Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Marco, I live right down the street from Rickenbacker. I even used to be a RIC dealer, and I had never seen a 4004 in person, until I went to the January '02 NAMM show. Have you ever see one for sale in Italy?

i have not seen one. as you can imagine here the market is really small and it's hard to find a shop in all the nation that carry a 4003...

never seen a 4004. i am really interested in this bass, especially the 5 string Cheyenne II. i am a 4 string player and i want passive basses only. i have a Rickenbacker 4001 mapleglo and a Fender precision bass, i love the classic sound of the '60 and th '70 even if i am 27 years old. but i have the feeling that those humbuckers could warm up the classic rick sound....

i'll wait!

Jeffery,
I have a 4004C-I as well and it sounds like Mark did a great job of making substantial modifications to your bass. Are you in the Seattle area? I'd love to hear your fretless 4004.

Robert-- I live in North Carolina, and it doesn't appear as though I'll be trekking out to Seattle anytime soon. I wish you could've checked out the bass when Mark was working on it; you probably would've been inspired to convert yours. It really is a great bass. Very comfortable to play, and has a great feel to it in every respect. For those who aren't familiar with the C-I, the tone is definitely different from a 4003/4001. I don't say that it's better or worse-- just different. It's great to have both.

For those who are so eagerly anticipating the release of the 4004 C-II/5, I understand where you're coming from. However, I'm not a 5-stringer. AND I much prefer the look & finish of the original C-I, so I feel as though I already have possession of The Top Dog of the 4004 litter.

*woof*

Jefferey,
Yeah, too bad I missed my chance to see it. I think the 4004 series basses are great, in addition to the C-I I have a trans blue C-II as well. From a tone stand point they sound different one from another, which as you said is different from the 4001/4003 basses. My 4001, 4003 and 4001CS don't get much playing time unfortunately as I prefer my 4004s.

I'd like to find another 4004C-I and see about having Mark convert it to a fretless for me. I've been thinking about getting a fretless for some time anyway. As far as the C-II/5s go, I'm one of the guys waiting for them to be available. I play a Modulus Q5 quite a bit in a blues band I'm in and would love to go Rickenbacker there too.

Do you have any pics of your 4004C-I post conversion by the way?

Yes, Mark sent some progress photos of the conversion project via e-mail. However, I'm not very computer literate and don't know how to upload the pix. Perhaps Mark has the capability and would be willing to post them here.

Do they have dual truss rods as well? Anybody try Pyramids on one of these basses?

Of course. All Rics have dual truss rods.

I have Pyramids on mine.

Friends don't let friends use roundwounds. ;^)

~LOL~ Dave, I couldn't have said it better! I have Pyramids on my 4003 and will never use anything else on that bass. Strongly considered putting them on the 4004 but wanted to give the Thomastik-Infelds a try. Haven't played them enough yet to give an informed opinion, but they seem to be high quality strings. Whichever way you go, you can't lose.

I put Thom flats on my 4003 and my Precision some time ago. Great tone but I'll probably replace them with Pyramids when it's time. The lower tension of the Thoms does get tiresome to me.

Jeffrey: I have a question about the tonality of the Pyramids. When I had Pyramids on my 4003 I found that the E (105) had far less sustain than the others. I was very pleased with the A D and G strings but consistently found that the E produced a "thud". I would be most interested in hearing your comments.

Peter: I found that to be true about both sets of Pyramids I've bought for my '68 4001. The A, D & G strings sounded *fantastic* on both sets, and the E was extremely dull, with no real sustain, on both.

Doug: Thanks. I too tried two "E" strings and Pyramid was excellent at replacing it. I double checked the nut and bridge and everything seemed to check out fine. I switched brands and the problem disappeared. I really enjoyed the feel and overall sound of the Pyramids, but what is the good of a four string bass without a low E.

Peter, I had that problem too (the thudding E string), and I got lucky when I traded it in and received an E string that rang true like the other 3 strings. When did you have this problem? Was it recently, or about a year ago? I got my set back in March 2001, got it replaced, and I have used the same set (with the updated E) ever since. My understanding was that a new batch was supposed to arrive that would not have this problem, but since these strings are hand-wound, I can see where strings would be inconsistent form set to set. At any rate, once you get the good E string, it's worth it!