new Rickenbacker bass model!

[drbassman]

Well, years ago I made a TB semi-clone out of walnut with a maple bolt on neck and it sounded more like maple to me.  Very bright and articulated.  A heavy dense board in my experience.

[Chris P.]

According to John Hall the bass sounds very Rick-ish, but a bit brighter.

[uwe]

A little unforgiving in sound, walnut has a tendency to be harsh, but one man's harshness is another man's focus. It's certainly not warm, just dense sounding.

[Highlander]

I have a piece of 100 year old black walnut from a tree planted by Queen Victoria that was blown down in a storm in a major arboretum (Kew Gardens) in '87 that I was given - it could be cut to make two or three double-octave fret-boards/fretless-boards... I keep it in the shed for rainy day purposes...

Is this a nuts idea or should I keep it for use...?

[drummer5359]

I just ordered a 4003W today, has anyone else here picked up one of these? This is my first Ric by the way. I'm a sucker for maple necks, which is why I hadn't bought a Rickenbacker until now.

This photo was on the Rickenbacker site, I had to share it.

[gearHed289]

You threw me for a sec when you said maple necks, but I figured out you meant maple fingerboards. Yeah, only a couple of models I can think of had maple necks, and they're discontinued. The redneck/blackstar/tuxedo basses had painted maple 'boards, and the original run of 4004L basses had clear finished maple.

I have not yet seen a walnut in person. Hope you enjoy it!

[Paul Boyer]

And the original 4004C Cheyenne.

And the 2020.

And the 2060.

But, yeah, the W is only one you can get new with a maple fingerboard.

[hieronymous]

I think it looks awesome! Looking forward to your report.

[Jeff Scott]

All my walnut body basses sound amazing, I expect these Ricks to be so, also.  No harshness to them, only full, deep, bright, even response all across the fingerboard, with exceptional sustain.

[chromium]

Congrats on the 4003W!

[Dave W]

All my walnut body basses sound amazing, I expect these Ricks to be so, also.  No harshness to them, only full, deep, bright, even response all across the fingerboard, with exceptional sustain.

Just curious, what other walnut body basses do you own?

[patman]

visually, the look is stunning

[Jeff Scott]

Rick Turner and 2 Martin Keiths.

[drummer5359]

I'd love to pickup an original 4004C Cheyenne, but I'm really looking forward to my 4003W.

And yes, I will report in.

[hieronymous]

Finally saw one of these in person, next to the limited edition 4001S discussed elsewhere and a nice 4003 - I was pretty blown away to see them all in a row at my local GC - glad they keep them up there out of reach of the unwashed hordes...