Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Dear John Hall,

I would like a 4003S, dots and no binding, with a street price under $1,000.


Just in case you were wondering...

Respectfully,
Grink

lol - that gets my "Post of 2005" award already.

Dear Grink,

The 4003S was discontinued due to low sales, probably because it only listed for $100 less than a 4003. Please don't hold your breath waiting.

Sincerely,
Not John Hall

Thanks Dave, I'll start breathing again. I'm relatively new to the world of Rics and the company's history is not one of my fortes. Perhaps I'll consider a C64; and by the way, if anyone on the forum actually owns one I'd love to hear their impressions.

I've a v63, which is a c64 with the right, or is that left headstock. It's a wonderful bass, fantastic tone, great neck and superb finish.

Other than the upside down headstock I think the c64 is very similar.

I have a V63 and I love it. The only problem I have with it is that the treble pickup is very hot but the neck pickup is not so the balance is a bit off. I am told that the C64 is more even but I don't first hand if that is true. Watch Ebay for a 4003S. They come up now and then.

Haven't noticed an imbalance on mine, I'll have to give another listen and see ...

Mine is a '94. I don't know if all of them are like mine. The V63 was made for about 15 years.

92 here Ted, I'll let you know how it goes ...

I had two V63's, one had very balanced pickups and the other had a weak toaster. I have heard the C64 horseshoe was closer in sound to the original one made during the 60's, less predominant than one in the V63's, but that is only something I have read, I have never even seen one in person. I thought the V63 horseshoe was a great sounding pickup and really regret selling them even though I could never get used to the horseshoe being in the way.

My 97 4003 was a direct replacment for my original 73 4001, and for the most part I've always figured I'd never consider anything else as my "main" Ric bass

After playing my v63 now for the past 3 months, I'd now saw that my v63 is my prerferred bass.

The range of tone, playability and overall "Ric'ness" is as close to my original 73 as my memory affords me.

If i had to make that very difficult choice I'd keep my 92-v63, over my 97 4003.

When I can find another mint v63 in Fireglo I'll add a second v63 to my armoury.

J. Grink
I played a C64 a week or so ago. IMO it had a slimmer better felling neck than the current 4003, but I only played it for a couple of minuites since I am not in the market for a bass. Jeff Rath also played that one . Here's the link to that thread: ../5/33945.html"#EECD9C">

I have a V63 horseshoe in my '73 4001 with the original toaster. At first the HS was overpowering but I fixed that. Because of the shape of the top half of the shoes being parallel to the top surface of the bass, there is very little room for adjusting the height of it before the strings hit the underside of the shoes so I took the shoes off and bent them up to match the arc of the strings. Now I can lower the HS and get a better balance.

Before:


After:


Not only that, I think it looks better!

I did not think of that solution. The shape of the shoes prevents lowering the pickup enough to get a good balance. The strings would hit the underside of the horseshoes before the desired adjustment was reached. So you simply widened the gap to allow a bit more room to adjust the pickup. Cool.

I dropped a vintage shoe on my concrete basement floor a while back and it shattered like glass. I would have been afraid to try bending the modern ones but apparenlty they are softer than the originals.

It took some work to get them to bend but it can be done. Be careful with the finish as I dinged the chrome a bit on mine; it just makes them look more vintage now!

Not only is the gap wider, but the shoes are angled up.