Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I have one that has been waiting 42 years for that day.

I love playing jazz and p-basses around the house ... but when I play with a band I prefer a Ric ... in higher volume situations they cut through better without getting dinky or rumbley ...

Are they Fender J/Ps you play, Jeff?

I always wonder about the people who tell me my Ric won't last. Have they ever owned Rics? I doubt it. If they did, they probably had a '70s 4001 that they put Rotosounds on and then, instead of getting it set up properly, they just let the neck go wild.

Quite true Jeff, i've found J's and P's often get too "rumbly" or muddy when going through a cranked rig - Ricks seem to keep their definition and still have lots of balls.

Me too Jeff, I had a 73 P that was just too fat and unsure of the fundamental note, and my very new MIA Jazz was not fat enough, a bit squeeky clean.

The Rics have the cut, the scale, the warmth, the bloomin' lot!

I always wonder about the people who tell me my Ric won't last. Have they ever owned Rics? I doubt it. If they did, they probably had a '70s 4001 that they put Rotosounds on and then, instead of getting it set up properly, they just let the neck go wild.

My 75 had a neck problem a couple years after I bought it...from what folks tell me here it might have been a **** truss rod adjustment, although I don't remember ever messing with that...anyway, the finger board lifted up some. $50 repair, it's been fine for over 20 years.

I did use Roto's back then...but until recently I was using Fender 9050 ML's on it, which I suspect are as high or higher tension strings. While the neck was bowed a bit much, there were no "structural issues"...and when I put on some relatively floppy RW's the neck went right back to straight as an arrow.

I have yet to use my J with the new pu's, but with the stock PU's I never felt it cut through the mix as well as my Rick. At least one friend said he likes the J sound better, but most of the time I get enough compliments about my sound with the Rick...maybe I'll get the chance to use the J tonight - we're at a bar with it's own PA nad a decent sized stage, so switching to the fretless for a couple of tunes is practical, unlike some of the sardine cans we've been playing in lately.

"unlike some of the sardine cans we've been playing in lately."

Ed, There is a jazz pub near Bristol, UK that we play. Some fine muso's play & hang out there.

There is no stage and our six piece has to set up in a space that must be a max of 12' x 7'. This includes a full drum kit and keyboards. The second time we played there I honestly nearly took my RIC 3000 for extra space. A spare bass at that venue would not be an option!

are my jazz and p-basses fender ... well I have owned and built over a dozen in the last 5 years ... some were fender mim and some were knock offs and some were built from various mighty mite, allparts, and warmoth and others parts ... a real mixed bag ... I have dozens of pickups that I experiment with ... I have tried bodies of ash, maple, basswood, alder, and others ... some of the basses were real frankenstein jobs and some were nice products ...

The jazz bass and p-bass are both good designs and I like playing both of them ... but like I said before I gig with a Ric ...

the reputation of the Ric bass not lasting was due to 60s basses with the weak necks being strung up with round wound strings and being improperly adjusted ... the result was a bowed or damaged neck ... although my 68 was rock solid ...

the modern 4003 bass is durable ...

I've always used the heaviest gauge strings I could find on my mid '70's basses: GHS, DR, Fender, D'Addario. Never had any neck problems at all & I've been using rounds since around '86.

Kevin, you were lucky. It's a crapshoot. Many Ric basses couldn't handle the extra string pull. Fenders did.

fenders have their own set of neck problems ...

3 bolt micro-adj?

yeah I got them to the chiro-packer...