Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hey guy's been out of the loupe for a while still playing, still collecting, still building stuff but I miss the 5 string conversion I sold to a guy in England earlier this year.
I am looking at buying an S/5 just checking in to see what a current price guess might be now. I really have not been pricing these and I see even the 4003's are up from what I remember just last year.
Thanks
Randy

I haven't seen any on ebay lately ... I think you can still get one for under $2000 ...

There's one on ebay now.

Hey Jeff, Guy across the pond loved the conversion, I got tired of the string spacing. Man; I have to admit, Ricky's are still climbing in price all the time.
I saw the one on ebay and have the high bid now but in this color it may go higher than I figured on paying. Also in case no one noticed this guy has a feedback of 14 and this is his first sale....there is a risk here, why do people always sell big ticket items right out of the gate?? Drives me nuts!

Currently into a the third "personel refit" of a great prog project, have some really great musicians this time. I have now become the "weakest link" and I'm pretty good.
Sure hope I can keep up......... we have some Early Genesis, bunch a Floyd (just worked out the samples for Dogs) Always liked that song! fun to play and sing....... and two from Yes going. We are 5 piece now and I finally have a back up suprano voice to help me with the Yes! Absolutely killer set list if we can ever pull it off. I have the instruments to cover most everything I am interested in doing but I have no decent 5 string now so this will be my last and "final" bass purchase.
I am figureing around $2,000 so this is good.

Hope everyone is playing in a band or having fun with music whatever way you like!
Ya know ya only live once (that you'll remember anyway) and if your lucky enough to be a musician then you've got life by the ***!

So Enjoy!

Randy

For anybody who has or gets a 4003s5 or converts a 4003 4-2-5 you should do the bridge mod and replace the saddles to increase the spacing to 2 1/4" or 2 3/8" ... this makes the bass much more finger friendly ...

I am having more saddles made but I can also put you in touch with the guy who makes my saddles or you can buy the 4 string saddles and cut them down or find your own machinist ...

The 4003s5 on ebay is clean and a rare color so it should command a premium price ...

I backed out from chasing the S-5 and to be honest I thank you guy's for the heads up on the string spacing. I do not think I would be comfortable with anything less than about 2 1/2" across the bridge, anyway Ihave to hang my head in shame..........well at least in here because I did find another bass. I bought into an Alembic. Going to have some fun with this I am sure but I will not be complete until I can come back to the fold with the purchase of a Ric.
Off to experiment with the Alembic sound for a while.
Thanks again for the help, so far every time I have had a question about a Ric bass, you guy's are right on the money. Randy

for those of us who can get used to the tighter spacing the 4003s5 is a wonderful bass ...

I just put some Rotosound Swingbass strings on mine last night and it SINGS!! WOW.

When I was back in Michigan I had a friend come over to my workshop and he looked at 20 or so 5 string basses and he picked out my 4003s5 as the best sounding one of the bunch ... what a shame they quit making them ...

I'll bet it had something to do with sales or the lack thereof.

After RIC suspended production of the 4004/5 they could have used the current 4004 4 string model with a five string option as an interim measure. They would have had to find a 2 7/16" five string bridge and a 1 11/16" five string nut. Drilling the headstock would have been the same and the pickups on there now would have worked fine. The fretboard is the perfect width for somebody with medium sized hands like me.

yep ... the 4 string 4004 makes a great 4 string bass ... the neck will easily take a bridge string spacing of 2 1/2" ... the hb1 pickups have 2 1/4" steel rails which limits the effective string width ...

hopefully someday Ric will make a 5 string pickup that has a magnetic field that is wider than 2 1/4" ...

It is a shame that Rickenbacker does not currently produce a 5 string bass ...

I meant to say it makes a good 5 string bass ... it also makes a good 4 string bass ...