Chunky necks...

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 8:27 pm

haha! Everybody has to whine sometime I guess. I love uprights now. Even have the K&K pickup I see. I would love to get an old Ric horseshoe upright pickup except they're probably worth about ten grand right now.

marty · Post by **marty** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 12:54 am

I have quite small hands and have a '74 4001 with a very slim neck.
When I got my '03 4003 I struggled with the neck for a while but I persevered and I love the chunky neck now...it has a very positive feel to it.

I've never played an upright but if I ever get the chance I'm sure it will be an experience.

Here's a 1936 Ric upright with horseshoe pickup:

jblakey · Post by **jblakey** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 4:13 am

My Ric experience is different from the main thread here.. that is that my '90 4003 neck feels thinner/sleeker than my '75 4001. In fact the 4001 feels more solid/robust/heavier than the 4003.

brett_bottomley · Post by **brett_bottomley** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 4:23 am

I'm primarily an upright/Chapman stick player. Two totally differt necks from any Ric. I think that String spacing and especially tension and height are much more important than chunkyness. All my instrments need to have plyable strings, if you need to use too much finger strenghth to play a note you will develop problems and it will effect your play.
Is the instrument BUTTERY to play thats what concerns me. I love the necks on the new Rics they play like a well oiled machine. just my opinion.

Brett Bottomley

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 5:42 am

I agree woth you Brett, action can make a world of difference and is also much more important to how a neck feels to me than the thickness.
Jay, The necks were a little thinner in the early to mid nineties than the later ones. I had a 75 with the old very thin neck, those years were transition years. I had probably one of the last of the old style Rics. I have had many Rics and still do, even the 4001's vary in their thickness from bass to bass, they are hand sanded. My 78 is thicker than my 79 and my 72FL is thinner than both of them. 4003's also vary, my 81 is thin like my 79 4001, my 96 is fairly thin (is probably my best playing and sounding Ric), my 2000 is probably what would be considered chunky by some here.

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 6:31 am

I wonder if the spate of brand new 4003's on Ebay over the last year is due to the neck shape. There are almost always 2 or 3 pristine Ricks with all of the case goodies listed. Are people buying them through mail order and finding that they don't like the necks?

mikeylc · Post by **mikeylc** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 9:54 am

Both of my new 4003s have huge necks and I bought them without playing mailny because it is difficult to find someone with a 4003 in stock without making a vacation of it. That being said these two instruments have now become wall art. They are Montezuma Brown and Turquois. If they were a standard color I'd sell them. I prefer the look, sound and weight of a 4003 but I still play my heavy MMSR because it has a nicer neck IMHO. I play my Shadows and '73 out a bit but would like a RIC that doesn't have as much collector value to play out unfortunetly the newer ones just don't fit that bill.

dave4004 · Post by **dave4004** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 10:47 am

I haven't noticed any unusual amount of new and near-new Ricks on eBay, there have always been some. Same with just about any guitar, people buy them and decide a couple months later that it's not for them.

I just finished playing my trusty Gibson EB-0L for an hour. It's .98" deep at the first fret and 1.06" at the 12th, and a deep U shape at that. Then I picked up my 4003 MB -- feels skinny by comparison!

Different strokes...

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 8:34 pm

I just played my Sea Green tonight and I take it back it is my best sounding bass and one of my best playing, the new 4003's blow away the old 4001's in any modern music situation. This bass kicks with Pyramids on it and they are close to 2 years old although they don't have a lot of hours on them.

00soul · Post by **00soul** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 7:31 am

i love the neck on my 4003, maybe thats because i havent yet played the older rics. mine is a 2004

ilan · Post by **ilan** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 8:16 am

I like chunky necks. That's why I can't play Jazz Basses with their pencil necks. I had a Geddy Lee signature, how do you play that thing? Had to sell it. My '86 Shadow has a relatively skinny neck (for a modern 4003) and I wouldn't mind if it were a bit fatter front-to-back. The width is perfect though.

My '64 Gretsch 6070 by the way has the fattest neck in bass history. That thing is a monster, nothing comes close to it except for an upright maybe. Play it for a while and then pick up your 4003 - suddenly you're flying. Now that is a fat neck.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 9:49 am

I played an old 60's Kay semi-hollow once too and that also had a CHUNKY neck. On the other hand Gibson EB-2's have very thin necks.

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 6:09 am

Here are good examples of my "Ordered it but was shocked to find that the neck was so thick so I am unloading it" theory. It might not be the case with all of them but it does make you wonder why someone would sell such a beautiful instrument so soon.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4713&item=7307321845&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4713&item=7305197378&rd=1

dave4004 · Post by **dave4004** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 10:31 am

I don't see how you can possibly infer that. Even when people buy new guitars or basses in person, they sometime quickly fall out of love with them for any number of reasons: tone not what they expected, weight, balance, etc. You see this often with all major brands.

It's common to see this on guitar forums. Someone is raving about his new Strat and then a month later it's quietly in the for sale section because after a couple of weeks it wasn't what he wanted.

With Ricks, there's the added factor of their being so much different than the typical bass, everything from the tighter string spacing to the way they hang.

Now if someone who was used to playing slim neck 70s Ricks ordered one sight unseen expecting the same, I can see that he might be surprised. But since there are so many more Ricks sold today than in the 70s, that's just not a common scenario.

incubus2432 · Post by **incubus2432** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 11:02 am

I find all of the postings odd about the different neck sizes/shapes and the fact that it leads to not playing a bass or selling it quickly. All three of my Rics have different neck shapes and "chunkiness" and all three of them get played about equally. When I got my 2nd I noticed the different profile from the 1st, shrugged and got on with it.
I'm not saying anyone is wrong, I just don't see the differences as major enough to not use or keep a wonderful bass.....