Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

the ricks 4003 & 4001's all have necks thru???

All Rick 4003 and 4001 basses have neck-throughs with the exception of:
4000 and 4001S basses from between 1973 to @ 1982, which have set necks.

Apparently as a cost/time/material-saving measure, the 4000 (single-pickup) bass design was changed so that the entire body was cut from one plank of wood, the neck from another, joining in a glue socket (set neck) arrangement. I think all of them done this way had the shedua stripe down the middle of the neck, but obviously, not in the body. The shedua stripe was added to the neck construction of nearly all Rick basses from 1972 to the end of 4001 construction in the early 1980s. So, the set-neck construction appears to be the same time frame. The set-neck also allowed the 4000 and the 4001S to be made from a common "chassis," and some single-pickup 4000 basses are routed for a second p/u. I'm still not sure if it was a common practice to route the body for either model and then completed to order, or if some had the routing, others didn't, etc.

The 4001S I picked up last week is a set-neck, made in 1982. I have a neck-through 4001 from 1977. Of course a lot of things can influence tone, but I've noticed that the 4001S has a more biting, punchy sound to it. Not sure if that has to do with the neck configuration or not, but... there you go. It isn't a huge difference, either.

Of the 3 Ric basses I own, the one that gets played the most by far(every gig) is a set-neck 4001S from '82.

iamthebassman wrote:Of the 3 Ric basses I own, the one that gets played the most by far(every gig) is a set-neck 4001S from '82.

+1! I have a 4003 BBR, V63 and a 1982 4001S set neck. The set neck is my favorite by far. Very smooth and comfortable with classic tone and all the sustain I need. It does seem tom have more treble bite than the other two, but that could be the strings as well, I use DR low riders on the V63 and DR High beams on the "S". I will probably pick up another one when the time is right, if I find a nice FG. Here's mine currently...

As Paul said, it was a cost cutting measure for the lower priced instruments. The change was not well-received and was abandoned. The body is actually two pieces of wood joined down the center, like most Rick guitars.

so only the 4000, and 4001 s have the set neck then? what year did they go to thru neck on the 4001 s ?

barginkov wrote:so only the 4000, and 4001 s have the set neck then? what year did they go to thru neck on the 4001 s ?

They didn't. The 4001S was set neck until the 4001 was phased out. The 4003S was neck through from the beginning in 1980 until that model was phased out in 1996 or 1997.

The 4001V63 and 4001C64 are neck through.

oh i see now, cause i ve got a 4001v63 neck thru,. from 2001, pretty fat chunky neck

the 4005 also has a set-neck. i love my 74 4000-it is just very raw and punchy,but still has tremendous sustain like a rick bass should. it is tonally quite different from my 4004 cii,brighter of course with the single coil pickup. i really like set neck basses,having also had a 67 epiphone embassy,a new ibanez artcore bass,a turner model 1,and a greco beatle bass repro in the past-all of them great-sounding instruments...

The early 4001S model had a through neck. The change occured in the early 70's and ran all the way to the end of the 4001 production run in '80/'81.

The 4000, the 4001, and the 4001S had a neck through from their incept up until 1972.
From 73 to 82 or so, the 4000 and 4001S were set necks while the deluxe 4001
continued to have a neck through until it was discontinued.
The 4003 has always been a neck through.