Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Money burning a hole in my pocket . S 5s any good ?

Ask Jdog. He just bought one!

Any reason you have to doubt that they are any good?

The finest examples come from Kuala Lumpur..

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0256354070

whojamfan wrote:Any reason you have to doubt that they are any good?

Yes . I have owned enough RICs to know they are a hand made sometimes flawed instrument . So I come to the source to get educated by those who own them .

I have three 4003s5 basses and find them great to play with a pick, but I do find the string spacing tight for finger style.

If you play exclusivly with a pick, or have small to medium fingers, then give it a try. You will never lose money on buying a RIC (unless you over pay too much), they always should be able to be a wash money wise, or a profit. No harm in buying one to see if it is a fit for you. If its not what you like, just flip it.

I'm very happy with the one I just got. That one from Kuala Lumpur looks like a decent deal, esp. if you're in that part of the world. The string spacing is a bit tight compared to other brands' 5 strings, but not too bad.

I think the tone and feel of the S-5's are wonderful. String spacing is just a little tight for fingerstyle playing.

leftyguitars wrote:I have three 4003s5 basses and find them great to play with a pick, but I do find the string spacing tight for finger style.

even with those little girls hands of yours?

I had one for a while and it was awesome...wish I still had it...I'm a pick player with not huge hands, so it was perfect.

YES!

The 4003s5 is a good bass. It has a couple of quirks. First the pickups are unbalanced. The neck pickup is an old toaster style pickup wound to about 6 or 7k ohms. The bridge pickup is wound to about 15k ohms. How I compensate is to roll of the neck pickup volume to about 7. The other quirk is the tight spacing at the bridge. It comes from the factory with a bridge spacing of about 2 1/16". This makes finger style playing problematic. How I deal with this is to modify the saddles so I get a 2 3/8" spacing. Here is a picture of a bass with that mod.
Here is a sound byte of the 4003s5 in action. http://www.3dentourage.com/425/gone.mp3

Here are some links to my web site and pictures of some 4003s5 basses.

http://www.3dentourage.com/425/89-4003s5.htm

http://www.3dentourage.com/425/90-4003s5.htm

http://www.3dentourage.com/425/red-4003s5.htm

http://www.3dentourage.com/425/1990-4003s5.htm

So I would say the 4003s5 is a good bass but it is not for everyone.

I really dig that Ric sound on that 3doors down song. Did you use your Basspodd?

i have 3 ricks 4003 4 strings and a 4001 v 63, but as far as 5 string basses nothing beats the sound of the Musicman stingray 5 , as far as punch and balls and the growl, you cant beat the stingray, no offense to anyone here