Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hmmm... The lacquer I referred to had a noticeable amber tint in it, making the finish look mint green. I wonder if we add amber to our current material over BB and... do I sense COY possibilities?

Just kidding, metallic purple has been decided!

You must have read my mind Ben.

That Mint Green was the best colour by far since....Seafoam Green!

I like it better than Sea Green it's more subtle, more pastel, would be a great COY and would look great between my Sea Green and Blue Boy, haha!

Will the metallic purple guitars have green guards and TRC's ?
Barney Bass.

Hi all. Here's my story. I waited over one year for my 4004CII Blue Boy. I absolutely loved the BLUE shade that all of the 4003's were coming out everywhere. Well when I got my 4004BB, I absolutely HATED the greenish tone and immediently sold it. I loved the idea of the dot neck, and S style, but the color I received really upset me and a quick re-sale was made. The wait did not merit me accepting the mintyness!! I'm a 35 year Rick veteran and that was the last attempt to ever wait that long and then be so unsatisfied with the product. The set up was poor from the factory with lots of adjusting done by myself.

And I bought it from Ed and now reselling it, not because of the greenish tone, but because I'd prefer the BlueBurst on the 4004Cii by far.
I have the bass listed up in the for sale section.
I love the BB finish but I've pretty much narrowed down the number of Ricks I plan to own along with models and finish.
A trilogy of basses works for me.

Just to make sure I'm clear on this...
first it was said that all BB's will turn green, now it seems that only some are green due to a certain amber tinted clear coat that is no longer being used?
It is before my morning espresso and I just want to make sure I'm understanding what's going on here.

Thanks

Sorry to hear that, Ed. Looks like some people around here would have been quite content with it in any case. I positively despise BB because of the yellowing/green affect that afflicts it. May I ask what was wrong with the set up?

Keith, all BB's turn yellow over time like white did. The clear coat over the blue paint yellows, not the actual blue paint itself. A particular varnish we used some time back actual accelerated this process is what I was saying.

Hi Ben. The nut was cut too high and the action couldn't be brought lower without a little nut fileing. There was lots of buzzing when I first got it with the factory Rick strings, but flatwounds corrected that. Not a real big deal,but the action was really on the high side for me before tweaking. Just a lot of $ and wait and then disappointment for me personally.

Hey Ed - It's too bad you waited all that time and didn't like the mint finish. I can't speak for RIC, but I have a feeling that the nut is usually cut fairly high so that you can customize the action to your preference. Without going to an adjustable nut (like on Warwicks), I think it makes sense to have the on the high side. I usually have to file down the nut on all my basses (both Ricks and non-Ricks).

Our action is set middle-of-the-road, rather than low, precisely to satisfy people like Ed. We have no idea what the final owner's personal preference is and if we set them up very low, he would have been completely unable to do a string type change without a new nut and bridge saddles.

Of course, we *could* simply stop making standard production instruments, triple the price, and set them up exactly to your specs. Probably wouldn't change the wait time though.

My Trans Green 4004Cii arrived with the worst action I have ever seen/played. A few minutes with my files, hex keys, nut driver and tuner and it was absolutely perfect. I like setting them up myself.....sort of a bonding experience. When I get the setup to my liking is when I feel like the bass is mine.

An adjustable nut would be a pretty cool addition though.

A lot of guitarists/bassists are "plug 'n play" kind of folks who know little to nothing about instrument setup, in fact I read, even here on this forum, of musicians that don't even know how to change their strings. This is a shame as what Brian said is very true; I feel that all guitarists/bassists should know how to adjust their own instruments.