Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

This could quite possibly be one of the rarest Rick basses around. Rare, unless RIC restarts production after a revamp. It's not that there is necessarily a small demand, but it seems that very few were made (or at least have turned up around here) before being discontinued. Seems that the standard Cheyenne pickup, the HB-1, did not have a broad enough magnetic field to span the five-string setup, so RIC went with the wider HB-2 pickups. But user reports indicate a detectable drop-off of volume on the B and G strings, and that appeared to be enough to convince the factory that a revamp would be necessary. Now listed as a "discontinued model" on the RIC website, it is still planned to be reintroduced but with no announced date of reissue.

The Cii/5 features a wider neck and fretboard, and of course, five modern Schaller tuners and a five-string bridge to accommodate the additional low B string. The headstock is shaped similarly to the out-of-production 4003S/5. I'm not sure when the Cii/5 was first listed in price sheets as my collection is incomplete, but the familiar "catalog" poster printed in 2002 shows the Cii/5. (The catalog mentions "also available as an eight string," although I am not aware of any actually being made.) The Cii/5 is not listed in my 2001 or 2005 price lists. The only examples that I have seen, a Mapleglo and Transparent Red both belong to Joey Vasco, are 2004 production dates. (Note: each of his pair feature the different pickup positions!) I'll post my photos of his basses here, and if there are any more out there, let's see 'em! And let's hope for the triumphant return of the Cii/5 (and maybe the Cii/8!?)!

Me want Joey's mapleglo.

But wait, the post wasn't clear. Even though the HB2 was used the magnetic field still wasn't broad enough?

Paul, some day it would be nice if you could retake the pics of these two for your book. After you took those pics is when we got Paul W's advice about Scratch-X and Zymol. After the Scratch-X treatment, the figure in the wood of these basses is not so camera shy anymore, especially the Trans Red one.

The mapleglo has CV on the fingerboard.


The Trans Red does not have CV on the fingerboard.


As I recall, these two basses made Dane also become a fan of the 4004 series!

Joshua, yes, drop-off even with the "wider" pickups. RIC used only the wider HB-2s on the Cii/5. I mentioned the HB-1s only because they are used on the standard Cii and that the Cii/5 used the different HB-2s.

Joey, I don't think that the amount of polish would have made much difference in my shots, more the lighting. Also, these shots have not been "tweaked" yet for publishing, so you're looking at raw images.

If I'm reading correctly about the 4004 series, is the neck wider?

And if so, does that make the Cii/5 string spacing much easier to play than on the 4003S/5?

cassius987 wrote:Me want Joey's mapleglo.

But wait, the post wasn't clear. Even though the HB2 was used the magnetic field still wasn't broad enough?

Can't have it !
The pickups work across all strings better on some of the Cii/5's than others. I have no problem with the Trans Red,which I've gigged plenty and recorded with. In fact it's B string is so powerful, the speaker in my GK MB200 can't handle it above a whisper volume. I've already replaced the speaker in that amp once because of that bass. It might be going for a another one.

Tarrbot wrote:If I'm reading correctly about the 4004 series, is the neck wider?

And if so, does that make the Cii/5 string spacing much easier to play than on the 4003S/5?

The wider neck and string spacing of the Cii/5 makes them much easier to play fingerstyle and slap style than the S/5, which has string spacing that is better suited for playing with a pick.

So that's why I suck on the S/5. I can't play with a pick to save my life.

I already knew why I sucked, I just felt like pointing it out even further.

Wow , cool basses !

Were there any 4004 5-string Larado's produced?

If I'm not mistaken there are at least two other Cii 5er's floating around out there... A FG and a TG, both of which I had a shot at buying. I think Chris at POTR had the FG and Big Ed Roman had the TG. I'm sorry I passed on both. Now that I think of it, Joey may have beaten me to the puch on the TR one also - another POTR special

Oh well...

i didn't have a problem with the wider neck on my 4 string cii,but whoa-the necks on these 5 strings look really huge....then again,so do most 5 string necks to me......

Scott, the Laredo was not offered as a five string. There may be some that were converted, however, as there are some standard Cheyenne I and II that have been converted to five-string (and even at least one eight-string).

The Cii5 is a Rick instrument that I've always wanted to have a nice discussion about here, but some individuals always had to turn the discussion ugly. So I for the most part, I stayed out of Cii5 discussions. I hope that doesn't happen in this thread.

bottom4 wrote:If I'm not mistaken there are at least two other Cii 5er's floating around out there... A FG and a TG, both of which I had a shot at buying. I think Chris at POTR had the FG and Big Ed Roman had the TG. I'm sorry I passed on both. Now that I think of it, Joey may have beaten me to the punch on the TR one also - another POTR special

Oh well...

Andy, the trans red was the one I originally ordered from POTR, bur Chris knew I really wanted 2. The MG arrived first. Chris first offered the MG to someone who used to post here that had a HG Cii5 on order, but he passed on it. So Chris offered it to me. He sent me a few pictures. My jaw dropped, my eyes popped outta my head, it was mine. You just missed out on a trans blue.

I don't think there were many Cii/5's produced. The first one I ever saw, was when it was introduced at Winter NAMM 2002. There was a very nice trans green. It might the one John Hall still has.

E r i k has a fireglo that IIRC was originally owned by Paul Alvarez, then Brian Crisman. Paul Alvarez also has a trans red. There was a very nice trans blue that was sold from POTR that someone that used to post here has (probably still lurks). His user name is "Dr_rickenstein". The one Andy had just missed out on. "gshadoan" has a trans green that he modified with Bartolini pickups.
I knew of one in the UK, which a former forumite (Mark Henson) said a friend had.
There was one that I saw for sale on a Japanese website and one that I saw for sale on a European website.
I know of one in the northwest that is owned by a bonehead that had another bonehead talk him into installing a Kahler bridge on.
I've heard of another somewhere in the midwest.
I believe Chris Squire has one. Macca also maybe?
There is John Hall's trans green.
I doubt there are many more.

I wish I could have another in Jetglo or even better yet, trans black.

Here's a fireglo Cii/5 from a NAMM show. I'm not sure if this is the one E r i k has now.

So, just how much wider are the fretboards on the Cii/5?

I'm semi seriously considering modifying my '08 4004Cii (well, it's a 4004Cjj now ) into a 5 string, but I'd want to do it "right" and have the tuners on the correct side...