Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Well, I bit the bullet and bought that all-black '00 4003 fretless on ebay. Picked it up yesterday in Chicago, and it's a beauty. I plugged it in and quickly tried it out. I love the low action (no frets, of course) and the smooth-wound strings. Even so, learning to play without frets is going to be tricky.

Any other fretless Rick players out there?

I play Ricks and I play fretless, does that count? My fretless basses are a custom one-off Zon made for me by Joe in '99 and a Rick Turner Renaissance RB5-FL.

Were there any model 4000 fretless basses made? I'd like to add a nice one to my collection. But I dont think I've ever seen any.

Scott, RIC did make 4000FLs, even into the 1970s; here's an earlier thread (dealing with the Ruby-Burgundy color differences) in which I posted a picture of my Jan 1977 4000 FL Burgundy next to my Feb 1982 4001 Ruby:

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thanks for the info Gary, thats a nice pair of basses.

I bought a 73 fireglo FL a couple of months ago in the U.K. ..and have still yet to see it.... I won,t get back there until next year. This bass has been seldom used for a long while, and it,s currently fitted with rounds which I love. It will be used significantly as it,s been 15 years since I,ve played fretless, and a relearning curve will be much to the fore, but I don,t want to chew the board up..and the sound of flats does absolutely nothing for me..Decisions, decisions...

I've been using D'Addario Half Rounds on my Zon fretless, they sound very close to XLs.

Congratulations again, Paul.

Both Bob Young and I have a December '72 4001 fretless with only one serial number in between. His is JG and mine is MG. My fretless baby has the RIC black nylon tapewounds on her currently, that have quite a sensual feel to them. Dan Bradfield also has a fretless RIC, in white finish.

As this is my first fretless that's been with me for a few months only, I've just begun my learning curve.

I have a sweet fretless from Manne Guitars. They are a small shop in northern Italy. I had to cheat and get the fret lines put on. I was wondering if you ordered a new 4003FL would Ric put the fret lines on for you?

Rick, I don't think RIC would put fret lines on. It sounds like they are doing very little custom work these days, although it wouldn't hurt to ask them. I have fret lines on my '79 and it does help with the learning curve. You just have to remember the correct finger position is directly behind where the fret would be. Andrew, I also had rounds on mine for a very short time. The rounds sounded great but as hard as I play sometimes I was also concerned about tearing up the fret board. I have TI jazz flats on now which sound great and are a low tension which is very neck friendly for those old 4001's.

...and congratulations Paul. The JG with the black trim option is very cool!

Actually Dan, your fingertip should be placed on the line as this is the "witness" point for correct intonation. Personally I do not believe in lined fretless fingerboards as they cause more confusion . I've actually seen players place their fingers halfway between the lines thinking that they work just like frets! When adjusting the bridge for intonation, hit the harmonic at the 12th fret and match it to fingering on the 12th fretline, not behind it.

I'm just a hack bass player, but I practice positioning my fingers correctly (on pitch) by having a tuner plugged in and watching the 'needle'.

One nice thing about the fretless is that it's easy to adjust pitch when playing along with music recorded off-pitch ("It's My Life" by The Animals comes to mind).

"I've actually seen players place their fingers halfway between the lines thinking that they work just like frets!" LOL! Yeah, I made this mistake too the first time I played it with my bandmates! I remember getting some weird looks when the song was over. Only then did I realize my fingers were in the wrong position, moved closer to the fret line and the problem was solved. I have never been able to intonate it to where my finger is exactly center of the fret. I would like to though. It's always a little closer to the neck of the bass for some reason.

It'll vary some depending on how much pressure you put on the string, since we dont have pointy fingertips. When I play my fretted basses I try to place my finger just behind but almost on top of the fret, this is good practice for the fretless plus I get better tone out of the string.