vax2002

first attack of the sander and the back to wood option is out as the blue pigment has stained its way in, so a coat of high build putty, which gets sanded off with 600 wet and dry and two more coats the same until it is like glass then I will hit it with nitro cellulose blood red, 2 coats, wet and dry and two more and a 3 stage buffing. The bass will live again, it has spent 10 years in a rucksack in bits. Looking through the hardware, one saddle is broken, probably why it was taken to bits, my spares kit found a silver one from an old bass that identical, so thats a start. Rod had the thread stripped in the neck, so straight out and a bit of thread file and the nut now turns, first turn and the neck is flat as a pancake, Ibanez really knew how to make strong necks Lets see what I can get from a £10 bag of bits bass and a few spare hours of sander and paint madness

I think what the problem is, that the basses can be re-produced at a fraction of his selling price, thats the threat, they use cnc machinery like anyone else does, but still charge hand made prices, so you can see why they need to guard the front gate so meaninglessly.

Yeah, it certainly needs a loud colour, thy were loud 80's basses, well not in sound, they sound quite thin, but looks wise. They have a neck to die for, just need to get it sorted now and find some nitro-lacker paint, the acrylics car shops sell are too thick from the tin.

Flatwounds do like a brass or metal nut, often why lots of old basses have them fitted as back in the day it was the only way to get a bit more twang, roundwounds were out, but a lot of basses could not take the tension, especially some of the Rickenbackers, they would crack the nut between the rods pushing the fretboard up, first sign is lifting inlays, thats usually a warning it starting.

car boot, hmm whats this I see in a bag , £10 , everything is present just needs re-painting and putting together, was pink, then blue. Attacked the body with a sander tonight, bleached the top to loosen the paint dye and will sand again tommorow and put some pics on. Has to be a bargain. But what colour should it be, natural wood, or prime and finish it. The pink is out of the question, the blue it had on was a bad spray can job. Blood red springs to mind. Any ideas for a colour.

Obviously he does not subscribe to any guitar collecting clubs. That is one claim that is sure not to be lived out, they have peaked last month and are on the fall, they will level back where they should be.

Scrap that, just looked at feedback and the tale is all cock and bull, its a dealer, obviously avoiding dealers responsibilities. Why not just say instead of coming out with cock and bull about waiting to buy. At least 3 dealers round here have stock, I am not aware of any waiting lists.

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rickenbacker-4003-Fireglow-BRAND-NEW-case-UNUSED-/190667217465?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2c64a6da39"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item2c64a6da39[/url] Looks like he bought on impulse, like most do then found out what an absolute dog they can be to play live. trying to pass a used bass off as new does not curry flavour, if I buy a new bass, I get a VAT receipt and some guarantee.

Not a lot of what they claim would stand up in court, hence why they use threats so harshly. They put the wind in to people, even groups like this. Which has lead a lot of folk to question if that is the sort of company you want to buy products from, one that thinks it owns the words out of peoples mouths now !

If its off the Peg, a squire vintage modified Jazz bass with its duncans will always impress. They are shipped with the rod half a turn loose, so get the shop to set the bass back up. It often amazes me how many shops just unbox basses and stick them on the wall with action you could unicycle under. Shopping around will also open up your choice as some have great grain in the wood. All in for a new bass they take some beating.

On it, but not outside of it ! The wings have become bingo wings Hope they have a good glue these days.

On the wings on the headstock, on older non cnc machine basses they are smaller and outside the machine heads, on the new basses the machine head comes through either on the joint or in the joined area, as theses are stuck on, I must wonder, will we see 30 and 40 year old 4003 lasting as long ?

No Dr J that looks ok as they have feathered the fireglow across the headstock, on the one in my store its just red and looks like a kay bass.

One of the new ones in my local shop, the fireglow just does not look good on the headstock as the contrast in the wood, well lets put it this way, if you were making a bass, you would had a look for a bit of wood that match more closely. Say in a squire you expect the woods not to match, its a £149 bass, but at a price level of a rick it should be immaculate. I dont know whats changed, but hopefully they will go back to basics and instead of swapping odd bits of wood in , make a few different colours now and again. The solid reds and white instruments of the 80's and early 90's, the azureglow, bring it back for a year, the "midnight blue" just does not cut it. They were supposed to be having a colour of the year, but its a lot of years since they made any 4003 with anything other than standard, until they decided to use odd bits of wood that is.

Perhaps I am picky but the New finish on the 4003 just does not look right to me, the new rosewood neck is dark in colour like most copies are and the contrasts between the plastic imitation mother of peal triangles and the dark wood is glaring. Ricks were always famous for the redwood necks that fit well with inlays and binding. The New finish makes the necks look really wide Either the Neck finger board needs to go back to a red wood or the inlays need toning down ? Also the contrast between the joins in the wood is very loud and really stands out that it is joined. On a mapleglow, that looks nice but on the fireglow, the bass looks patched in. Then we see they have stopped the glow feathering on the headstock and just blasted it all the same, this highlights the contrast in the jointed wood. Rickenbacker 4003 have always been a bass you pay a huge mark up premium for as the woods were well matched and the quality of the finish was not replicable by other manufactures, but the new line look more like copies than some of the copies do ? Would I pay £1500 /£1700++ for one of the new finish basses, no I dont think I would as the inlays really stand out and look plastic like. I think many may agree ? Or disagree ? Perhaps you like the new finish, darker more common wood on finger board, one blast headstock and the sharp contrast in wood joints ? Debate ?

Dont know what he uses now, but early days were the stingray, a Yamaha chorus, a boss octaver.