Stag

Indeed - id be very interested to hear a review!

GuitarGuitar now have all 4 different finishes of this in at £3499 (!!!) Doesnt seem like many (if any...?) have shifted from any of the UK dealers?

These are appearing all over the place now : Bass DIrect, Wunjo, Guitar Village. It will be interesting to see what the take-up is like on them.

Like I said, weird take! The body being that bit smaller than a 4003, the neck being a bit thicker - maybe it was just the one I tried. Definitely didnt SOUND like a Warwick thats for sure. I love Warwicks... when other people are playing them!

I tried a few 4004's and they felt like a weird take on a Warwick bass to me. Sounds weird but there you go lol, each to their own!

£3300 is the sticking point here. Im sure they are absolutely fine basses and great to play, but you can get an arguably better Ric like a new 4003 (or just about any other manufacturer come to think of it) for this sort of money, or even far LESS money. The old 2030 shorty they did before was designed to be a cost-effective alternative to the 4003 for shorty enthusiasts, as was the 3001 before it. Im not sure what the target market here is at this price... at least charge the same as the 4003 (or better still the 4003S), considering its almost exactly the same dimensionally just with different pickups and machineheads? The 4003S is c.£2700, what makes this £600 more? I was very interested in picking one up at a 4003S kinda price point but at this figure its a very easy "nope".

Most are Ric-stamped and openfaced, these are muuuch smaller

The more I think about the RRP of these, the more it baffles me. So on the Bass Direct site you can get a 4003S which is presumably exactly the same body, in a "special" colour for £2699. Or you can pay £600 (!!!) more for pretty much exactly the same instrument parts-wise, just with Schaller machine heads and different higain pickups. Err.... wut?

The Racing Green one is here - https://guitarvillage.co.uk/product/rickenbacker-special-edition-4030s-midnight-green?srsltid=AfmBOopGdbrVX69juLk_DOxLfG9pLe3pn7CnMNTTPFdPx14juPqwSXDi No image yet but its the £3499 tag I was told about as its limited to 25 pieces in that finish.

I think its difficult to compare the 4005XC's with these basses other than the scale length. The 4005XC's were a special run for the 90th Anniversary of the company as you say so limited in production, not sure if these will be - im told the green ones are only a run of 25 like the British Racing Green 4003's a while back, but no confirmation on the "standard" colours being a limited run. The XC's are hollow-body which makes construction that little bit trickier, hence the list price of the standard 4005's too. The XC's are bound (very nicely I might add) and also have the stereo circuit. They are also naturally bigger because of that big 360 style body shape... and finally they come with the Ric silver "vintage" deluxe case rather than the standard black plastic one. It will be interesting to see how they take off if at all - and dont give up on Rics, theres loads out there second hand usually at decent-ish prices (although not many shorties out there admittedly...)

Ive had it on very good authority that these are going to have an RRP of between £3499 and £3799 due to Rosetti putting their prices up. For that reason I am very much out, thats an insane price for these "S" version basses which presumably wont have the stereo circuit or binding like their "standard" counterparts