Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Gee, maybe because despite being in the same range, they can for all practical purposes be totally different instruments. If my basses (Gibson LP fretless, Pedulla Buzz fretless, Kala U-Bass fretless, HofnerV63 Beatle, Rickenbacker 2030, Rickenbacker 4003 and a 1969 Hagstrom 8-string) sound like a ...

ill-conceived notion that the electric bass should be played with the thumb What's so ill-conceived about it? Play with whatever means you like to get the sounds you need. I have an Elektra album out there that turns 50 years old next year and I played every note of it with a flat pick on a fretles...

That's a tug bar, not a thumb rest. Thumb rests occupy the space above the low E string. Tug bars were an ill-conceived notion that the electric bass should be played with the thumb. Not sure where that came from (as the electric bass was designed as an alternative to the double bass). There's at le...

The reason I ask is that my daughter, who has more of an artist's eye than I, thinks it might look good if the pick guard and TRC matched the inlays. Can the pearloid stuff be obtained and, if it can, can a pick guard be made from it? Isaac: Give Tony Dudzik at Pickguardian a try. He does top shelf...

I was going to mention the odd history of the side dots in your other thread, but then I saw tonight that you'd already acquired the bass. I think the FLs had side dots identical to the fretted versions in the first half of the 2000s, +/-. I have a '73 4001FL and an '08 4003FL. It's clear to me, tha...

The 4001FL and 4003FL models also have board dots. It's not clear why, as the board dots are of little practical use since they are in the same locations as on fretted versions. FLs would look great with the shark inlays. Of course, the shark inlays would be of little practical use as well, but they...

Hey Dirk: FYI, I never use the fingerboard dots on my FL. For one, they are a vestige of fretted bass fingerboards and therefore useless in a FL context and secondly, in normal playing position, I can't see 90% of them. I use the side dots and my ear. In any case, I don't know if that's you in your ...

It's odd that you state that the fingerboard has dots but the bass has plain white binding. I realize that there are variants out there, but the fingerboard dots were used on the FL and S models and the S models have no binding. Since the binding is plain and the dots are black, that places it most ...

It's actually a complete disaster on a fretless. My April '73 4001FL has dots at every note position (at least better than the brief period of dots at every mid-fret location in the ~'90s on FL's) and it forces me to think. I don't want to think when I'm performing or rehearsing; only when I'm pract...

I have a December '72 and an April '73 and I'm going to pin it to early '73 because the body appears to be on the larger size (based primarily on how much body wood is visible between the teardrop of the pickguard and the input jacks). On my December '72, the pickguard goes almost to the very edge o...

I've got an '08 4003 in midnight blue and I can make out the seams although they aren't super obvious. I haven't noticed any change in their appearance with humidity/temperature in the 10 years or so that I've owned it.

You've asked a very specific question that I'm not sure can be answered (since a high gain and a toaster may not be wound the same way nor have the same resistance) but I'll echo the other replies and state that I prefer the clarity of the toaster in the neck position. I'm also mid-centric, but I wa...

I have December '72 and April '73 4001 basses with original wavy Grovers and no problems. Yes, they can fail, but I get the sense that the rather extreme nature of the failure brings this issue to the fore more than its frequency of occurrence would dictate.

This is true. IIRC, you get close to "flat" on GK heads by cutting back the bass and treble (to around 10 am) and boost the two mid-bands to 1 or 2 pm. I don't know that I can identify a truly flat sound with my GK 700RB-II, but this would make sense as setting all four EQ knobs to noon w...