Good evening guys. Some of you may have seen that i'd been hankering for another Ricky for a while. Went and played a load of them, 4001's and 4003's. Really wanted a BurgundyGlo one but they are pretty rare... tried a Ruby one which looked great... was still looking around UNTIL...
...I saw a Jetglo 4003 in the window of a local music store. They ordered it from the distributors nearly THREE years ago, such is the waiting list for Ricks. After a quick play I was convinced it was the bass for me and had to have it. Hopefully the review will explain why!
Ok, its my first review, so be gentle...
[u][b]How does it look?[/b][/u]
It looks like THIS. Pretty sexy, huh? Its not BurgundyGlo but I was struck with how delightful and oddly malevolent this finish looks. It was born in California in the third week of February, in case anyone's wondering.
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[u][b]Do I get any other goodies for my bucks?[/b][/u]
Ric include a very nice furry-interiored case for protecting your pride and joy. Its relatively light as cases go, I hear the feet have a habit of coming off but looks well made to me. Four latches come as standard, all lockable with the provided case key. You also get a nice Ric cloth to make that chromeware look pretty and shiny. And finally, a manual which is about 4 pages long. So, not big on the case candy stakes! I would say for the amount of cash you lay out on these babies that a lead or strap (or both) would be nice please Mr Hall, considering that American Fenders come with SKB case, lead, strap, truss rod tool, allen key, blergh blergh blergh and they cost about half of what a Ric does.
[u][b]OK, How does it play?[/b][/u]
Now this is what sold it to me. I had heard good things about the Rics from 2010 and this is no exception. Playing position / stylewise the pickup cover on the bridge PU may annoy some people but I really like it. My playing position is just behind the neck PU anyway, using my thumb on the pickguard as an anchorpoint. I found the hole left by the PU cover not being there on my 4001 to be a little minefield in which my finger would get stuck, so Im all for the PU cover being on there.
[attachment=76917:bridgePU.jpg]
The neck is simply fabulous in every way. Its slimmer than my 4001, and the volute (cheers for the right terminology Mr 4000) has been reduced, making 1st fret stuff eminently more playable. The fingerboard is a delight, from the first play it felt "right", almost soft feeling to it? The other thing that really struck me was the standard factory set-up, which was absolutely perfect for me. Bottom E is no more than 3mm from the fretboard which is just grand, my fingers can dance around on that happily - the below pictures show the clearance from string to board at the bottom of the neck and at the nut "as it comes" from the factory... I have no intention of changing it.
[attachment=76914:fretclearance.jpg] [attachment=76915:nut.jpg]
The bridge is a bit of an oddity as most people know. It has the rather redundant mute pad which no-one will ever use, the "tail" of the bridge lifts up, and the string hieght can only be adjusted a very very small amount due to the fixed bridge section with all four saddles attached to it. This is a minor quibble but its something that some people may dislike. It is certainly not the greatest bridge design in the world, which is probably why Hipshot and Badass sell so many replacement Ric bridges.
[attachment=76921:bridge.jpg]
[u][b]Now then, what about *that* sound?[/b][/u]
Oh yes. It very much does *that* sound. In fact it does it even more so now. Its the same setup as the 4001, controls for both pickups and a tone for both. You now have the added fun of the "Vintage Tone Selector" as a push/pull switch on the treble tone control. One pull of that and its a one-way ticket to CLANKYville. Think Squire's sound on Roundabout, bit like that. I found you can get some corking sounds out of this circiut, particularly when mixing the two pickups together... a particular favourite being both pickups on full with VT on / bass PU with half tone rolled off, treble PU 3/4 tone in. Oh, and dont lisetn to people who say you cannot slap on a Ric these days - you most certainly can on this 4003. I think there's a video of MarloweDK doing it on a 4003 as well, and with that clanky VT circuit you can really get some cool slap sounds.
[attachment=76916:controls.jpg]
And of course, let's not forget the other fun way we can experiment with the sound - The Rick-O-Sound feature. This splits the signals of the pickups to two channels, essentially. You will need either a "Rick-O-Sound" box or a splitter cable to do this, oh and the small matter of two amps - lots of fun to be had setting up two amps to sound totally different to each other, you could have two completely distinct tones that can be obtained by the flick of a switch! I used to use this feature with my last band by firing the bass signal through the FOH, and the treble through my backline so the band could hear defined notes from on stage which the crowd got the "whoomph".
[u][b]Any other observations?[/b][/u]
I did notice a few things about this that I preferred to what was on my 4001. As discussed the volute isnt so ridiculous now, but also some other things have been improved upon. The old shaky Grover tuners that were on 4001's in the late 70's and 80's are gone thankfully, as they have a habit of falling apart - my 4001 had a one of its tuners do exactly that in the case on the way to a gig. Handy. The new ones are Schallers with "Rickenbacker" stamped brazenly on the back and are jolly good indeed. The pickup surround at the bridge PU now has a cut away so you can lower the action further should you desire - again my 4001 does not allow for this. Finally, the balance of the bass is excellent IMO - it isnt top heavy at all.
My score? [u]For me[/u], its perfect. Everything about it is exactly what I want from a bass... so I'll give it a 9/10... the extra "1" will be awarded if they bring back BurgundyGlo as a standard colour and chuck in some more candy... dont be stingy Ric! ;-)
One final p0rn shot of it : enjoy, and any comments are welcome!
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I too would love to hear one of these. A bit more portable thatn my SVT610HLF and certainly lighter... whats the bottom end "woof" like?
Sex wee. I like. Will be seeing Mr Waters toting something extremely similar in a few weeks.
BassCat has the red version of this and I can say its excellent, in every way. Great weight, great sound - and a great price!
The chap who i bought mine off ended buying another one about a year later, he missed the tone that much... And he mostly plays jazz!!! :-p Mine also came with the footpedal, rare as rocking horse proverbial waste. It really gives the amp another dimension and is a godsend for using it on stage. So someone should really snap this up... Or keep it to save you buying another one in a year's time - lol
My 4001 had a brass nut (and still does) on it when I got it about 10 years ago secondhand. That's today's fact for you all and a free bump for a bass I really should own!
