Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

2005 MIM fretless jazz bass. My 4001 is gonna be in the case for a bit while I figure out how to play this new thing. Should be here within a week. I'll post pics when it gets here.

Here's an ebay pic for now.

Yep, I get a case out of it.

Cool! You'll have to give us an in-depth comparison of the Fender vs. the Rick...

It's gonna be weird. The 4001 has been my only bass for the past 5 years or so.

Cool. One of my first basses was a dark blue MIM Fretless Jazz. Now it has a fretted neck and is Sonic Blue. Go figure.

nattiep wrote:It's gonna be weird. The 4001 has been my only bass for the past 5 years or so.

All the better! The 4001 has been my only bass for about 30 years, until this past year when I added a 4003 and most recently a 4004Cjj...

Congrats!

I love my 64 J and 74 P...

Comparisons with a Ric are like apples and oranges...

Congrats! I do own a Fender guitar, a ca. 1986 Rosewood Telecastter (Harrison reissue). Most definitely apples and oranges when compared against any of my Rickenbackers.

Congrats, Nate - I have an AmStd Precision 5 on the brown truck being delivered today myself. It's my first Fender in years.

It arrived this morning and man my fingers are hurting already. The sliding harmonics are "freakin' sweet" and the flats are going to take some getting used to. I haven't had a chance to run it though a song I know yet since my friends are using my computer/stereo. I've just been bluffing though what's on.

I have to say though, just comparisons off the bat. The Fender is lighter and far more comfortable. Also the fretboard has an interesting stripe down the middle.

Nate: Congrats on the Fender FL. I have a MIJ similar to yours (a '99) that doesn't have the fret lines. Those really confuse me. Mine has side dots where the fret would be (A, B, C#, Octave, G, A). But the real point of my post is that these Fender rosewood FLs really can take half-rounds or even rounds. Those will eat through a Rick FL fingerboard varnish, but no real worries with the Fender, at least for several years. Just keep an eye on things. I've got the Rick bass rounds on mine.

I own five fretless electrics plus an upright, so I wouldn't steer you wrong.

sweet, enjoy, and keep us posted

It came with flats btw. It was interesting getting used to those. I've turned up the treble on my amp and I can get a decent growl out of the thing. I've started playing some stuff I learned on the 4001 and it's big pain to get it to sound right. Zeppelin sounds good, YYZ has the right sound... just damn, what a thing to get used to. The tapered neck is annoying but I like how thin it is. The body is a pretty comfortable change, I just can't play in my usual spot (next to the neck) with the same intensity.

Sorry about the lack of updates. I replaced the pickguard on it yesterday. It looks much better than just black and white. The bridge has some faulty screws and the saddle height on the G string goes down. I need to get this fixed too.

The neck.. the neck just plain hurts my hand. After a while it feels like I'm trying to hard and it's just uncomfortable. I guess that's what years on only a 4001 will do to someone. The lack of frets is interesting and playing stuff that I normall use the fretted on is a real challenge. It has a decent tone to it (I play it with more bass and less highs) but it's just plain not loud enough.

I'm surprised about the output.
I do agree that that tort shell guard looks better than a white one.

I'm not comfortable on a J-bass neck either. I play a F*nd*r, it has to be a Precision.

The output may be down to either poorer quality pickups (a possibility) or the fact that some vintage spec J-bass pickups are "underwound" to around 5-6kohms. If your 4003 has the hot higains, the difference will be noticeable.

On the neck, the J-bass neck is definitely a different kettle of fish, but the fretless thing may also be an issue. I find that I need to play much more correctly on fretless (i.e. thumb in the middle of the neck, fingers arched and pressing straight down), whereas I lapse into a more relaxed and less correct technique with fretted basses. It may be worth trying out few other fretless basses to see if they give you similar issues.

BTW the bass looks great....