Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Some of you know I was given a 2008 FG4003. The neck was too wide for my injured wrists so I tried to sell it. While it was on ebay I kept playing it and fell in love once again with that High Gain tone. Removed it from ebay and sent it to Jeff Rath for a 4-2-5 conversion. I had this done to my 4004 a few years ago for this reason...... The 5 string conversion brings in the E string for a 1.5" E to G width. I can deal with that width and Jeff did an outstanding job as usual. I know this conversion is frowned upon on this forum and I understand the de-valuation of the instrument but it sure is fun to have a classic Rickenbacker sound pumping through my amp again.

I never got the impression that 4-2-5s were "frowned upon" in general here, although I'm sure we all have our individual preferences...

Enjoy! There's nothing better than being back in the ol' saddle again!

Got a photo? I'd love to see his latest conversion.

yes,love to see pix when you can! also,no frowning here,just a general lack of 5 string experience. i finally played a few (music man,ibanez,fender,lakland) recently,and while i love the sound of that open low b,i just prefer to have one less string to deal with....i do think a low b on a cii would sound awesome ......hmmm.....

Also would like to see pictures...

I don't think there is frown to mods... there may be some discussion as to how to mod, but I don't hink there is negatives for actual mods. You might hear something if some one like Paul, Chris or Geddy gave you a bass and you went on to change it. Other than that I think there is more discussion as to how to do the mod rather than the mod itself.

woodyng wrote:....i do think a low b on a cii would sound awesome ......hmmm.....

Yes, it does! I tuned mine down to BEAD with just the stock strings and it was awesome! I'm going to get some strings more suitable for that tuning and see how much better it is. I may leave it that way but what I eventually want to do is add a 5th string.

I actually frown on 5 stringers in general, because they are not for me BUT, if the conversion makes it the right bass for you, then the frown has turned upside down

VRICKY63 wrote:I know this conversion is frowned upon on this forum and I understand the de-valuation of the instrument but it sure is fun to have a classic Rickenbacker sound pumping through my amp again.

Very few frowned upon this conversion. In fact when Jeff started doing this, I gave him a thumbs up because I love 5 string basses, although it's a crude way of doing it in comparison to Dane's way which looks much better in my opinion. The only time it made me cringe was when it on it was if it was done on a rare Rick, which really does kill the value of the instrument. I don't think that doing this mod on a regular production 4003 changes the value much at all as long as it looks good and performs well.

I have never been able to post photos on this site. Jeff sent me an email with photos that he took of the bass. Can I foward that to someone to post on this thread ?

You can email the pictures to me.

You can ship the bass to me; I'll take pictures and post them.

I bet the new bass kicks butt! I've played a lot of the 4-2-5 conversions and I like them a lot. I'm sure your new one is equally as good! Congrats, and yes, let's see 'er!

woodyng wrote:....i do think a low b on a cii would sound awesome ......hmmm.....

Why yes...yes it is!

OK Ken. Bass is shipped.

Thanks! I'll get the pics right back to you.