the hum department, in fact I can't hear any hum at all now. Whenever I do a shielding job I always wonder why manufacturers  don't do this to provide a better product.

 

 

Edited December 28, 2024 by Jean-Luc Pickguard

[danbowskill]

Lovely!

Was this the cash converters in Exeter by any chance?

I seen one in the window before Xmas just like this and gas was hitting hard

[danbowskill]

Bizarre,who would sell a premium bass to cash converters rather than private or music shop, they can't have offered much imo

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

It did come from the Exeter branch.

 

Another branch had an HX Stomp XL listed for £399 yesterday, but while I was thinking about whether to go for it, someone else bought it.

[danbowskill]

I did say to the wife I've never bought or played a rick before and I never really treat myself... "Nope" was the answer 😂 one day. It looked beautiful in the flesh mate, nice buy

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

That's what my missus used to say, but these days I find it easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

 

It is a beautiful bass. I did have an initial weird issue with the mono socket (and I did wonder whether this was why it ended up in CC), but once I had used logic and perseverance to troubleshoot and fix it, it has been perfect. I finessed the setup today when I was shielding and swapping the pickguard.

[fergs40]

@Jean-Luc Pickguard Did you happen to take any pictures of the cavity shielding you did? I have been meaning to do my 2011 4003 for ages - have got as far as buying the tape, but not 100% sure what an effective shielding job on one of these looks like, so a pic would be very helpful to me. Thank you!

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

No I'm afraid I didn't take any pics apart from the back of the pickguard, which is probably the most important bit to do.

 

 

Both pickup cavities were straightforward, but shielding the control cavity was a bit fiddly as I kept the pots etc in place due to not wanting to remove the output sockets. I was able to shield most of that cavity but didn't go right up to the socket area. I ensured that the strips of copper tape slightly overlapped and each shielded area was grounded by being in contact with something already grounded.

 

 

Edited December 29, 2024 by Jean-Luc Pickguard

[danbowskill]

Thin mechanic type gloves is useful when doing shielding, slice many a tip on that bugger 😂