Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

There's a 4003S/8 on ebay right now, and he describes it as having the "staggered tuners" like the eight-strings in the '60s (and that would be another question, but for now . . . ). So this one has small keyes on the octave string tuners, big ones on the big strings. These are the typical streamlined Schaller tuners, but have we ever seen another like this with the big/small keys?

I'd say that is certainly not factory.....not a bad idea if it was used to keep a smaller headstock and tighten up the tuner spacing but not much advantage doing it like this. Easy enough to change to "correct".

I would have liked to see it with the original black trim/hardware!

I read somewhere that having all the tuners the same size allowed the owner to switch the string configuration - the 4008 had the octave strings on top, the 4003S/8 on the bottom (like the eBay example). I don't recall ever seeing one with small tuners for the octave strings, certainly not a 4003S/8.

Here's my '82 4008 for comparison:


And I believe the 4003S/8 was discontinued in the early 2000s, not the mid-'90s as the eBay description says.

I believe the seller is refering to the "potatohead".

I believe the mod has been done to avoid "tuner clash". Whilst the stock tuner buttons might not actually clash, they can be close enough to make tuning challenging.....

antipodean wrote:Whilst the stock tuner buttons might not actually clash, they can be close enough to make tuning challenging.....

It's not that bad really. Seems easy after tuning a 12 string bass!

rickenbrother wrote:

antipodean wrote:Whilst the stock tuner buttons might not actually clash, they can be close enough to make tuning challenging.....

It's not that bad really. Seems easy after tuning a 12 string bass!

I believe that Les Claypool may have been onto something with his one-string bass.....