They've released pics of the 4005 reissue. Said to be priced just under 5 thou. Expected to first arrive this summer.
Serious GAS here for a JG.
Beyond my snack bracket , but I'm really happy to see Rickenbacker do this , and happy for those that will place an order. First deliveries are expected this summer. They are considerably cheaper than what they've been fetching in the vintage market.
Quote from: morrow on February 27, 2024, 06:20:25 AM
They are considerably cheaper than what they've been fetching in the vintage market.
And possibly better, with modern truss rods. Unlike vintage Fenders, I don't think that old Rics are better. Rickenbacker have kept their quality standards, no CBS or Norlin eras.
Now, what to sell. Too bad it's a buyers market now.
Pics?
(https://i.postimg.cc/FKWQtM5z/IMG-9881.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
Checkerboard binding on the back.
That radical bridge pup position and then a foot of nothing before the neck pup is snug to the end of the fretboard ... I know the purists wouldn't want it any other way.
And you do have ample room for an aftermarket split-coil in the middle, very thoughtful of them. :mrgreen:
What's the difference between these with the rounded horns and the ones with the horns that come to a point?
Quote from: BklynKen on February 28, 2024, 01:36:31 PM
What's the difference between these with the rounded horns and the ones with the horns that come to a point?
The pointy beast, 4005XC, was shortscale and not based on a historic instrument. Oddly, Shaftesbury had a bass like the 4005XC in the late '60s, so it's a copy of a copy.
Quote from: Alanko on February 28, 2024, 03:54:49 PM
The pointy beast, 4005XC, was shortscale and not based on a historic instrument. Oddly, Shaftesbury had a bass like the 4005XC in the late '60s, so it's a copy of a copy.
Ah, thanks!
I preferred to see it as a bass version of Harrison's famous 12 string. And have to confess that I was hoping for a bass version of the 325 Lennon used.
Although I LOVE the look of the three Rics, fortunately I have no desire to spend the money for one.
Even as a big Ric nerd, these are of no interest to me, but they'll definitely make some people happy. I wonder how many they'll actually sell after all these years of people wishing for its return? I'm guessing not a lot.
I have one, of course it looks gorgeous. And if you love something dearly, you can also get it to sound decent at least. It's just not the 4001/4003 effect of plugging in and immediately hearing a signal that makes you go "Oh wow, this sounds really cool and different!".
I don't think Ric expects this to be a huge seller, but it will likely be a consistent one over the years for a committed minority. Maybe Noel will get one, he had this one here on loan from Paul Weller at the time ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6X0rOC32AA
For all their limitations and the one-trick-pony'ishness to them, I kinda do miss Oasis. Not the saviors of rock'n'roll, but morbidly entertaining.
When I was a kiddo in the '90s Oasis seemed genuinely dangerous. Quite laughable now. A pack of roaming Mancunians with dodgy eyebrows, Ben Sherman shirts and parka jackets mincing around menacingly near some press photographers. Shouting "bollocks!" occasionally, dating supermodels and falling out of limousines. All ripping stuff to read about in the NME or various lowbrow 'lads mags' of the era.
In 1997 that felt like the height of danger, but a decade later your mate at school could send you a link to a website which automatically played a terrorist beheading video. For a laugh. The world moved quickly, and Oasis suddenly seemed quaint by comparison, with their brick wall'd Beatles sound and mushroom haircuts. Of another era! Britpop coincided with the last time (ever?) that there was any deep routed optimism within the British psyche. Tony Blair's labour government seemed fresh-faced and seemed to promise a lot of positive lousy, but represented a jerk to the centre-right in British politics that I don't ever see being reversed. Come 2007 we were in recession and we've been circling the drain ever since, asset-stripped and veering further and further right and getting constantly embroiled in gutter-tier identity politics. Oasis peaked at a time when there was still some sense within the general population of British exceptionalism (wrongly or otherwise) and the notion we had something to ship around the world.
Mark Lanegan documents a dispute he had with Liam Gallagher while Oasis and the Screaming Trees were on tour together. Mark was genuinely up for a fight with Liam, who had goaded him from the start of the tour. In return Liam hid behind security staff and eventually vanished off the tour. All talk!
Sibling rivalry is always entertaining if it's not in your family.
And Liam is of course - or better used to be - a mouthful of a mouthful. I grant him though that he has developed as a musician while Noel is kinda stuck in one place.
For me the lack of a hugely influential bass player associated with a 4005 is a bonus. I don't like looking like a fanboy.
That and how no one will ask you whether it is a good bass for heavy metal!
There is certainly a scarcity of Rickenbacker guitars in heavy (be it rock or metal) groups, they are even rarer than Telecasters (which with Status Quo found at least some hard rock usage). The heaviest guitarist playing a Rickenbacker guitar in his early days was probably Pete Townshend, but it's kind of hard to picture them with, say, Van Halen, Judas Priest, Kiss, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Accept or Scorpions!
It seems that Rickenbacker guitars are used mostly in alt and indie rock, and I suspect it has a lot to do with their retro aesthetics – you don't look very alternative with a Strat or Les Paul. Personally I never found their 6-string guitars useful or comfortable. To me they sound a bit cheap and tinny.
Quote from: ilan on March 02, 2024, 06:59:32 AM
For me the lack of a hugely influential bass player associated with a 4005 is a bonus. I don't like looking like a fanboy.
Mani from the Stone Roses is the lone bassist I can think of who used one. Even then, I can't think of a specific identifiable 4005 tone jumping out their records. He uses Jack Casady basses these days.
(https://www.rickresource.com/stt-research/garymounfield.jpg)
Early Steppenwolf pics have everybody with Transonic amps and Rickenbacker instruments , including a 4005.
Teles rare in hard rock? What about Ray Davies, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, among others?
They exist, but not as prevalently as Strats, Les Pauls, SGs, Flying Vs and Explorers.
I'd say in hard and heavy rock about as frequent as Firebirds?
I know of Page's Whole Lotta Love solo Tele of course, but did Clapton use a Tele with Cream much? Post-Cream I wouldn't rate him as a hard rocker and my hunch is that he wouldn't either. I see his whole post-Cream career as a quest to morph from hard rock guitar god to respected singer/songwriter who also plays well guitar, but in a way serving the song. That said, Layla is probably a hard rock song ...
Townshend was of course another hard rock'ish Tele shape player for a while, that Schecter Tele he began using in the 80ies.
Anyway, I was not implying that a Tele can't work in a heavy environment (one listen to the orgastic Whole Lotta Love solo disproves that), just that they are rare for likely visual reasons. Picture Paul Stanley with a Tele, it doesn't work.
As regards the Ric hollow body guitars, however, it seems safe to assume that their scarcity in trad. hard rock/heavy metal has to do with their sonics not really lending themselves to that type of music. And it's not just the hollow body aspect, Blackmore played his solo on Child In Time with an ES-335 and used it live as late as still 1969/70, Alvin immortalized himself at Woodstock with an ES-335 too and then there is always Uncle Ted's Byrdland. But Speed King, I'm Going Home or Stranglehold with a Rickenbacker 330? I have my doubts.
It's more about the pickups than body construction. Jingle-jangly single coils are good for retro and indie, heavier genres call for humbuckers.
Lennon's 325 looked fantastic but it can't hold a candle to George's Gretsch tone.
We also had Peter Banks with a 330 in Yes.
Quote from: ilan on March 03, 2024, 09:17:47 AM
It's more about the pickups than body construction. Jingle-jangly single coils are good for retro and indie, heavier genres call for humbuckers.
Lennon's 325 looked fantastic but it can't hold a candle to George's Gretsch tone.
Lennon's woody, zero-sustain and badly intonated 325 is like the real rhythm keeper on those early Beatles cuts! It kept right out the way of George's lead lines and drove the songs along. Not a tone I would want to be getting, but quite recognisable.
Quote from: uwe on March 03, 2024, 08:39:21 AM
They exist, but not as prevalently as Strats, Les Pauls, SGs, Flying Vs and Explorers.
I'd say in hard and heavy rock about as frequent as Firebirds?
I know of Page's Whole Lotta Love solo Tele of course, but did Clapton use a Tele with Cream much? Post-Cream I wouldn't rate him as a hard rocker and my hunch is that he wouldn't either. I see his whole post-Cream career as a quest to morph from hard rock guitar god to respected singer/songwriter who also plays well guitar, but in a way serving the song. That said, Layla is probably a hard rock song ...
Townshend was of course another hard rock'ish Tele shape player for a while, that Schecter Tele he began using in the 80ies.
Anyway, I was not implying that a Tele can't work in a heavy environment (one listen to the orgastic Whole Lotta Love solo disproves that), just that they are rare for likely visual reasons. Picture Paul Stanley with a Tele, it doesn't work.
As regards the Ric hollow body guitars, however, it seems safe to assume that their scarcity in trad. hard rock/heavy metal has to do with their sonics not really lending themselves to that type of music. And it's not just the hollow body aspect, Blackmore played his solo on Child In Time with an ES-335 and used it live as late as still 1969/70, Alvin immortalized himself at Woodstock with an ES-335 too and then there is always Uncle Ted's Byrdland. But Speed King, I'm Going Home or Stranglehold with a Rickenbacker 330? I have my doubts.
Teles less prevalent in hard rock than Flying Vs and Explorers? I don't think so!
Clapton played a Tele with Strat neck in Blind Faith's Hyde Park debut and was seen with it in Cream in that Danish movie. He also played it onstage with Delaney and Bonnie. He has said that a Tele has been at least somewhere on all his albums. Fender Custom Shop issued a run of 50 Blind Faith Teles about 5 years ago, IIRC with a price tag above $15K.
Back to Rics, I think any type of music can sound good on a 330 or 360, even if not ideal.
Quote from: Alanko on March 03, 2024, 02:30:21 PM
Lennon's woody, zero-sustain and badly intonated 325 is like the real rhythm keeper on those early Beatles cuts! It kept right out the way of George's lead lines and drove the songs along. Not a tone I would want to be getting, but quite recognisable.
They did have a clear good tone / bad tone strategy, but personally when choosing a guitar I'm more inclined to go for the good tone shelf rather than the so-bad-it's-immediately-recognizable. But to each their own ;)
I will give them this — when Paul came back from the store with his new Epi Casino, John and George immediately ordered theirs. And it did not compromise their performance. John could still get his signature crappy tone, and George, you know, could make anyhing sound good.
Sustain is vastly overrated.
"Sustain is vastly overrated.":-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59xYyYyPeXc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gcPdeL4Dnc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ2nHgZcf3I
Can you come up with as many hard rock & metal Tele players, Dave?
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/gibson-flying-v/
Actually, it's a bit ironic because I personally find that a Flying V is the guitar in the Gibson stable that sounds closest to a Telecaster - played clean it has quite a crisp, even twangy sound.
As a teen I ran into a used 4005 at the long shuttered Benson's Music in Rochester NY. Hanging high on the wall it was one of the most beautiful basses I had ever seen. Expressing intrest Mike the proprietor said " naw you don't want that " he went on to explain how poor they sounded and to prove his point he plugged it in and played it. Transparent is the word I used to describe it's sound then and I still do, I remembered thinking even my Hofner sounds better.
The 4005 is a beautiful bass, I still want one even though I know it won't produce a sound I'll find usable.
Kudos to Rickenbacker for bringing it back!
I'm fine with the sounds you get with a hollow body bass. But I'm generally after a fairly warm thumpy traditional tone. I think a 4005 would perfectly suit me , but it's a bit too pricey.
I'm with Scott, "transparent" is a good way to describe the sound of a 4005, it's not an overly warm and thumpy sounding bass at all. Lacks mid range growl - as you would expect from those extreme pup positions.
But it's a highly individual looker.
My experience with them is quite different, apparently. :mrgreen:
Quote from: uwe on March 04, 2024, 03:54:21 PM
Can you come up with as many hard rock & metal Tele players, Dave?
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/gibson-flying-v/
Actually, it's a bit ironic because I personally find that a Flying V is the guitar in the Gibson stable that sounds closest to a Telecaster - played clean it has quite a crisp, even twangy sound.
I'm not interested in counting, and I don't know one metal player from another. I do know that the Flying V has been a failure for Gibson, that's why it's been discontinued and revived so many times. Fender never needed to do that.
I believe the Flying V was discontinued only once by Gibson and then resumed again forever once Hendrix had made it popular. It's a consistent seller and an integral part of the hard rock/heavy metal image. A niche model yes, but a successful one.
There's 17 of them on the Gibson site right now.
Quote from: uwe on March 07, 2024, 10:43:00 AM
I believe the Flying V was discontinued only once by Gibson and then resumed again forever once Hendrix had made it popular. It's a consistent seller and an integral part of the hard rock/heavy metal image. A niche model yes, but a successful one.
No, the second V was a failure too, almost as big as the first failure, and was discontinued. It has been periodically dropped and restarted since.
You and I have no idea of the actual sales figures in recent years.
We're way way off topic here, let's drop it and get back to Rics.