The Last Bass Outpost
Gear Discussion Forums => Rickenbacker Basses => Topic started by: nofi on November 27, 2011, 11:56:16 AM
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http://www.3dentourage.com/425/jeffbass.htm
scroll down a bit.
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Those aren't copies, they are real Ricks that Jeff has modified.
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He calls them 4-2-5's.
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Is he posting anywhere these days?
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i randomly found him on talkbass. i don't know who he is.
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For years he was one of the most frequent posters at Rick Resource Forum. Ilan has said that he was banned there, this was about three years ago. No idea why, he may have been too critical of the company's practices to suit the forum owner.
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on a similar note, if one of his 5 string rics appeared on ebay would hall be inclined to abort the auction. i am aware of ric's strict trademark defense.
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I don't think they would or could do that. It wouldn't be any different than selling any other real-but-modified Rick.
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He replies to just about any Rickenbacker post on Talkbass. I believe he's "Ric5".
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on a similar note, if one of his 5 string rics appeared on ebay would hall be inclined to abort the auction. i am aware of ric's strict trademark defense.
At least one had been listed on ebay, a trans blue 4004CII, and IIRC nobody wanted it for the starting bid and it was a beautiful peice of wood. I considered buyibg it and converting back to 4 string, but there would be that extra hole in the head.
IMO Jeff comvinced a lot of guys to seriously devalue their basses.
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IMO Jeff comvinced a lot of guys to seriously devalue their basses.
I never thought of it that way! Personally, I would never do that to a bass of mine. But at the same time, they're pretty cool - basically a customized Ric fiver in a configuration that would never be produced by Rickenbacker themselves. I like my 4-string 4001 as-is - if I want to play more strings I'll switch to a different bass and enjoy it for what it is rather than try and convert it into something it wasn't designed to be... To each his own! :toast:
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Yeah, a lot of these were done before Rick values really took off. OTOH even when he started everyone knew what an alteration like this would do to value. Their eyes were open, they wanted a 5-string Rick more than they wanted value down the road.
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Those things string spacing must be tight as hell!
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As it is on a regular Ric 4003S/5, not that I mind as pick player, but for a finger player it would be awkward. But the less than full long scale on a Ric defeats the concept of an optimal-sounding B anyway. It's a flabby affair and Ric even had the nerve of delivering its own reg 5ers with a custopm Ric string set featuring - wait for it! - a manyly 115 as, no, not the E but as the B string. Possibly, I got it wrong and that gauge was supposed to be the high B? ; - )
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IMHO it's really too tight for a pick player too. But if you gotta have 5 strings and you gotta have a Rick, that's all you can do.
In the latter days of the Pit, when JH did a little posting there, he said that according to a music trade mag, none of the top ten selling basses were 5 stringers. With the traditional models selling faster than he could make them, it's easy to see why he didn't consider a 5 string Rick to be a high priority.