Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

cheyenne wrote:Yeah, I'll find one, I just need to come up with the funds.

I wouldn't be looking until I could actually pay for it. It'd just make me go made otherwise.

I didn't know you were a "made" guy!

jps wrote:

cheyenne wrote:It'd just make me go made * otherwise.

*CRAZY

jps wrote:

jps wrote:

cheyenne wrote:It'd just make me go made * otherwise.

*CRAZY

Too late!

So I was trying to get a Gold Hipshot M4 Bass Xtender for my Fireglo 4004 and couldn't find one in stock anywhere, including Hipshot's own store. I shot them an email about it and just got the following response:

Hi Patrick,

Thanks for reaching out! The machines have been discontinued from Schaller. The only option that I have is for you to send your tuning machine into me and I can convert it to an xtender for you. The price is $90 for this. If you would like to proceed, please let me know and I will get you the details.

Regards,
Jason Ungleich
Hipshot Products, Inc.

I wonder if these parts being discontinued has any relation to the 4004 going away.

pdusen wrote:So I was trying to get a Gold Hipshot M4 Bass Xtender for my Fireglo 4004 and couldn't find one in stock anywhere, including Hipshot's own store. I shot them an email about it and just got the following response:

Hi Patrick,

Thanks for reaching out! The machines have been discontinued from Schaller. The only option that I have is for you to send your tuning machine into me and I can convert it to an xtender for you. The price is $90 for this. If you would like to proceed, please let me know and I will get you the details.

Regards,
Jason Ungleich
Hipshot Products, Inc.

I wonder if these parts being discontinued has any relation to the 4004 going away.

So, Schaller discontinued their M4 tuning key?

I think Schaller has superceded the M4 tuner(12:1 ratio) with the M2000(20:1 ratio)..FINALLY! They have nearly identical footprints.

Too bad, considering that it addresses basically every issue people complain about with Rickenbackers.

RIC_FACTORY wrote:The 4004 is just on hiatus for a short time. We have some adjustments to make to it. Yes, the HB's will stay.

Considering that a special run was made for CME, I would say RIC will have the 4004 back (eventually!!)
I was hoping some of the adjustment's would be lower pickup locations, like the 2004 4004.
I would be happy to just to get the 4004 back into the line up.

The 4004 never quite caught on. Not one big name player was ever spotted playing one. It was a good design and an effort to keep up with modern designs while retaining the DNA, but it failed. Maybe it was the pricing, maybe the wait, maybe not enough chrome for the Ric market or not enough boutique for the boutique market or not enough 4004's hanging on dealers' walls when you walk in. I don't know. It's a business. They kept the 4004 alive as long as they could and then some.

"Not one big name player was ever spotted playing one."

Eh, not quite right:

Yeah, but Lemmy's was a special version that most folks did not really recognize as a 4004, perhaps due to its binding. Of course, only the true cognoscenti are the ones who own a 4004.

I should clarify "big name players" by including Lemmy (it's still a 4004), Jeff Scott, and Paul Boyer.

basmansam wrote:

RIC_FACTORY wrote:The 4004 is just on hiatus for a short time. We have some adjustments to make to it. Yes, the HB's will stay.

Considering that a special run was made for CME, I would say RIC will have the 4004 back (eventually!!)
I was hoping some of the adjustment's would be lower pickup locations, like the 2004 4004.
I would be happy to just to get the 4004 back into the line up.

Just going by my own experience with owning 4004s with pickups in both locations, I'd keep the neck pickup right where it is, currently, and move just the bridge pickup to the "2004" location.