Searching For A Ric 4003

[bassduke49]

That's the best flame I've seen on a 4003 bass made in the last 20 years or so. Hope they saved some of that for the 4004s just shipped!

[s4001]

HOLY COW! That's nicer than the FG at Namm!

[ajish4]

That's the best flame I've seen on a 4003 bass made in the last 20 years or so. Hope they saved some of that for the 4004s just shipped!

+1 for sure!

Seems like everything out of the factory is just stunning.

The bursts are killer!

[tallpat1]

That is most beautiful Fireglo I have ever seen The flame is stunning! congrats best of both worlds!

[prestoj]

First, I want to thank all of the RickResource Forum Members who responded to this post. I won't go into the details, but within 24 hours of my initial post (on 1/10), Ross Hansen put me on to Classic Axe in NoVA and the guitar was delivered by Tuesday, the 13th. I couldn't be happier. The folks at CA (Russ, Cindy) provided first-rate service.......seamless transaction and the guitar was packaged very securely. I highly recommend them if you are in the market for a Ric.

I appreciate everyone's input on this thread and especially all of the kind welcoming comments and feedback on the pictures.

Now, I am off searching this forum for guidance on care and maintenance. See you there. (How do you embed smilies???)

[bassduke49]

Jack, when you reply, you should have an empty text space and a table of smilies to the right. Just click on the one you want and it will land wherever your text cursor is. It will show as text keystrokes in the reply box, but turns to smilies when you post.

[atomic_punk]

That's some gorgeous flame on that one and a very well-done burst on the Fireglo!
That's a keeper, for sure! Congrats!

[guitar-murph]

Let me tell you my tale of woe in regards to searching for a new 4003 FG. First, I have one of these on order......this order has been pending for some 18 months now. However, I started to get somewhat impatient and when I saw that RIC had shipped a few of these some time back I began to call or otherwise contact some of the dealers who had received one of the new 4003FG's. So...I called this one particular dealer and asked about it, and I was told 'yes...we have one....and it is on sale.' I had them check it and sure enough it was new..contained the full-width inlays, etc. The price quoted to me almost made me faint. It was hundreds less than the pre-price increase cost that I expect to pay for the one I have on order with one of the major on-line retailers. Of course, I immediately said that I would purchase same. Unfortunately, this dealer does not ship instruments! I was told that I would need to call back and speak with the owners to see if they would make an exception. I called several times and was never able to get the owners, nor anyone else for that matter, who could give me a definitive answer. Finally, through a fair amount of searching, I found that there was another authorized Rickenbacker dealer located in the same city. I called them and explained the situation, and asked if they could purchase the guitar and then resell it to me. The price was so low that they could have done this and still had a decent markup! Unfortunately, while working with this second dealer, the original dealer sold the bass. Major bummer..........I was geared up for receiving this in time for Christmast! I am still looking forward to receiving my original order at a good price.........but the price I was quoted from the dealer who had one of these was unbelievable....so much so that I will not mention numbers here.