GC Rickenbacker 4001S Special?

[coolhandjjl]

Of all the ways to interact today, IE, face to face, coffee houses, barbecues, bars, gigs, conferences, parliamentary debate, forums, chat rooms, FB, etc, the decorum here is pretty outstanding. There will always be a snide comment here and there, an anecdote gone awry, but all in all, things are fairly tame here considering that the membership is comprised of independent, tempermental and creative minded artisans and musicians. The only place I can think of that may be more subdued would be a place like Sourceforge or one of the other on-line communities discussing open source programming.

Anyone remember that review Lemmy gave one of the contemporary looking Ric basses a few decades back? (It was a Hamburg, Eldorado, not sure which.) He was photographed holding the bass he just reviewed with a big headline "This Bass Has No Balls". If anyone was a poster boy for Ric, it was Lemmy. And Ric built a commemorative limited edition bass named after him. I guess the members here have not been outrageous enough to get properly noticed.

[wings012345]

Well, I don't think there was ever any real disrespect to him. 3200 for a bass is ALLOT of money. I've been on this forum for a while. It's really cool that the CEO was on here. You don't see that on other forums. But, he can really be pompous with his answers at times especially when someone has an issue or complaint. When things are great, He's great. Now, GC ordered the bass to their specifics, so you cant complain that it should have had this or that. But the flaws mentioned by a few people..all he had to say was.. It's under warranty send back to us and we will take a look. if it's true we will fix it. You buy a new car that's been produced for 20 years, **** happens, things go wrong right out of the factory. Recalls. Rick makes great basses. The coolest basses. People on this forum are well educated Rickenbacker players and buyers. When you buy a Rick for the first time, the Rickenbacker.com forum is prob your first stop. Eventually they all land here because the passion is obvious on this forum. And Paul, I just received your book. AMAZING!!! The Level of detailed info and pictures is way more than I ever expected.

[squirebass]

I saw and played one at my local GC the other day, but I didn't make note of the serial. It is definitely a matte finish, which I didn't care for, but a beautiful bass with especially nice maple, although it didn't appear much different from the V63s I used to own.

[FabGearHead]

Something to keep in mind when reading Posts and Replies on a forum. There is only black and white. Black typed words on a white background.
In other words, no tonal inflections. I've been reading this forum and the RIC forum for years and I have not seen where John Hall has been anything other than professional
in his posts.

To some people who have not been exposed to the environment in a factory admin setting and who have not had to be at the top of the responsibility ladder, it can appear that the straight-forward-matter-of-fact responses are less than friendly. When considering all of the time required for John Hall to perform his duties at RIC, I am amazed that he has taken the time to be personally involved with this forum. I for one, will miss his input...

Jim

[rictified]

I've been a member here for a long time although I don't post all that often anymore. I just read through this whole thread and it's pretty obvious to me why JH took off, this thread became like a feeding frenzy. I have not seen the bass that Ed returned but I did see the picture posted here several times of a different one and I think it's a beautiful bass and any perceived imperfections on that bass look infinitesimal to me. The pickup looks fine to me, all four strings are tad bit shifted to the G side but that would easily be fixed if one didn't like it by getting a new bridge and re-cutting the saddles. That wouldn't bother me as long as the G string didn't ride over the neck edge. I've owned many many Ricks over the years and don't think I've ever had a perfect one but then again I've never owned a perfect Fender either, or Gibson etc etc etc. I could see nitpicking a $10,000 hand made boutique bass like this but not a semi-mass produced Rickenbacker. I think we should all mellow out a little here and go back to playing our basses and guitars. I for one would not hesitate to buy one of those and if it did have an imperfection which I couldn't live with I'd send it back and would hope Rickenbacker would make it good which I believe they would. I think it takes a big man to own a company and post on a forum like this with all the opinions going on around here. I also think part of the problem here is that we have a lot of collectors here who want perfect specimens to put up on the mantle and admire, nothing wrong with that but most players who use these as work horses would be a little more forgiving because after all they are musical instruments to be played. And again that being said all manufacturers make a lemon now and again, that doesn't mean they are all bad. Remember the exploding R tailpiece? haha!

[jdogric12]

The customer may not always be right, but the customer is always the customer, aren't they?

[cassius987]

I am coming to this late... so am I right that the problem with the first bass mentioned early in the thread was just that the saddles were cut off center? While the saddles are replaceable, I do list this as a(nother) personal reason for RIC to drop the current bridge (on the 4003; it's a moot point on a reissue-type bass such as this). On the other hand: There are a variety of reasons for saddles to be cut a bit off-center though and it's not always wrong to do so.

I do think the standard RIC factory setup is a bit weird. Medium action, but a flat neck. It just feels strange.

I have played lemon Rics before, so they surely exist. I am not a fanboy (though I also think the suggestion they are hard to gig for some reason is completely wrong, barring aforementioned lemons). If I had my way, the 4003 would undergo some "radical" changes. I decided a while back I will probably just buy used Rics in the future (so I feel okay about butchering them to meet my personal standards), if any. All that said... is this early information alone (unless I missed something; I really don't want to read all 11 pages top to bottom) enough to condemn Rickenbacker QC? Like I said, saddles shouldn't always be cut or aligned on the center point (although ideally they would be as straight string angles can help with intonation).

As for people commenting how hard or easy it is for RIC to make a bass with straight, parallel and perpendicular lines for all the hardware I agree with those who say it should not be so hard to accomplish. Not because it takes no skill or effort beyond the CNC, but most other companies seem to have fewer visible misalignments of things like pickup surrounds and tailpieces in my experience.

Finally, when people say JH should show more sympathy to people complaining about a lemon, I think they are forgetting that kind of behavior could always get the company in trouble by coming off as an admission of fault. He probably (rightly) wants RIC's people to see the instrument in person first. I have never, ever seen a public figure from a large or small company admit something faulty was sold in a public forum without an accompanying recall or other kind of mass compensatory action.

[j_gary]

I was finally able to get some shots of the Guitar Center 4001s I just picked up. Bit of a computer dope here, hope these come out okay.

As I stated before, I pulled her out of the shipping box ready to go. This bass is a beautiful piece of work. I flew her at rehearsal the day I picked her up and played her at three Church services over the weekend. She was a leap of faith at the GC price, but after looking at her, and playing her, I feel she was a great deal.

My sympathy goes out to players who step up to acquire such a piece and are disappointed. I'm an old geezer and have bought numerous instruments over the years including a number of RIC basses. This one is easily one of my favorites.

[johnallg]

Beautiful bass Gary! Welcome back, missed you.

Expanding on what Josh was saying, I do not understand why there are not jigs to locate for mounting the treble surround, the tailpiece, and the pickguard. We so often see pics here of these mounted crooked. With a location jig, say the tailpiece, you would lay the jig on the body (the body curves would orientate the jig correctly), lay the tailpiece into the exactly-fitting cutout of the tailpiece, drill and run the screws, and it would be properly aligned and centered. Same with appropriate jigs for the surround and pickguard. Why would that be so hard to do?

[j_gary]

Hi John,

Thank you for the kind words. I was really affected by the loss of Ken Joseph, such a sweet man.

It feels good to be back and to see all the friendly faces. It appears my timing was perfect, walked right into a lively debate. No worries, I had my helmet from back in the old days which comes in handy at times. Lively debate are one of the reasons this is a great place to hang out.

I feel inclined to stand at the back of the room when talk turns to the art of instrument construction. I stress just changing strings, to build a functioning playable bass is way beyond my abilities. I do not know why, but after trying just about every bass on the planet, only two seem to fit me. Well make that three, 4001, 4003, and an American made P Bass. As soon as I pick one up I'm physically comfortable, as is my ear.

If I may offer my humble opinion as to the man, John Hall. Over the years I have had a few contacts with him and RIC. Some good, some left me with a limp. That being said, whatever a persons take on the man, there are a couple things that cause me to admire & respect him even when he comes across strong. Rickenbacker is one of the few remaining instrument companies that have stayed true to their roots and have remained an American icon. So many other great names have fallen victim to buy outs, off shore builds, goofy experimental variations, and harboring numerous "cheap lines" which dilutes the brand. Good grief try to figure out what model of a PRS is worth buying. With Mr. Hall at the helm Rickenbacker has avoided all the insanity that effects so many other music companies. My thought is that tough straight forward personality comes in handy when dealing with the financial wolves that may try to push him in the direction of so many other companies. I went on the ride with Harley Davidson as the company sold out, went into the toilet, and was saved when the workers bought the company back in 1982. I hope John always runs Rickenbacker and that he has a son or daughter full of Hall DNA waiting in the wings.

[johnallg]

Gary, losing Ken was a great shock. I though he had it almost licked.

Jeff, I honestly think what you are seeing is due to off-center view and if a picture was taken straight over the center you'd see things were even.

[j_gary]

Hi Jeff,

I just saw your post asking about the way things appear to line up on the bass. Just so you know, even though I ponied up a pile of cash for this girl, no worries on parade rain. Open debate about our passion is one of the reasons I enjoy visiting here.

After reading your post I opened up the case and took another look. I do not notice all the irregularities in the flesh that you are seeing in the photo. In the photo I can see how you would pick out the things you have noted. To be honest, does everything line up perfectly? No, not quite under close inspection, but I would never have noticed the slight differences unless I was looking for them. I then looked at several of my other basses. Under close scrutiny I believe I could pick out some variations in most of them. I would include my Fenders and Alembics in the club.

I play at a large Church with a number of other bass players. One of my fellow musicians has a collection of 5 & 6 string Rogue basses. Not sure where they are made, but they are off shore built. They are beautiful and unbelievably inexpensive. He pays between $400 to $700 for an instrument. The finish, hardware, switches are all nice, active pick ups with multiple controls. They sound decent, look perfect to my old eyes, but for the life of me I cannot get comfortable enough with one to play it never mind buy one. I cannot put my finger on it, (Pun alert), but the visceral experience is not there. I believe an analogy would be a 1967 Corvette 427 Convertible vs a Honda S2000. I would gladly pay the three times as much for the big block 67 experience over the Honda. I would not mess with that Honda if I had the Vette, for in the right hands the Honda would likely kick my ***, but driving a big block Vette does something deep inside to a human and their wallet.

Okay, enough out of me for now. Jeff, I will try to take some better shots for all to examine as my eyes and photo skills are suspect.

[cassius987]

Now I know there might be SOME picture distortion going on, but take a look at that neck pickup compared to the bridge pickup surround. Line up the neck pickup with the screws of the bridge pickup surround; it might just be me, but bridge pickup looks like it's shifted way left and the neck pickup slightly right. Look how much to the right the strings are coming out from under the horseshoe going up toward the neck...the G string is much, much closer to the bridge pickup surround screws than the E string. The bridge looks crooked as well to a large degree; the top edge of the bridge doesn't line up with the pickup surround, and again the strap button either isn't centered on the body or the bridge isn't.

I think you are goofing up on the pickups because of the decreasing string thickness from E to G. This is a common visual "trick". There may be some offset but darned if it isn't within tolerances, I would think.

I see some skew on the angle of the tailpiece to the neck but it's actually "good" skew because it is angling toward the intonation angle. I see this on tons of Rics actually, including one of mine.

[jps]

This bass has worked just fine for Paul for decades; anybody here want to pick it apart?

Rick 4001S - McCartney 01.jpg

There is too much perspective distortion in that photo of the new 4001S laying in the case to get a read on alignments IMHO.

[cassius987]

The horns are definitely the wrong shape and there appears to be no gloss finish. Probably a faker!

Actually I can see a little skew on his tailpiece in the OPPOSITE direction of what I see on all the others... and sure enough his is a lefty... makes me wonder if RIC's assembly team doesn't skew to the intonation angle just a little on purpose.