The Last Bass Outpost
Gear Discussion Forums => Rickenbacker Basses => Topic started by: hieronymous on January 22, 2014, 10:21:16 AM
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4003W
http://www.rickenbacker.com/model.asp?model=4003W (http://www.rickenbacker.com/model.asp?model=4003W)
(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3826/12089139916_6eefe45564.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/99859390@N00/12089139916/)
I kind of like it - I wonder if the fingerboard is unfinished?
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That illustration probably won't do the actual bass justice. It looks computer generated!
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4003W
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I kind of like it - I wonder if the fingerboard is unfinished?
Unlikely - maple.
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Wow. A radical departure. No one could mistake this for a 4001 or a rank and file 4003 from a few yards away. :-X
Excuse the irony. I was expecting something, uhum, new. It's probably gonna snap like hell though with that maple board and the unforgiving walnut body and will find its fans. One Ric to rule them all.
Not sure whether the mop'ish trapezoid inlays are a good idea on a board as light-colored as this one.
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Not too far off from the original 4004C. Different pickups and bridge, of course, but same walnut wings and maple board. It will sound somewhat different (unless you're one of those people who claim that wood species makes no difference).
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Yep, that´s definitely a Rickenbacker!
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I always found that those walnut Fender Ps from the 80ies that weighed a ton sounded unforgiving (but they sure had their fans, people either sold them off quickly or hung on to them for life). Here the neck thru construction might mellow things out a little.
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I realize that this statement violates my moniker... but these would look killer with a black trim/hardware option. :vader:
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I agree with chromium. A black guard, at least.
I'm glad Rickenbacker are finally offering a new variation on the 4003 bass, not just a COY.
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I'm a sucker for walnut, but if I had the money to buy that bass, I'd do the Cliff Mod and put a mudbucker in the neck pickup position, not exactly a wise thing to do on something so expensive and rare. ...annnd that's why I don't have a Ric.
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Never understood light on light... the neck needs contrasting markers, maybe to match the body...
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Never understood light on light... the neck needs contrasting markers, maybe to match the body...
My '77 Jazz bass w/maple board has pearloid block inlays and I much prefer it over black blocks.
(http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll127/ilanlukatch/FenderJazzBass77.jpg) (http://s287.photobucket.com/user/ilanlukatch/media/FenderJazzBass77.jpg.html)
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My RD came with light dots, but I had PC take them out circa '80 and they have been black ever since...
It's the chrome/nickel/gold/plastic thing, I guess...
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I'm going to bite my tongue here and just say "it's not for me". :-\
Here's a pic from NAMM - (https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1/1514238_10201339928721953_2028145052_n.jpg)
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Ric NAMM, not Viet Nam... :mrgreen:
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I'm a sucker for walnut, but if I had the money to buy that bass, I'd do the Cliff Mod and put a mudbucker in the neck pickup position, not exactly a wise thing to do on something so expensive and rare. ...annnd that's why I don't have a Ric.
Cool! I didn't know that about Cliff's Ric. Did he record anything with that bass? Did it sound good? I guess the bridge pup was a Fender Jazz single coil too according to the thread here (http://www.rickresource.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15689).
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Cool! I didn't know that about Cliff's Ric. Did he record anything with that bass? Did it sound good?
I don't know but I'll speculate that Garage Days Revisited probably had that bass with the new pickups. That's their covers of "Am I Evil?" and "Blitzkrieg."I have the Cliff 'Em All DVD (and laserdisc) and can attest to the Ric NOT having different pickups in it, which was shot right around when Kill 'Em All was released, so it was probably the bass on the record (which certainly sounds like a Ric) with its stock pickups. It looks like it was also the bass used on Ride the Lightning, at least according the album photos and gear stories I remember. If he used the Aria for Master of Puppets, that would go a long way towards explaining how much less prominent his bass was compared to the other two and and it Lightning were otherwise mixed identically by Fleming Rasmussen. I still contend the only decently mixed Metallica album was Kill 'Em All, but their best sound, bass especially, was on the Garage Days Revisited EP, which would make it the Ric with the changed pickups. Short answer: Garage Days Revisited and Ride the Lightning had the Ric with the Mudbucker and Jazz pickups.
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Neat. Thanks for the info. I would have never thought Mel Schacher, Tom Scholz and Cliff Burton had such similar set ups.
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Neat. Thanks for the info. I would have never thought Mel Schacher, Tom Scholz and Cliff Burton had such similar set ups.
I don't think that Tom Scholz's bass would have lasted five seconds in Cliff's hands. He's featured in this month's Premier Guitar and he talked about how he disconnected the mudbucker and that the bass itself is barely structurally intact.
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Wait a second - isn't Garage Days Revisited Jason Newstead? Actually, the Newstead one is The $5.98 EP Garage Days Re-Revisited - was there an earlier release just called "Revisited" with Cliff? I've never heard of that and can't find any reference to it (but of course that doesn't mean that it doesn't exist).
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Would love to see a true new RIC model, but it will ever happen.
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Wait a second - isn't Garage Days Revisited Jason Newstead? Actually, the Newstead one is The $5.98 EP Garage Days Re-Revisited - was there an earlier release just called "Revisited" with Cliff? I've never heard of that and can't find any reference to it (but of course that doesn't mean that it doesn't exist).
Garage Days Revisited was originally in extremely limited release through Megaforce Records as a solid yellow-jacketed cassette and supposedly a 7" vinyl. Radio stations around the country got most of those, BTW. I've seen one of the cassettes, along with the "Jump in the Fire" single. Never any of the 7"s old though; they'd be worth a fortune now. When Metallica first began to have a rise in popularity with ...And Justice For All, Kill 'Em All was re-released on CD with the addition of the two tracks from Garage Days Revisited. That CD has since gone out of print and is now a collector's item, as it was produced in the smallest numbers of any release of that album. I have it. It was the first Metallica CD I ever bought. Those two tracks remained out of reach for most of Metallica's post-black-album fans until they were remastered and reissued on Garage Inc. While Bob Rock's heavy hand as executive producer can be heard on all the Newstead-era remasters, he didn't really mess with the old stuff much and it sounded like it was just brightened up a bit to compensate for the old/worn analog masters.
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Thanks for schooling me - was not up on that tidbit of Metallica-lore. Will have to look for my copy of Kill 'Em All and see if I have the one with bonus tracks - part of me feels like I might but haven't listened to that album in years.
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That Ric looks very cool in real life!
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Chris, can you upload a good pic of it from NAMM?
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Just a moment.
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(http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-QJ67YNF3-D.jpg)
(http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-VPJ7ZXWK-D.jpg)
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The brochure they had was bad;) One page with bad pics;) But they had one!
I have some more bad pics of the booth and me and mr. Hall.
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Nice grain on that one!
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What exactly are the tonal properties of walnut? I know that it's a straight grain hardwood but I've heard it to compared to everything from mahogany for warmth to maple for snap to koa's neutrality. Since I've only ever encountered in on coffee-table basses with ultra-low setups and active electronics, I've never actually heard its tonal thumbprint unobscured. Carvin uses it a bunch, but the only way I'd buy a Carvin is used, and the folks who have the money to get a Carvin with walnut don't sell them.
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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.
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According to John Hall the bass sounds very Rick-ish, but a bit brighter.
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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.
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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...?
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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.
(http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk176/justadrummer5359/Rickenbacker4003Wproduction_zps8d212c63.jpg) (http://s280.photobucket.com/user/justadrummer5359/media/Rickenbacker4003Wproduction_zps8d212c63.jpg.html)
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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!
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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. :)
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I think it looks awesome! Looking forward to your report.
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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.
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Congrats on the 4003W!
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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?
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visually, the look is stunning
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Rick Turner and 2 Martin Keiths.
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I'd love to pickup an original 4004C Cheyenne, but I'm really looking forward to my 4003W.
And yes, I will report in.
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Finally saw one of these in person, next to the limited edition 4001S discussed elsewhere (http://bassoutpost.com/index.php?topic=8951.0) 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...
(https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5612/15098925943_f858460be4_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/p1eWDn)
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I love the look of the walnut, but if I were in the market I'd buy a 4001S.
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I love the look of the walnut, but if I were in the market I'd buy a 4001S.
I think I agree with you - the walnut does look cool though! Here's a better version of the pic:
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7583/15537320620_1c37b05a25_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/pEYQ7h)