Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Does anyone know/remember what the street price was of a 4004Cii/5 when they were available?

This is my favorite subject lately. I really want one. Joey Vasco has two of them. He should have a good idea of the price.

1679 w/case

Ed Roman has one in Trans Green and I'm sure it is at a premium over list but not sure by how much.....he wants $2400 (OUCH). Who knows when Ric will make them again so I'm actually considering it and rerouting for proper p/u's. I think if it had the current spacing I would have bought it. It is a bit much but considering what some "lesser" Rics (to me) go for I may be able to convince myself.

So he's only a tad above "list" price then.......hmmmmmm

BTW Greg I see you list a Min Pin as a pet.....nice!

Badger is my Ric guard dog....

Brian, by the time they come back, they might be near $2K. You might wanna snap that one up.

Back the "F" up off my daddys RIC - GRRRR
ROFL

I paid $1500 for my first one (local retailer ordered it) and $1395 for the second (Pick o' the Ricks). Both came with the case.

Paul

When I got mine (for 1679) it was known at that time that RIC had ceased production, and that the price was going to be going through the roof on these because of that. I was originally quoted 1400 for the bass, but when they finally got it the price had gone up. List was 2195 I beleive. The store I got it from, had it at 1895, but apparently this paticular retailer will give a credit if the purchaser does not want the case. He knew how bad I wanted one, and when it came in he called me at home and told me to get down there chop chop, as there were a few others who already were willing to pay full retail to get it. I was REAL lucky. I guess this is proof that you get more bees with honey

I had one on order from PotR for $1350 for two years. Rickenbacker cancelled the orders knowing that I had been waiting that long. John Hall is not enough of a man to admit the pickups were not right. I would buy a used one now if I could find one, and replace the pickups, refinish it, and try to make it the way it should have been done in the first place.

The whole fiasco with the 4004cii5 is like the story of the emperor's new clothes. Hall says the bass was "fine, but could be better." All of his royal buttkissers stand around admiring his nakedness.

I took a lot of heat for saying the pickups are too narrow ... the rails are 2 1/4" long and the string spacing is more like 2 3/4" ... when you do the math that makes for a B and G string with low volume ... they seemed to do everything else right on that bass ... the normal 4004 makes a good 5 string bass with a few mods ... as does the 4003 bass ...

Yes, and you were right. As was Greg. I saw a couple of the 4004cii5s myself and the pickups were nowhere near right for the bass. The B and G were both weak, clearly because the pickups were way too narrow. Anybody who has played one and knows anything about basses knows this. Hall is either stupid or too arrogant to admit he made a mistake, and I don't think he's stupid.

They started their own forum on the Ric site because they wanted to make sure everything that was posted was in agreement with them. I've seen the censorship. I waited patiently, thinking they would eventually do what was right. I tried to be gentle with my criticism whenever the topic came up. Apparently I offered Hall more respect than he deserved. No more.

You should not have to take any heat for stating a fact, Jeff. They are too narrow.

Nice to see you all growing a pair . I said when I first plugged one in that it sounded like ***. I was not patient enough to "wait and see" what would be done about them. Other than the pick ups, they rock. I never did think the King looked good naked. As to the first one. The protoype. The one JH said was CS's. Haven't seen CS playing it yet. Maybe he doesn't like .160 low B string solution. LOL. You gotta wonder sometimes. Did anyone try this thing, AND THINK IT WAS OK???? OMFG.... Oh well... water under the bridge. This will probably set back production another 2-5 years.

I remember the first time I saw one in a picture, and was surprised that it basically had 2030 pickups on it. I thought it would be an extended model of the 4004 pickups.
I'm actually surprised that they didn't just use the 4004 4-string as a platform for the 5-string, like what was done on the 4003s5. As Jeff has shown, there is plenty of room for a 5th string on the neck.
Jeff's 4004 conversions play great, IMO. And it's a lot easier replacing the bridge than it is on a 4003.