Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

In my opinion, your 83 4003 with split pickguard and 7 screw tailpiece is a piece of junk. As a welcoming gesture to the forum, I'll gladly take it off your hands.

phlemmy wrote:In my opinion, your 83 4003 with split pickguard and 7 screw tailpiece is a piece of junk. As a welcoming gesture to the forum, I'll gladly take it off your hands.

Another fan of early 4003 basses!

I'll add to the thought that if you want to replace the 2 piece pickguard with a 1 piece, pickguardian.com in the place to go.

But, I personally don't see anything wrong with either the 2 piece or the 7 screw tailpiece (which will never exhibit the dreaded lift), I think they look just fine on my '84 4003:

I dunno why but I've never been a fan of the split pickguards. I guess I've always just liked the full flowing look of the later model 4003 basses and the early 4001 basses. I had an 82 4001 and that had a single piece pickguard and I loved it. I'm curious about one thing though in regards to the current tailpiece on the new basses. Do those lift? Or has that problem been solved by different routing and stuff like that?


Also CJ that is a lovely flamed maple