The Fed-Ex Truck Stopped By...

[johnallg]

Thanks everyone for all the congrats, comments and ribbing. It's great being a part of this group and knowing others appreciate a beautiful instrument such as this one, and I'm happy to be able to keep it "in the family".

Mostly I have to thank my mom for this bass since it's really a present from her, my last present from her. You see, my mom passed away last year, April 7. I saw this beautiful bass show up on ebay and thought, "WOW, what a beautiful tribute to the beautiful lady who was my mom!" So you see, it wasn't really just my wonderful wife who made me buy it, she just made me realize it was actually OK to use the small inheritance I got to buy something so trivial as another bass that I really don't need.

So, thanks, John Hall, Kenny, Ben, and all the folks at RIC who made this beautiful bass and decided to offer it for sale at this particular time.

And thanks again mom, for everything you ever did for me! Too bad you'll never get to see this beautiful bass in person. This bass will always hold a special place for me and really is a fitting tribute to a very special and beautiful lady...

Great bass and it will never just be a bass to you. And I totally understand your reasoning and sentiments - that is how I was able to get the V63 from Kevin, Father's inheritance. As I see it, he got me my first bass and my last bass. At least so far.....

[s4001]

I'm glad the bass found a good home.

[bluewhale]

Congratulations, CJ, and that's a nice tribute too.

[cjj]

Well, it's time to bring this thread back to life. Everyone wanted to get some idea of how it sounds, so I figured I'd give a small update since I managed to get a bit of time to actually play it, just a bit...

Unfortunately, I'm still in "winter" mode, where the "music room" isn't set up for use. You see, that room doesn't really have good heat (that part of the house was built in the 1930's). With the near Arctic winter conditions we have here in Northern Montana (only got to -39F this year), I can't keep that room much above freezing so I pack everything up and move it to warmer parts of the house.

There's not enough room to set everything up so I really can't do a lot more than play through my new Vox Amplug Bass into headphones. But, that's better than nothing I suppose. Anyway, I decided to do a comparison between this beastie and the closest thing I have, my 2008 4003FL. It's still got stock RIC strings, my '84 4003 has Rotosound rounds, the '76 4001 has D'Addario Chromes.

Well, first thing I found was that I can't do a real comparison. For some reason, the 4003FL has MUCH lower output. I've never really messed with it in a comparison mode and hadn't used it with the Amplug at all. Messing with the bridge pickup tone control, I find that if I back it off about 1/4, it acts like a volume control and I quickly lose any output. So, I guess I've got to take a peek in the FL to see it something is shorted out, or what. I can crank the volume on the amplug and get a usable level, but it's starting to get noisy with that much gain.

Anyway, back to the new 4003 SPC. I decided to A/B it against my '84 4003. The tone is wonderful, though I can't really tell any huge difference between them . I'm thinking most of the differences are probably due to the strings. It's got great sustain, but so does my '84. The tone is bright and clear, with all the Rick clank and grind you'd expect. But at this point I can't really report anything extra special other than looks.

I then did a comparison between the 4003 SPC and my '76 4001 with D'Addario Chrome flat wound strings. That was surprising. It was hard to tell much difference there either. So, I think this really turned into more of a test of the Vox Amplug Bass than a real test of the new 4003 SPC. I think the limitations of the amplug/headphone combination probably covered any useful data I could get about the actual instrument.

Hopefully, in the next week or so I can get the rest of my gear set up and do a real comparison (heck, it only got down to 28F last night)...

[cjj]

And now, for something completely different...

I took another picture of this bass to try to show the edge detail with the flamed top, checker binding, and walnut:

Not the greatest job, I know. I'm still trying to figure this digital camera out, all I can say is, "I HATE autofocus!" I guess I'm just too used to my old Nikons where I can set the focus where I want and adjust depth of field with the aperature. Oh well...

Anyway, when I first saw this bass up on ebay, I said, "Wow, that's great, but with black outer binding, it would be spectacular!" There was a bit of discussion with other forum members as to whether the black binding next to the walnut would be too dark. So, I sent that picture to Joey V. so that he could do a bit of Photoshop magic on it. Here's what he came up with (Thanks Joey! ):

I've got to say, I think it does look spectacular with black binding! Of course, I've always been a fan of black binding (odd that I don't have even one bass with black binding, hmm...). Anyway, just thought I'd see what y'all think...

[bassduke49]

Nice, but I think white looks best with the chrome hardware. If I had won this bass (oh, right!), I would have obtained one of those gently marbled white perloid pickguards from Pickguardian, like the one Jeff Scott put on his Jetglo. It matches the new-style fingerboard inlays.

[FretlessOnly]

Just in case no one else has noticed, that bass is hot.

[rickenbrother]

I sent that picture to Joey V. so that he could do a bit of Photoshop magic on it.

I would call that effort magic, came out kind of lousy!

[cassius987]

I think it looks better with the black binding myself. My 4001FL turned me on to that sort of high-contrast look.

[cjj]

Nice, but I think white looks best with the chrome hardware. If I had won this bass (oh, right!), I would have obtained one of those gently marbled white perloid pickguards from Pickguardian, like the one Jeff Scott put on his Jetglo. It matches the new-style fingerboard inlays.

Yes, the marbled white pickguard would be nice with the white binding. But I've always liked the look of black, chrome and wood. To me , it just has a really classy look. The black hardware RIC did a while back never appealed to me, though I agree that just black and wood looks nice. But the semi-flat black powder coated hardware? Nah. Now, if it had been black chrome, well, then you're talkin'...

Hmm, I may just have to look into that...

[cjj]

I sent that picture to Joey V. so that he could do a bit of Photoshop magic on it.

I would call that effort magic, came out kind of lousy!

Well, maybe, but it certainly gets the idea across. I could almost visualize it, but the picture really helps, and shows that black binding still has a good contrast with the darker walnut.

I think this really gives the bass a lot of the 4002 "vibe", and I have to say, I've always like the looks of the 4002. Hmm, binding the headstock in black like the 4002... there's another idea...

[cjj]

It was a nice sunny day yesterday so I took a few pics outside.

[jps]

Cool! Looks like you finally played "out" with it.

[paul_yan]

Gorgeous！Yeah, CJ, looking forward to your sound report after your music room warms up!

[johnallg]

Though not a fan of black binding and MapleGlo, the walnut makes it work. But I'm with Paul, I like the white better.