4001/4003 neck history

gray · Post by **gray** » Sat May 05, 2007 5:19 am

Sorry if this is somehow redundant in any way, but I'm wondering about the history of the development of the Rick bass neck. Obviously I know about the profile thickness thing. However, I'm wondering if the amount of taper ever changed, like, did the width from high to low side at the nut ever change or anything like that? I'm guessing that the answer to this is "no" but I'm curious anyway. I know that some other manufacturers have changed their instruments specs, sometimes wildly, over the years. It doesn't look like RIC has ever done that.

stts64 · Post by **stts64** » Sat May 05, 2007 5:36 am

Oh yes, the thickness of the neck has changed quite a bit. Please refer to the "Measure your girth" tread. My 82 4001 is nice and thin and my 2002 4003 feels like twice the other one.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Sat May 05, 2007 6:28 am

a real short history ...

60s - slim necks ... a shallow C profile ... they felt great but were weak and sometimes failed ... designed for low tension flat wound strings.

70s - the neck got fatter and stronger, the headstock got shorter, the neck got a walnut stripe and it lost the walnut head wings.

80s - with the 4003 the neck got stronger and got a modern truss rod system ... it lost the walnut stripe ... about 2005/6 it got walnut headwings again

I left out many details and did not bring up some of the small differences in various 4001/4003 models ...

In recent time more and more Rickenbacker production is done by cnc machines ... in the old days they were hand built ...

gray · Post by **gray** » Sat May 05, 2007 9:13 am

Yeah, my 04 4003 has to be almost twice as thick as my 77 4001 profilewise, from front to back. But how about the width of the fretboard, as in from E string to G string/binding to binding? That's what I'm really curious about.

ben_brown · Post by **ben_brown** » Sat May 05, 2007 9:31 am

I thought the wood making the skunk stripe was Shedua?

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Sat May 05, 2007 11:37 am

yes I think it is shedua ... it is usually referred to as a walnut stripe ...

some people think there are vast differences between some of the 4003 necks and some of the 4001 necks ... for me the 60s necks are in a class by themselves ... the 70s necks are nice as are the 4003 necks ... some are slimmer and some are fatter ... but from 73 to present the necks are all fairly similar ... in my opinion ...

if you want a fat neck go play some of the 5 and 6 string basses out there ... after that all Ric necks seem slim ...

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Sat May 05, 2007 1:53 pm

ditto that!