Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

So I picked up this 1983 4003. She's light (under 9 lbs), neck is super straight and action is very low and free of buzz.

I bought her from the second owner. He was told from the original owner that it was a special order (through his dealer). He didn't want the body binding and wanted a black truss rod cover and a black pickguard. I've never seen another quite like it. It's somewhat similar to a Shadow (and a bit less similar to a Black Star). Anyway, totally digging her. I took her out for the first time this past weekend (end of the night pic at the bottom). As a bonus, the original owner had all of the cavities professionally copper shielded (very neat job and all seams soldered, etc). She's dead-quiet!

I wonder, was the body binding just painted over? It dosen't seem to have the round over on the bass side that "S" basses usually have.

That is one hot looking bass! Thanks for sharing!!

Grey wrote:I wonder, was the body binding just painted over? It dosen't seem to have the round over on the bass side that "S" basses usually have.

You are correct in that the edges are more angled like one with a binding might have. I've read that in some cases, Ric would paint over the bindings on special orders back then. The finish totally appears to be all original. She has a fair amount of checking and the finish in the cavities is the same. She appears to be 100% original minus the copper shielding that was done, but I'm totally OK with that as she's silent.

I had a 4001JG ( Pretty sure it was an '81) that was very similar. Black TRC and pick guard...It was a deluxe with triangle inlays, stereo jack, and binding, but the binding was black. It was hard to tell that it had binding, but if you looked super close you could see it. White binding on the fret board, but black on the body.

That is a sweet looking bass

Congrats!

That is awesome. Love the last shot on stage…good crowd too!

It has the wavy Grovers too. Nice bass, I like it! Awesome crowd - what band is this?

The band I am in is an 80's tribute band called The New Romance (www.thenewromance.com) We play pretty much everything 80's (pop, rock, dance, new wave, hair-band, etc). From Prince to Whitesnake to Depche Mode, Eddie Money, etc, etc,...

Nice bass. Nice looking rig. A few of us LDS owners here.

edski wrote:A few of us LDS owners here.

Absolutely love my LDS cab. It's a 2x10" Faital with 2x6.5" on top with a Patterson 3 way crossover. I use it for probably 6 out of 10 gigs. I use my Epifani UL610 (and a full rack rig) for XL gigs with XL stages.