I love how this bass fits in with any style. It looks metal af with cliff and lemmy, it looks like something cutting edge with geddy, it looks funky as hell with rick James, and the honeyburst would look at place in any southern rock, country, or jam band. Debate its sound all you want but it's the coolest bass ever. Too iconic for a budget version to make sense for the brand imo
I wouldnt call the S a "budget version" at all. I mean, it's only about 300£ cheaper. And lets face it, if you're spending 2000+ on a bass, 300 more or less isnt that big a deal. I'd say its a more "modern" take on the classic. The rounded edges make it abit more comfortable, and very few players still use the stereo/rick o sound option anyway. I personally use it on my 4003 FG, but getting a 4003SW now aswell. I'd love the option to have binding on the neck, and maybe the inlays, but it doesn't make that much of a difference to me really.
As an owner of a '78 4001 here's the good and bad for me: GOOD 1) They resale very well; often you'll get what you paid for and sometimes even more. 2) Regardless of what people say, these basses do not lack low end it's just that people tend to want to sound like Squire or Lee. Turn up the bass in your signal or on your amp if you're gonna go for the bright distorted tone please. 3) The tone is very unique. You will not have a problem being heard in a mix. 4) The neck profile on my bass feels nice, not too fat not too skinny. 5) The look is highly distinctive. You can't mistake a Rickenbacker for any other bass. BAD 1) The tuners on the late '70s 4001's suck ass. The newer basses have better tuners. I replaced mine with Hipshot Ultralites w/ a Drop D tuner. 2) The tone is very unique. The .0047 cap in the treble pickup circuit can limit your tonal options. If you have a 4001 bass, I highly recommend you have the push/pull switch installed to give you access to the modern and vintage tones. 3) This one is still a problem even on the modern 4003, the damn bridge. I understand it has the traditional look, but the bridge sucks ass. This is the worst part of the bass, bar none. My 4001 now has a Hipshot replacement bridge. 4) Although the resale value is high, it is a double edge sword. The basses are often very expensive and it makes access to these basses for younger people very difficult. I personally feel like Rickenbacker basses aren't worth the current $2000+ price tag, if anything they should be priced the same as a standard USA Fender. I'm in the camp that believes Rickenbacker needs to have a budget line like Fender has with Squier. 5) The truss rod system on the old 4001 basses is reliable as hell. As long as you keep the tension the same when you change strings, the neck will never move! However, in the event that you have to adjust the truss rod, be prepared for a total nightmare. The newer 4003's are easier to adjust because they use a modern truss rod system, but they're also not quite as stable as the old system. Pick your poison I guess. FINAL NOTES I'm sure I missed some points on this topic but I wanted to keep it brief. The 4001/4003 is a great bass, but ultimately it falls short because of it's pricing. In all honesty, the only regret I have is that I bought a 4001 instead of a 4004. The 4004 in my opinion is Rickenbacker's best line of basses to date. Yeah they don't have the classic look, but they're just overall better in my opinion.
The 4003 fixed the lack of low end. You can get the vintage sound by pulling the bridge volume knob (honestly I never use it). I had a 4004L...VERY hot humbucker, but the neck turned me off...would not settle and was too thin-I like a baseball bat...and I found it didn't have the character of my 4003. Cheers.
You'll never believe it but I bought my 78 Rick 4001s in 78 but it had been used for three months and returned to the guitar shop. They were selling It On consignment and I picked it up for$300! Yes I said $300. Your pros and cons about the 78 series are spot-on. I replace the nut with a brass one put in Schaller tuners, and then a badass Bridge. Also got rid of those damn plastic knobs and put in some nice heavy duty Chrome ones. I also wired a tiny micro switch to play with the capacitors on that treble pickup. I did that back in 1980 not really understanding what I was doing but I ended up with three cool sounds. Stock one, one with the pickups wide open and no capacitor at all, and finally one sort of in between the two. And you're absolutely right about the neck adjustment the dual truss Rod's are a f****** nightmare.
Richard Huckle that's because they are the EXACT same base, one has more dressing to match the general 4001 thing, the other, with no binding and dots, to match the UK import RM1999 model that Chris Squire and Paul McCartney famously used.
To both of you....It's Bass and Basses for the musical instrument. A base is either a military installment or the bottom of something, bases being the plural.
Hey guys, There were a couple things you missed on the ric-o-sound. You were correct in using a stereo cable, but that's where it ends. Unless that ABY box has a stereo input, you were only listening to the bridge pickup the entire time. (that... and the pickup selector as only on the bridge pickup). Easy mistake, but worth pointing out.
Came here to say that. Y’all noticed too. I have an old Magnitone guitar that only has stereo output, I had to build me a stereo- mono mono box for it. It’s awesome I run the bridge to the Marshall and neck to the fender. Good stuff.
My fav Beatles record is Rubber Soul since 65 til now , mainly cause Paul had a new deep sound due to his new Rickenbaker . I remember how we all were impressed and talking about it . Paul then began to play his most famous great bass lines which put the bass at front in pop music .
The Rickis are just so stunning in person. Not sure about the price-to-quality ratio. But they're more eye-catching today than they ever were since most basses look identical nowadays.
No mention of the great Bruce Foxton? local lad from down the road in Woking was in a little known band called The Jam, some of you may have heard of them. His guitarist was quite well known for playing Ric guitars as well.
melvoid01 Took the words out my mouth, when I think ric I always picture Brucy baby doing is little jump, closely followed by Lems silhouette, mic over head with a Ric up to 11.
Most excellent opening jam, fellows. I don't play a note, so I can't comment how impressive or skillful you guys are, but I do know that it's very pleasing to the ear. Good job by Anderton's to draw together some really wonderful musicians to flog their wares.
Hmmm..using Wikipedia is not always the best source. Just because a player picked up a Rickenbacker at some point does not make him a true Rickenbacker player. Burton - switched to an ESP Lee - switched to a Jazz Lemmy - true Ric Deacon - I think of a Stingray or Precision Entwistle - that funky looking Thunderbird Lynott - black Precision with the mirror pickguard
I'm a repairman and luthier, going on 50 years now. Yup- I'm old. At 68, I'm still doing it. And, I'm still playing bass professionally. I've been working on every guitar and bass that you can possibly imagine, for almost all of that half- Century. I'll never forget Greg Lake's answer to a fan who asked him why he didn't play Rickenbackers. His answer was, if I remember correctly, "They're wildly inconsistent." I have found much to dislike about Rickenbacker basses. In my view, the dual truss rods, along with the ridiculously bad bridge design, along with the slightly, but noticeable shorter scale, from a Fender bass, and the weird 'tubby' tone...were deal breakers for me. That said, they have always been very well made basses, just not my thing. Recently, a repair client brought me two fairly recent 4001S models, and his 1974 4001. The 'S' basses, both have the push pull pot, and sound so much better than the 1974 bass. There's something many Rickenbacker bass enthusiasts might not know. The older standard 4001 and 4003 basses have larger bodies, and the wings are mounted slightly different, in addition,the headstocks changed, as well. The 'S' models have a slightly pitched back headstock, the '74 has a 'scooped down' one. There are even variations of all those dimensions, including different body thicknesses! If your looking for one- the new ones are much better instruments, in my opinion.
In the early seventies I ran my 4001 stereo into two SVT heads/cabs with twin 15"s for the bass pickup and eight 10"s for the treble. Anything above two on the volume knobs would register as a local seismic event! (And yes, their stereo demo is incorrect.)
The story I was told was that the bridge pickup initially had a massive horse shoe magnet that looped over the top of the strings, hence the cover. When Rickenbacker updated the bridge pickup without the horseshoe magnet they left the cover there.
Absolute fail on how to use Rickosound. Stereo cable to two mono cables should've been used. Neck pickup ends up going to one amp, bridge pickup to the other. All you guys did was plug a stereo cable into an a/b box, which meant you only got bridge pickup and then were relying on the AB box to switch between sounds. Thus negating the whole idea of Rickosound.
Exactly, only one pickup signal was being split. They plugged a TRS cable into a TS ABY even if the pickup selector switch had been in the center, which it wasn't, they'd have only gotten one signal, not two
I dont understand why they use a splitter doesnt make sense, they can do that with any bass, the point of the ricosound is to be a splitter sending one pickup to one amp the other pickup to another amp. So many cool things you can actually do with rick o sound, at the least you can change your blend in the mixdown by recording both DI'ed so maybe you want more neck in the chorus and more bridge in the outro or something can do it in the mix rather then while tracking!
i actualy just found that the hard way couse i have the 4003 walnut and i got the same splitter has showed on the video and it doesnt work and yeah this way i only split the bridge pick up and it got me into thinking it was something wrong with bass and then i found out this spliiter input is mono
You're not actually using the Ric-O-Sound jack correctly, for two reasons. 1. Your pickup selector is set to bridge only 2. The ABY you plugged into is using TS jacks, so you're only splitting the bridge pickup signal to two amps.
Great video ! I have 4003 & a new 4003s. With proper EQ and string choice a much more versatile bass than you would think. Love the necks and the way they play.
I've got the 4003 and there is nothing lacking in the build. Maybe the bridge could be improved, maybe they could put in a bone nut or a Warwick adjustable nut but other than that they are solidly built neck throughs. The tone is unique and it's a ballsy rock and prog rock killer tone with the option to use the 4001 vintage tone. That tone can be enormous if you take advantage of the Ric o Sound which, unfortunately is NOT demonstrated in this video. The Ric O Sound sends each pickup to a separate amp and/or effects chain which is achieved by plugging a stereo jack in the Ric O Sound stereo output and sending that to two mono jacks, each of which goes to a different amp and/or effects chain. You guys split ONE pickup into two amps and while that is an option it is a lesser option than channeling each pickup and controlling the tone on each. I don't know but I can imagine you can split the pickups and then using Google the ABY split each pickup into two more amps but then you are dealing with FOUR amps! A bit unwieldy!So, how about an erratum video demonstrating how Ric O Sound should really be used?
You guys are great! Love my '76 4001. When I first got it (new), I used the Ric-O-Sound to split between my Fender Bassman amp and a BIG Leslie. What a fantastic sound! The only thing I missed was the push-pull switch, but since I re-wound my pickups anyway it sounded the way I like it. More vintage, like a '60s bass. Excellent review, as always.
There's a lot of answers here but I think the main one is that American workers get paid way more than Chinese, Indonesian, Korean and Mexican workers.
My 1957 Rickenbacker has two pick ups, but it is mono not stereo. I had to replace the Pick Guard because it crumbled. The original rear pick up went over on top of the strings with a space in the middle between the two magnets. I love it since 1975. You can hear it on all the American Zen and Kung Fu Cowboy records.
I have three (3) 4003s Rickenbacker basses. $2000 is too much for these, people say? Wrong. $2000 is a steal for something of this quality. I don't regret buying any of mine.
Does anyone listening this realize these two guys have absolutely no idea how Ric-O-Sound works? One pickup goes into one channel and the other pickup goes into the other channel, that's it, the pickups themselves are not split up. I do agree though, take that bridge pickup cover as fast as you can.
I just bought a 2014 Coy 4003 to add to my Ricky collection. I believe the S stands for "sanded", in reference to the rounded edge of the body, like Macca's 64 4001 which he sanded down to expose the natural wood finish.
Yes!!!! So happy that you've finally gotten around to Rics. I have two including a 4003w which is my undisputed #1 bass. Chris Squire used to use the Ric-O-Sound feature to split the signal into two different bass amps with effects only going through the treble side so it didn't muddy the sound of the bass side
To be honest if I could have a new bass I'd love to have a Rickenbacker, they sound awesome and a lot of my favourites and biggest influences played them, Macca, Geddy Lee, Cliff Burton, Lemmy
I think they messed up the Ric-O-Sound. They just took the sound of the bridge pick-up and split that (The switch is down all the time), instead of using a correct box and use both pick-ups to go into an amp each. Too bad. Love Ricks though!
The bridge pickup cover is homage to the original horseshoe pickup. That pickup had 2 horseshoe magnets surrounding the coil and the strings creating the magnetic field. So when they change to high gain pickups they put the chrome plated plastic cover on to keep the look.
I rarely use the mute underneath the trouble pick up. You have to be careful not to change the tuning with too much pressure. It makes it sound like a standup bass. I remember one soundtrack was a polka and it worked really well when I was recording with Supertramp.
I love the looks of rickenbacker basses. Iconic! But I've tried so many of them in guitar shops. And it turns out I'm a fender guy. They don't have the bottom end I'm looking for. And a little annoying to play with that plate across the neck pickup. The bridge, i hear are a pain. But i can't speak to that. Still love the looks of them.
I've read forums and people say all you gotta do is swap the bridge to a hipshot, swap the pickups, pull that neck pickup cover off, and then you have a great bass... I'm thinking if you're dropping over 2 g's on an instrument, you shouldn't have to put that much work into it
For anyone looking through the comments wondering, the pickguard acts as shielding as the older ricky pickups were made from steel, which made for poor magnets, and therefore produced a lot of hum. The pickguards were copper plated to remedy this.
I always wanted a Rickenbacker 4003 bass and when finally got the chance I bought a 1998 4003 S5!! I used it for a couple of years in a covers band but the more I used it the more I started noticing the design shortcomings like the heavy weight. Also the bridge pickup bezel was uncomfortable for me to rest my thumb! However, the only reason of why I kept playing that bass for years before selling it was its unique sound!!!!
Bass amps are not like guitar amps. You can push the master volume to 7 and will be cleaner than a JC120. Bass speakers also have tweeters and don’t lend themselves well to distortion either.
The pick up cover exists so that it looks like my original 4000 base with the magnets over the strings. That’s it that’s what they told me at the Rickenbacker factory when they replaced the pick up and I took that cover off immediately.
I'm not a full time bassist but I'm under the impression that you missed the idea of the rick-o-sound. Let me explain how I see it. You should plug a stereo-Y cable and have the two ends of the Y cable go to two different amps. You'd get both playing at the same time when you're in the middle position. Each of the pickup alone would play through a separate amp. This way you could have your regular bass sound in the neck, a fuzzy mo-fo in the bridge, and a Royal-Blood-y mix in the middle. You could switch between all that directly from your guitar. With the ABY box you used you could've done that with any guitar with a mono output bu the amps would get both the same pickup and the switching is done by the box itself. You cannot get a different sound for the neck and the bridge at the same time when using your setup. The rick-o-sound allows you to do that.
Very enjoyable :-)! But you do not use the Rick-O-Sound in stereo! With that you can lead the front pick-up over one system and the rear or middle pick-up over another. And if you want you can put effects on the middle and use the neck PU for deep bass . I'm not a friend of that, but I use the stereo feature sometimes for recording.
I do love me a nice Ricky bass but sorry chaps, a little bit of research on the Ric-o-sound to understand how to use it, before you shot the video, may have been prudent...
Nice sound with the ABY box at the end, but you could have done that with any mono output bass. That was not rick-o-sound. That ABY does not have a stereo input. You could have just splitted the signal with a suitable cord, no ABY boxes necessary.
The reason , I believe , these bridges were made was the simple fact most of players then did it with picks , and it was in purpose to rest you hand at different locations along the strings. Later , the picks were left for fingers play , and the bridges were obsolete.
When I started playing bass a few years ago I originally wanted to get a Ric bass but was told that it would take at least a year to get it. I wound up getting a 2015 Gibson USA Thunderbird bass and that's what I'm playing today. It's a great bass and I love playing it.
@@Ryzanu I wouldn't defret the bird, as I'd like to keep a fretted instrument. I was looking at a nice Ibanez SRF 4-string or maybe an Alembic Europa. I have been busy with some other things lately and haven't had the time to put into improving my chops as much as I need to go the fretless route. I'm thinking of converting my apartment to a music studio with a full-size electric piano for theory study. So much to do, so little time.
Thanks for that very nice video about that Bass. I am currently thinking about to buy a Rickenbacher, so that helped me a lot to make up my mind. Just another question: The second lick played in the video is from the Band 'Rush', right? Could some here give me a hint from which song it came from? Thanks, and keep on rockin'
I've loved the sound of these old Rick's ever since I heard a beautifully ugly candy apple red version at a local watering hole in the mid 1970's. Great sound but butt ugly.
@@robjobse8860 Agree with you mate! Great instrument but for me, they look ugly as fuck! I don't hate anyone who likes them, beauty is in the eye of the beholder bro!
It's not the worst bass I've played. Just the worst I've had to adjust. Hello Rickenbacker? Tail lift? Intonation? String height? No excuse on earth for that effing bridge to exist. And at this price point? When I bought in '76, all I went by was I saw it hanging on Pauls neck on the Wings Over America tour. Only later did I learn he only used it because it was free. Mine cost $2,150 when converted to 2019 dollars. Insane.
there's a design flaw that, if the timber's cut in an unsympathetic way, can lead to neck curvature centred on the ma-hoosive rout under the neck pickup, out of reach of the truss rods to correct it. leads to unplayably high action. my '74 4001 needed major surgery to correct it. so if you love the shape & the tone, look for a 70s ibanez replica with a bolt-on neck. better instrument.
@@duncan-rmi Or you can get one of the modern Rics which have solved the vast majority of the problems people have with them. They even changed the bridge.
Yep I’ll keep my American fender thank you very much they should be selling these for 1200 or so not 2200 they sound and look cool enough I suppose be cool to own one one day just won’t be paying more for this than my 🇺🇸 elite jazz and if I ever want similar tone I’ll be buying 🇺🇸 professional p bass
Liking the Spirit Of Radio riff near the beginning - it was on a 4001 though, but hey, who's asking? Rickie's are absolutely gorgeous - I'd love to own one (big Ged fan and always wanted a black an white scratch) but bills to pay etc, never managed to own one - great vid though - nice to see the Rickie being championed, underrated in a lot of circles but IMHO one of the best series of basses ever made. Class axe.
Another noticeable difference that was not mentioned is the 4003S body has rounded sides whereas the 4003 body is flat making the S model a bit more comfortable to play when resting your arm.
Always loved the look of the Ricky. Big Geddy fan and I think he sounded best with a Rick. He didn't however, so plays Fender Jazz these days, after dabbling with Wal, Steinberger etc....
Pete quaife from the kinks was the first bass player to own a rickenbacker in the uk. Then I believe it was john Entwistle and Chris squire who were the next ones with Paul McCartney getting his on tour by john hall in the mid 60s
