Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Boy those LK's are beautiful basses, do they sound similar to 4004's?

I saw a documentary the other night on Motorhead. It was a little tricky to gauge the sound of the bass, accompanied by Lemmy's unique vocal delivery (lol) - a beautiful looking bass though

All I have is a 4004Ci to compare it against and I can say that they do sound very similiar. The extra pickup in the LK adds a little kick but tone wise they are as close as any two basses could be.
I played Jeff Scott's beautiful Cii at the Columbus Confluence after playing my LK and the Cii seemed to have a brighter tone and sounded more defined (slightly) where the LK has a more mellow edge and seemed "deeper" in it's natural tone. Jeff also has toaster's in his Cii along with a different bridge....so I'm not sure how his compares with an "average" Cii.
The LK's oil finish and walnut body wings certainly have an impact on it's tone as compared to a maple body with a conversion varnish finish.....but the effects, while noticeable, certainly aren't huge (IMO).

So basically I am no help at all.....

the maple veneer and gloss finish will make the CII brighter than the CI ... I like my 4004L and 4004CI but my 4003 is a little better for the music I play ...

Motorhead plays so fast and loud that it is hard to pick a bass tone out of the mix ...

just listen for the other distorted guitar...then you'll find lemmy.

when we played, i got many compliments for almost capturing his tone by just using my sansamp.

My band is still doing "Ace of Spades" and with my Fulltone Bassdrive, some chorus through my Ampeg SVP-Pro preamp and the 4004LK I get the Lemmy tone pretty much perfect. I turn the overdrive down just a little and use that for my basic all-around tone for everything else.

I went from a pretty clean sound as my standard to pretty filthy and couldn't be happier. It does wonders for filling the gaps since we are a three piece and it still cuts through nicely.

I use distortion 100% of the time ... the trick is not to use too much ...

I don't think Rickenbacker will replace the certificate but they may supply a letter stating that it is authentic and from the run of 60. I think there was a CS on Ebay with such a letter.

Brian, I trust you do AOS with a pick, yes?

Yes, Ric will provide a letter. I had one with a 4003SPC Tuxedo that I bought from Kendall James.....signed by Kenny. The letter is good enough for me. Also, I don't doubt the authenticity of the LK in question. My only concern would be that it is not stolen.....and I'm not sure there is an easy way to determine that since it is out of the country.

Sean.....I do the intro using my fingernail like a pick and do the rest of the song fingerstyle with occasional fingernail strums for chords as accents. I can get a clean pick sound this way and switch back to fingerstyle seemlessly. No problem .

but but but but...

But what ?!?!?

Brain, they could probably determine if it's stolen by the serial number. Good thing you bid, the BIN might have been a bit tempting to me.

nothing.

WOW.....I've been called plenty of things but never "Brain" .

Who could determine if it is stolen? RIC would only know if someone notified them directly (unlikely) and if it was stolen out of the country I'd have no idea where it was from to know who to contact. As far as it being stolen in this country there are alot of variables that could make it hard to determine without knowing a specific city/state. Serial numbers get entered with hyphens or spaces that throw the system off as well. Vehicles/firearms show up nationally but other property tends to be local/state.

I don't get the vibe that it is stolen but it doesn't hurt to check. It would be pretty stupid to sell a stolen rare bass on the internet with the serial number shown.