Stag

hehe, once again ty all for the comments regarding the review, glad people found it good/useful? Shaggy - ah yeah, the dea lthat never happened.... a shame... but this bass is so damn good the blow of it not being the *perfect* colour for me has been softened

Cheers for the kind comments lads! Andy - yep it was from Cookes did you play it?

I have the DTR1000 and its jolly good. So a +1 for the Korg kit :-) I like putting the display onto Battlestar Galactica mode after ive tuned up, always gets audience comments with this lightshow occurring behind me for no reason

porntastic! Love it. Good job by you and Si!

Argh this is porntastic! Great stuff guys! thebrow, that looks...... mmmm..... yummy.

If anyone is following this still then please feel free to have a look at [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=130851&pid=1192205&st=0&#entry1192205"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...p;#entry1192205[/url] and check out my review for a few differences that can be picked up between the two. :-) cheers!

[quote name='Mr Fudge' post='1192325' date='Apr 7 2011, 09:56 PM']I have exact same spec 2010 Ric that i bought from paulie about 3 months ago. I don't know about older Rics, but the quality and playability of mine is fantastic. It took me a while to get used of a wider neck, different balancing, finger positioning and thumpier sound than my skinny Jazz necks, but it was worth it. I really enjoyed your review. Thanks for posting it.[/quote] Cheers all, and thanks Mr Fudge, glad you liked the review!

Enjoy gents. By the way, if anyone's interested ive written a review of the new Rics here : [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=130851&pid=1192205&st=0&#entry1192205"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...p;#entry1192205[/url] [attachment=76926:bass.jpg] [attachment=76927:body.jpg] [attachment=76928:body2.jpg] [attachment=76929:headstock.jpg]

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. [attachment=76913:bass.jpg] [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! [attachment=76922:body.jpg]

I like this thread.

Sorry no pics yet, and Spurs being in the Champs Lge tonight means its unlikely tonight - will try and do it tomorrow! Was thinking, I might just do a review of it, and a (belated) review of my 4001 as well. Seems no one has reviewed Rics, so could be handy?

ummm... when I put it down ill do some pics! hehe! All will be revealed... its a beauty, was in the shop I bought it from for a whole day before I picked it up Incidentally, last time the same shop has Rics turn up they've gone within a day - lol - one lasted 30 minutes of being in the window haha!

I have it now, but I cant put it down... lol... ill post some pics later. Its a new one so its nothing vintage or rare (unless you count the waiting list and the distinct lack of stock in most shops)... but it plays like butter and I love it dearly already!

Just as an update to this, the decision has been made over the weekend, a weekend spent playing a good number of Rics from over the years.

[quote name='charic' post='1184909' date='Apr 1 2011, 03:49 PM']For true lightbulb shattering action (the bass that was in use at the time)[/quote] Yup, it was! Lord knows what would have happened if i put the Les Paul through it... DOOM

aaaghhgghhghhh i am now GASsing about TC stuff, stop this now please

I played this the other night along with Dood. Have to say this is a wonderful piece indeed! Great weight to it - has a real bottomy THUMP to it as well. The finish on it is absolutely exquisite as well, mind you I am a total sucker for deep reds / burgundy with cream binding! Its a beauty

oh yeah, and people specifically do come to see us. We dont take it very seriously and we do tunes that people really should know so they get into it. Playing for the fun of it - something I didnt do for a long time! Its great to knock out a bit of Rush and stuff like that... but the majority of people who go and see a band want to hear stuff they know... (Sweet Home Alabama etc! )

Im in a covers band and we pull a crowd, in venues that dont usually do bands... if you make it fun and get people dancing and singing you will get a good name and pull a crowd.

[quote name='charic' post='1184011' date='Mar 31 2011, 10:11 PM']If you mean the rh450 you must be kidding. As many can testify (including an unfortunate lightbulb) from the eq bassbash it has tonnes of volume[/quote] It was me who blew up a lightbulb with it!!! lol It certainly has the power, and that was only ONE 2x10 cab being used I was highly impressed, I do very much like it when things are destroyed by bass

yep, I did mean the volute... and yep I did mean the pickup surround! Good translation skills! My 4001 has a fairly large volute. I dont think I felt it anywhere near as pronounced on the new 4003. I dont think the 4001 im looking at has the cutaway. The 4003 does.... :-)

Does the neck "bump" that you get on 4001's at the 1st fret appear on 4003's?