4003 and string selection...

Blackbird · January 23, 2012, 10:31:46 AM

At the risk of this being a dumb question.....I'll ask anyway:

The finish on a 4003 fretboard is not what I'm used to playing on..clearcoated of some sort??? My stings of choice for my Thunderbird for 5 years or so has always been 40-95 Rotosound 66's....

..are those strings OK for the finish on those fretboards?

leftybass · January 23, 2012, 12:30:00 PM

Your strings contact your fretboard?

Blackbird · January 23, 2012, 01:06:38 PM

Not like this guy's!!!

ilan · January 23, 2012, 11:10:10 PM

I've never had a problem with roundwounds. The strings only touch the frets anyway. IMHO Roto 66's sound especially awesome on a Ric.

Blackbird · January 24, 2012, 04:48:55 AM

I play a whole step down and thought there was always a slight bit of contact made - just on a visual...wow...I just had to check....and turns out I'm a bigger goof than I thought!!

Highlander · January 24, 2012, 04:57:21 PM

They can eat some types of frets, though...

Blackbird · January 25, 2012, 05:16:58 AM

Well...I play with 40-95's on my Tbird, a whole step down and then a drop C....I always figured there was some contact there on the board itself with the looser tension. My bad!

And I suspect refretting a Rick wouldn't be a matter of a trip to the local shop!!

Dave W · January 25, 2012, 09:12:21 AM

No wonder you have contact with the board. A 95 E is low enough tension and dropping it to C is 40% less tension.

Some people have claimed that some of the old 4001s had softer frets. I couldn't say one way or the other. But a 4003 should have the same hardness nickel silver frets as the competition.

The outer windings of stainless rounds have surfaces like little files, and the windings of Rotos are coarser than most of their competition. Some people who play aggressively do have problems with them eating frets, others don't.

Rick fretboards are finished. I don't see how a refret would be done without disturbing it, and if you're playing with stainless rounds and your strings hit the board, you're going to damage that finish too. Nickel rounds shouldn't be a wear problem for frets, but again, if you hit the surface of the board with them, it will eventually wear.

Dr Quist · January 27, 2012, 06:15:16 PM

The comppany that makes USA fretwire (It's NOT Dunlop in Benicia Calif - they are a 'jobber' ) has not changed the metalurgic make up of fretwires since 1948 .

Strings on the other hand HAVE changed.

ilan · January 28, 2012, 01:25:55 AM

John Hall posted this in '98: "The fret wire was never changed, as we have always used the hardest alloy available. An almost pure iron string like the Rotosound is going to wear any fret material away more than, say, a nickel alloy string will."

Blackbird · January 28, 2012, 05:53:13 AM

I've never had a bass where I had frets redone..

..but 90% of my playing (sadly) is jamming to Crue stuff over the past few years, so I got used to the 40-95 Swing 66's dropped down a step....tension and feel....but I'm OK with getting nickel 40's and giving them a go. It seems that overall tho, the 66's on the 4003 will long outlast me!!

Options for 40-95's in my location are limited...D'Addario nickels, Roto Swing 66's, maybe an Ernie Ball set if I recall. TI's seem to be a nice set, but I'm not dropping 70$ on them.

Blackbird · August 13, 2012, 06:13:50 AM

Well.....after 8 months, I changed stock to some. 40-95 Rotos SB66's.......AAHHHHH YESS! why I waited so long is beyond me.