Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

First I want to start off by saying that drilling a big hole in my bass was pretty scary and I'm glad it's over. I know some people aren't going to like the appearance and that's OK, I had a vision, and my reasons, and I saw them through to a conclusion. And the results are.... I'm totally blown away by how good this bass sounds and performs as a five string. It has exceeded all my expectations by a million percent. Take everything Jeff Rath has said and carve it in stone because it it the gospel truth. Here's some pictures for the official record starting with the player's view point.

NICE

That looks great!

Cole

Thanks guys, an unintended consequence of this is now I have G.A.S. for a black Laredo with maple fret board, it never stops does it. Or maybe a black Laredo with black fret board, where have I seen that before?

Or maybe a black Laredo with black fret board, where have I seen that before?

R.I.P.

Great job Mark . Looks like it could use some taper-core strings for intonation space . Looking foward to my Rathed 4004 Cii .

Looks great, Mark!

That looks really nice. I've never had a 5 string before and I'm currently Rickless(sold my V63 &C64S). Seeing all these pics of RICs makes me wonder what I was thinking selling those great basses.

Barry, you're going to love it after you get used to it. Doing octave spreads is nothing now, it feels like doing a double stop between two adjacent strings. Jeff has stated that adding a fifth string makes the bass more resonant and he's right. My E and A string feel stronger and more growlier. I've been playing off and on during the day trying to get my brain readjusted, it still thinks the A string is on the top half of the fret board instead of the middle.

Bugman, I sold my C64S to fellow forumite Jeff Thomas and I've been kicking myself in the @ss ever since....ugh. At least I know it has a great home and I'll have first consideration if he ever intends to sell, which I know he won't

Hey,

What is the status of the Cheyenne C11 5 String now at Ric ???? I am very curious as Ric said it will go under several testings and changes.
Let me know if anyone knows.

Scott, I feel your pain as well. I'm down to my Hofner Cavern bass and Hofner Club bass. The V63 was such a nice fireglo and had an amazing sound. I was afraid I'd be the guy to booger it up and the money I made on it paid a major bill so that helped ease the pain at the time. Theres always another one to be had....next time maybe a mapleglo V63

Brave man, Mark!

I think the tuner positioning looks much better than a certain well known mod we have all seen around these here parts.

I do think you need to work on the string spacing at the nut, it seems uneven. A nicer bridge would be great, too. Jeff Rath has a Hipshot A style 5 string bridge I traded with him a couple years ago, at least I think he still has it. Check with him on it.

Jeffrey, I think you're seeing an optical illusion in the second pic caused by the divergence of the strings and their different thicknesses. When you go to the fourth pic, I took a ruler and measured 5/16" between each string center with no variation(as measured on my monitor). After all, it is a pre-cut Carvin six string nut so it should be pretty close.

Here's a pic of a cut down Carvin nut on top of a rick four string nut, they cut the slots not me.