Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Regarding the OP's original post on this, didnt most 4003's of this era come with the usual tone / vol knobs rather than the old style "oven dials"?

CatHead wrote:Regarding the OP's original post on this, didnt most 4003's of this era come with the usual tone / vol knobs rather than the old style "oven dials"?

All new ones came, and still come, with chrome top knobs.

Turq's a cool finish that I thought would return to the lineup someday.

I think I remember Ben Hall mentioning that he really liked the finish.

cheyenne wrote:Turq's a cool finish that I thought would return to the lineup someday.

I don't think it was very successful, so I doubt it will be back any time soon.

Just my opinion, but I think Turquoise wasn't very successful because the real beauty of the color was not captured in the promo pics. Until I saw the Turquoise finish in person, I didn't like it. I had to have one after I actually saw a 4003 in Turquoise right in front of me.

I'm relatively new to this concept of communication but what the heck.

It's great seeing photos of all the turquoise basses...always reminds me of a late fifties Chevy!

I owned a perfect turquoise 4003 for around ten years. It was my first Ric. A friend who is an avid buyer and seller of basses gave me a sweetheart deal on it. Plays like butter. The mute makes fretted 4003s a cinch for traditional Cuban son and Salsa. But I'm not a collector and was always nervous about putting a scratch in it, so it didn't get played as much as it should've.

A musical came up last April with a contract requiring a fretless. It occurred to me that I couldn't live without a Ric, plus I wanted to honor my friend's graciousness; coincidently a Jetglo fretless turned up online at Elderly Instruments. I was able to sell the turquoise one on Ebay which payed for the new fretless, plus a couple of HB1s as well as a set of SCNs for an early nineties (dare I say it?) Jazz V.

The 4003FL is now my "go to" bass guitar. I feel a lot safer with Jetglo for some reason...maybe the idea that if it got scratched it could be touched up less obviously.

Thanks for the opportunity to relate my experience!

NW

Welcome to the Forum, Nathan!

Great story ... although around here, the 'normal' thing (due to Rickenbacker Acquisition Syndrome, RAS) would have been to keep the Turquoise and buy the fretless!

Welcome to the Forum, Nathan!

Yes, welcome to the RRF!

That turq V63 is killer!

Overall, I thought the bass in the OP looked great with pearloid.

Luv the turq!

Thanks for the warm welcome.