Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

aceonbass wrote:If I had to guess, I'd say the main thing that upset Joey, as well as others, about the vigorous public criticism of the 4004Cii5's here, was that it actually caused JH to put off the fix for the basses, leaving those who were going to hang onto the basses anyway, a much longer wait for the new pickups. Mr.Hall actually moved pretty fast on the problem and had the prototype pickup "sitting on his desk". Jeff was not the only one commenting on it either, as there was another former forum member who was beyond rude about the matter.

This is the big leagues ... this is the real world ... if you make a bass with a flaw then it will get criticism. John Hall is a big boy. He sells instruments all over the world. If he can't take a little criticism then he should get a 9 to 5 job punching a time card working at a bank or something.

But the 4004cii5 was the emperor without clothes. Many were afraid to say there was a problem for fear of offending Rickenbacker. I spoke up and offended some. I would do it again. When I see something wrong I say something. It is the way I am. I don't fit into the "Let's always be nice to John" club. Never did and never will. I respect Rickenbacker and John Hall, but if they make a mistake then politeness and pretending there is no problem is not a way to solve the problem.

Does anybody really believe that John Hall is petty enough to not fix the problem because he had a little criticism here. I sure don't. I would say he has a huge backlog of 4 stringed instruments that work fine so he is focusing on making those.

The way to put this whole deal to rest is for Rickenbacker to simply make a 5 string bass without that flaw. End of story.

Do the 4003/5s suffer the same problem? I've only ever seen this problem mentioned on the 4004s. I would like to know in the event I decide to give 5 strings another go (I had a yamaha rbx 775 that, though it was a great bass for the price, I just didn't mesh with). I did play a G&L tribute in the store that I nearly fell in love with (except for the 800 dollar used price!!!!), so I haven't completely ruled out 5s...

The 4003S-5 does not share the same problem. I have one that just sounds and plays wonderful.

The problem with the S-5 however is tight string spacing. If you have big hands, and are a fingerstyle player, it can be a problem. As far as looks, I think the S-5 is one of the more beautiful Rick basses.

aceonbass wrote:...there was another former forum member who was beyond rude about the matter.

There were actually two others. One never posts here anymore and got himself banned on the RIC company forum. Then there was another bonehead who eventually put a Kahler bridge which looked ridiculous because of the narrow string spacing on that neck. He got booted also.
I really wish I could come on here and discuss the Cii/5 like we can discuss any other model, but some people just turn it into an ugly thread of insults aimed at JH.

aceonbass wrote:I remember the one with the Kahler bridge. It looked like A$$! If I had a 4004Cii5, I'd just get some Barts, re-route it, and mount them using factory style hardware.

Yeah Joey, if you think you like your CII5's now, you should put barts in them. At least one of them. That will make you even more of a beleiver

rickenbrother wrote:

aceonbass wrote:...there was another former forum member who was beyond rude about the matter.

There were actually two others. One never posts here anymore and got himself banned on the RIC company forum. Then there was another bonehead who eventually put a Kahler bridge which looked ridiculous because of the narrow string spacing on that neck. He got booted also.
I really wish I could come on here and discuss the Cii/5 like we can discuss any other model, but some people just turn it into an ugly thread of insults aimed at JH.

Those were 2 friends of mine who took it on themselves to fix their 3 string bass so it would again be a 5 string bass.

I admire their resourcefullness!

So if we criticize Rickenbacker they will punish us by stopping R & D? Or they will not fix defective instruments?

Where's that picture of the guy flogging the dead horse?

All in all, the volume drop-off on the outer strings isn't that bad. Certainly not enough to refer to it as a 3 string bass.

5-2-3 ?

Here you go!

getting back to the beginning of this thread ... people got mad because I was the one who got asked about the pickups on the 4004cii5.

perhaps I was asked because I give an unbiased answer ... not the politically correct answer that "Phasing" was the problem.

You know people complain about the tailpiece and that didn't stop Ric from making the 4003.