My first Rickenbacker - 2000 4003JG
Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:56 pm
I have been lurking here some time, several opportunities in the past to get a Ric, but they always seemed to fall through. So when The Bass Centre in Melbourne had a 4003 at the right price, I pulled the trigger!
2000 model 4003 JetGlo. She's in very good condition, some very light barely noticeable scratches and a touchup at the back of the upper bout. Some of the screws and the pole pieces are darkened. The body and neck binding have yellowed slightly in places. She has a little character. Sound wise, tone in spades. Everything from thump to growl. Currently strung with D'Addario nickels, which sound nice but are a bit flat for my liking. I've given her a once over with Meguiar's ScratchX and Dr Duck's Ax Wax, came up nicely. Have a set of RotoSound RS66s (45-105) waiting in the wings for when a vintage tone push-pull pot arrives. Thought about removing the bridge pickup cover, still undecided.
So far I have played her at church mostly. Killer for rock as you would expect, but also great on the neck pickup alone doing quieter stuff. We are writing some original worship songs and doing basic recording from the desk, which sounded awesome. Pictured here with my main bass, the two complement each other. I thought the Ric would make the Ripper sound like a POS, but playing them back to back makes me love each one more! The sound guy last night at practice commented that he is EQing the two very similarly and really only shifting a low-mid curve around. The church rig is a Warwick WA600 with my old Eminence loaded 4x10. For an upcoming three day conference I took my GK 700RB-II head and SWR Henry 8x8 to practice. Ric sounds massive through both. Warwick+4x10 is much rounder, GK+8x8 is more even across the board, with much more punch, a really massive barking tone!
I run a bunch of pedals. Got some tweaking to do to get the ol' green Big Muff just right. TurboRAT is an awesome sound with the Ric. MXR Bass Octave Deluxe is nice. Ric works well with nealy all my pedals. EHX Small Clone is not so fantastic, but I have been toying with swapping that out for an MXR.
I'll try to get a photo of the fretboard. Just noticed last night that it has some beautiful figuring and the grain gets darker as you go up the neck. Why I didn't notice that in the shop I do not know. Maybe I was just giggling like a little schoolgirl at the fact I was playing my dream bass and the tone over came me...
Oh yeah, the day I picked her up we had an 80s theme night. It was supposed to be! Still, I am more of a 70s washup than an 80s glamster!
2000 model 4003 JetGlo. She's in very good condition, some very light barely noticeable scratches and a touchup at the back of the upper bout. Some of the screws and the pole pieces are darkened. The body and neck binding have yellowed slightly in places. She has a little character. Sound wise, tone in spades. Everything from thump to growl. Currently strung with D'Addario nickels, which sound nice but are a bit flat for my liking. I've given her a once over with Meguiar's ScratchX and Dr Duck's Ax Wax, came up nicely. Have a set of RotoSound RS66s (45-105) waiting in the wings for when a vintage tone push-pull pot arrives. Thought about removing the bridge pickup cover, still undecided.
So far I have played her at church mostly. Killer for rock as you would expect, but also great on the neck pickup alone doing quieter stuff. We are writing some original worship songs and doing basic recording from the desk, which sounded awesome. Pictured here with my main bass, the two complement each other. I thought the Ric would make the Ripper sound like a POS, but playing them back to back makes me love each one more! The sound guy last night at practice commented that he is EQing the two very similarly and really only shifting a low-mid curve around. The church rig is a Warwick WA600 with my old Eminence loaded 4x10. For an upcoming three day conference I took my GK 700RB-II head and SWR Henry 8x8 to practice. Ric sounds massive through both. Warwick+4x10 is much rounder, GK+8x8 is more even across the board, with much more punch, a really massive barking tone!
I run a bunch of pedals. Got some tweaking to do to get the ol' green Big Muff just right. TurboRAT is an awesome sound with the Ric. MXR Bass Octave Deluxe is nice. Ric works well with nealy all my pedals. EHX Small Clone is not so fantastic, but I have been toying with swapping that out for an MXR.
I'll try to get a photo of the fretboard. Just noticed last night that it has some beautiful figuring and the grain gets darker as you go up the neck. Why I didn't notice that in the shop I do not know. Maybe I was just giggling like a little schoolgirl at the fact I was playing my dream bass and the tone over came me...
Oh yeah, the day I picked her up we had an 80s theme night. It was supposed to be! Still, I am more of a 70s washup than an 80s glamster!
