Just 2 cents about finishes...
1/ WHT finish : why was it discontinued ? I believe it is because it was the only one that required black hardware... But you can't imagine how many guys I drove crazy showing them my previous WHT 4003...
2/ MIDNIGHT BLUE : I am generally very classical about finishes. My tastes are essentially limited to black, white, natural or sunburst(s). The exception is Midnight Blue. The 4003S/5 (RIP) shown on the RIC website is awesome.
All the best,
JL
... and about the yearly finishes (still in my own tastes) :
I hate Sea Green and Blue Boy.
Desert Gold was not my taste.
Burgundy and Montezuma Brown are fine.
I second what was said about that Purpleburst. Should be available at RIC as standard, or at least for next year...
All the best,
JL
Paul, that,s correct...the upper horn meets the neck at the same level as the lower, under the 20th fret instead of above...The toaster cavity is fairly equal....that,s just my poor camera work!! Bridge pic in the post, with another that try,s to capture the colour at the back of the neck/body. To the present...purpleburst seems a winner on all fronts it seems...I,ll take one.."C" series spec....WITHOUT the reversed headstock..(it just doesn,t work for me personally). Do you think Ric is going to make the aesthetic "right" eventually??
Jean-- I respectfully disagree that a white finish Ric requires black hardware. I've seen pix of a few Ric guitars & basses modded with white trim and chrome hardware. To my eye, that combination is outstanding as long as the finish doesn't age to cream that so many seem prone to do.
Like you, I'm pretty conservative in my tastes for instrument finishes. Some of the classic Fender vintage finishes are actually quite nice, but some of them I don't care for at all. As mentioned in another post, guitar finish beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it's great when everyone has choices even though we can disagree on them.
I think white on white Ric basses are the classiest looking of all the colors.
Now that is a REAL lightshow bass, solid body and all.
And yes keep printing pictures of 60's Ric basses please.
I have a 78 4001 Midnight blue and had a brand new Midnight blue 4003 which unfortunately for me got shipped to England to a new owner, and both of them are/were darker than that bass on the website, that is what Azureglo looks like. Quite a bit darker as a matter of fact, but it is a nice color, I used my 78 MB tonight and someone commented that they liked the color.
> I respectfully disagree that a white finish Ric requires black hardware. I've seen pix of a few Ric guitars & basses modded with white trim and chrome hardware.
Jeffrey, what I meant is that, at the time when it was discontinued, this finish was the only one that still was delivered with black parts as standard.
I agree they could have been built with chrome hardware and white parts as many were earlier, but for my very own taste they look much greater with that black-on-white contrast. But it's all a matter of taste. You love classy looking bass, I prefer them when they look wild...
All the best,
JL
Hey Jean, I'm right there with you regarding your taste in colours - with one exception - Blue Boy(I know it's the wrong color blue). I think is looks great as a 4003 and there's one available here in the States - I think the price is high though. I've got cash reserved for my Cii and you can believe that it's burning a hole...I’m thinking about it! Being a major fan of dot inlays I certainly would have scoped up a C64 in FireGlo if it weren’t for that damn reversed headstock. Lord knows that there are plenty of the around now. They did a really nice job with the coloring however!
Anyway, way too early on a Sunday morning to be doing this…
And try the DR Low Riders when you get a chance - you'll love them!
And now I'm an Advanced Member so I know what I'm talking about!
I believe that Ric will offer the C with the normal headstock eventually..there,s a lot of people who would consider one then...that presently don,t..and that transpires into quite a few basses from what we,ve read on the sites. Back to the green...all these mods were done long before I acquired the bass. The main problem being that the neck had suffered very badly in the early years. There,s a post somewhere where Mark Arnquist spoke about staying away from highly figured maple necks as the grain causes a lot of problems..Well, that,s the case here. I presume the previous owner(s) had tried to lower the action, because it was so high due to eliminate buzz from the neck being out..and this was back in the day when the majority were not informed about Ric set ups. They finally gouged out a rout in the bridge to lower the whole assembly...but then the treble surround was in the way of the strings. So, out with the file..or whatever..and cut out that surround. As bad as it seems, they could have thrown the whole horseshoe away..(of the very few RM1999,s that are still around, most have a reissue/other treble p/u in them) and fitted a flat pick up....and that would have been really terrible, so, in hindsight I think I,m lucky that it,s still present. As i previously said, that this bass is not firewood is surprising. Some way back, someone was really concerned about trying to keep it a player when a lot would have said forget it..They did what they could at the time...and I,m glad they did...
