Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hmm...Now what could that black plate be covering?

http://www.edroman.com/guitars/rickenba ... 004cii.jpg

sloop_john_b wrote:Hmm...Now what could that black plate be covering?

http://www.edroman.com/guitars/rickenba ... 004cii.jpg

A portal to the parallel universe of Ed's ego....

If I had to route an early CII to remove a broken truss rod,,I think I could come up with a more tastefull way to cover the routes.

Didnt Jeff Scott have to have this done?

That's why RIC moved the neck pickup back to its original location - to allow removing the rods' acorn nuts through the pickup route, like a 4003. Otherwise, the only way to remove them (and remove/reinstall the rods) is to route the figured maple top.

A broken truss rod is not a great thing to have in a bass's curriculum vita.

If you change the PUs to Toasters or HiGains (single coils) you could place a dummy coil there for anti humming like some Alembic have.
But in my experience it is not really necessary.

cheyenne wrote:If I had to route an early CII to remove a broken truss rod,,I think I could come up with a more tastefull way to cover the routes.

Didnt Jeff Scott have to have this done?

RIC came up with a MUCH better and more elegant solution to the problem.

This is that bass that Jeffrey is referring to-

I was at Ed's a month or so ago when they had just got that bass in. I pointed out the black plastic cover in front of the pickup to the sales dude. He was confused by it and discussed it with an unseen employee (Ed?) in a back room. I told him that it was probably to done to service the back end of the truss rods as there was no access to the back of the rods with that pickup configuration. He then told me that the truss rods adjust under the TRC! I COULD NOT get him to understand what I was saying. He just kept repeating that they adjust under the TRC.

He was calling the bass a Cheyenne, so I corrected him: "Actually... you're close, but the bass is a Laredo. They are both 4004's; they're very similar, but the Cheyenne would have gold hardware and a gold letter TRC, and walnut body wings sandwiched by a maple front and back. The Laredo has chrome hardware and no walnut in the body." Said employee then went back again to the unseen employee in the back room. When he returned, he said: "Its a Cheyenne. We were just on the RIC website and put the serial number into the decoder and a photo of the bass came up."

I didn't go there to argue with the guy, so I dropped it.

Stupid salespeople, he could have used your knowledge to grease your ego and either turn control of the sale around to get you to buy it, or something else. Instead, they alienated you, and baited you with a useless(to the store)argument about what it was you were looking at, and probably lost what may have been a great customer.

The second you showed interest in that bass, they should have explained to you how unique the sound of it was, and plugged you in. Something like "even if you you're not interested in purchasing it, you're obviously a person who knows his stuff, and we would like your opinion of it, so we may better inform someone who is looking to purchase this." This would have been the way to go.

The salesman, hearing that you have an extensive knowledge of a specialized high end bass, should have equated that with the fact that you probably are a person with some money to spend, and should have been concentrating on how to make you feel good about spending it. Even if you walked out of their with a pack of strings, it would have been something, and you would go back later to buy more things, maybe even that very bass once you had a chance to think about it.

Also, whoever was in the back should have realized that perhaps someone with some genuine interest in this unique instrument was asking legitimate questions, and making valid points(even if this person really believed he was right and you were wrong). The person in the back should have got off their butt and spoke to you personally.

It's reasons like this that people just order stuff online, as so many salepeople would rather be "right", than let the customer feel valued, or god forbid, actually know more than the salesperson. I've spent many years behind the counter, and you're there to sell, not always be right, and make your customers feel good about recommending you and return for future purposes.

This store gets a Red Foreman "Double Dumb ***" in my book. Weren't they out of biz for a while?

They don't let you "plug it in" and try out the instrument at Ed Roman's unless you are a big name. Pretty much everything is cordoned off. They will let you hold the instrument with supervision. Hence protecting their "valuable" stock. Fair enough, they DO have a few very nice pieces.

rickaddict wrote:I didn't go there to argue with the guy, so I dropped it.

Some people have to be right, no matter how wrong they know they are. I would have walked out in frustration also.

myfretless wrote:They don't let you "plug it in" and try out the instrument at Ed Roman's unless you are a big name. Pretty much everything is cordoned off. They will let you hold the instrument with supervision. Hence protecting their "valuable" stock. Fair enough, they DO have a few very nice pieces.

Actually, I don't find that to be fair enough. If they want to stand over my should and make sure I don't trash their inventory, fine....watch away. But I still want to hear what it is I'm contemplating purchasing if it's something with which I'm not familiar.

No wonder you never hear a kind word about this shop. Great way to do business

Here's Ed's latest:

The Rick 4004ER "Patch-through"model: