Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Welcome to the forum Ken. It looks like you have had some fun recently satisfying your RAS. Congrats.

I received a 4003 Montezuma Brown and a 4003 Blueburst on the same day! That was a good day!

KenOnBass wrote:I think I finally know what I like in a Ric and what I need from them and these two are it!

Welcome to the forum, and congrats on the new Rics! I am curious to know - having gone through a few of them, what features do you look for in a Ric bass?


bluewhale

Nice. Very complete setup there. However, it's hard to stop once you start.

Hi, I'm a big fan of the narrower necks. It reminds me what I like about a good Jazz bass. Secondly, it has to be extremely resonant when unplugged and can't be more than 9 lbs and has to balance well. Lastly, a cosmetic thing. I'm not a big fan of binding, unless it's checkerboarded. I've also become a fan of the pickup cover because it's saved me from blood loss. I know that my Rics will receive less play than my Sadowsky J and P, but will probably get played more than my old Fenders. Regardless, I am still sort of Jonesing for another Ric bass so I can have flats on one and rounds on the other.

bluewhale wrote:

KenOnBass wrote:I think I finally know what I like in a Ric and what I need from them and these two are it!

Welcome to the forum, and congrats on the new Rics! I am curious to know - having gone through a few of them, what features do you look for in a Ric bass?


bluewhale

s4001 wrote:Nice. Very complete setup there. However, it's hard to stop once you start.

Very true! I'm on the hunt for a cheap recent 4003 in FG...one that doesn't look like a bad lipstick job.

Looks like my V63 was actually born in April '89. Wonder how Kebo missed that?

Very sweet score, Ken! That V63 looks very nice, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit jealous. Anyhoo, welcome to the forum, and enjoy the new toys.

Thanks! It's good to be here and back in a Ric again! One thing I've noticed is while there are no dead spots, the E string seems to be slightly less aggressive sounding than the other strings. From other's experiences solo'ing a bass is that just because it's a lower note and inherently less in your face? It's not a show-stopper, just an observation. Everything else about this V63 is perfect. Feels amazing!

What's it strung up with? E strings are usually much lower tension than the others in most stock string sets. (I usually use 45-60-80-105 sets on my fretted basses with good results--recently switched to GHS 44-58-78-102 Super Steels with really great results.) A good set up is another factor. Also, the E string will often sound slightly warmer unless you dig in a bit more because there is more mass to be moved, which means more energy needs to be put into the system. To compensate for that some people raise the pickup height on the E string side but I actually like this about E strings (I don't want every note to sound "in your face") so I leave that aspect of set up alone. Same goes for B strings as far as I am concerned.

I've heard of people with "dead E" before and the only cases I've ever heard of with any resolution worked out one of two ways: the string was a dud, or the bass's set up needed some tweaking. I know a bassist who went through three sets of TI JF344s on his Ric before realizing it was the TIs that were at fault, and not his bass, as far as "dead E" was concerned. He switched to Chromes as I recall.

Joshua,

Thanks for the explanation. I think it does have more to do with the physics of the E string than that it's a problem with the guitar. I'm just hyper attuned to the Ric bass right now having not owned one for a year or two. I played it more late last night and barely noticed a difference. Subtle at best.