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Rickenbacker MG 4003 FL

Shaggy

By Shaggy,
in Basses For Sale

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Shaggy Mentor

Shaggy

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Posted (edited)

Bit of a speculative sale this one; I’ve had this bass up FS before and eventually withdrew it - being happily resigned to keeping it I spent a good few hundred upgrading to my ideal spec (replacing the previous Seymour Duncan p/ups with Ric ones, fitting cellulose tort pickguard)

So essentially;
[list]
[*]2005 Rickenbacker 4003 FL (fretless) in mapleglo (natural), almost blemish-free; only defect is 2mm ding on rear of body so small I couldn’t get it to show in a close-up pic
[*]Walnut headstock “wings”
[*]VT tone circuit
[*]Fretless lacquered rosewood fingerboard, side dot markers on 1/3/5/7/9/12 etc fret positions. Has always been strung with flats, so board almost unmarked, currently strung with Pyramid Golds.
[*]Brand new Rickenbacker bridge pickup and cover just fitted, replacing previous SD.
[*]Vintage late ‘60’s Rickenbacker toaster neck p/up fitted. (see how much the new ones cost on ebay, then see how much vintage Ric parts cost!)
[*]WD Music cellulose 5-ply tortoiseshell 2-piece pickguard just fitted, imported from the US. This is the proper vintage quality tort material, far superior to modern acrylic. Original Ric opal white p/g included (see last pic), I just felt the white looks a bit bland with mapleglo, and tort p/guards were offered on some vintage Rics.
[/list]
“Fretless” and “Rickenbacker” aren’t normally included in the same sentence, which is a real shame; they're so playable, the all-maple and neck-thru construction make for fantastic sustain, and the single-coil pickups are wonderfully articulate. The vintage toaster p/up in particular gives a fabulously deep, warm, double-bassy growl.

Price £950, shipping on top or collected from near Swansea, S Wales. No trade offers please – this is only to finance purchase of a specific bass. Any Q’s please PM me.


Cheers, Greg :)

Edited by Shaggy
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Stag Community Regular

Stag

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Posted (edited)

Have a bump on me Greg... wow - I must say, I love the tort PG!

...edit... and considering the price of and scarcity of new Rics (never mind FL ones) this has to be a barg of immense proportions!

Edited by Stag
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Shaggy Mentor

Shaggy

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Holiday Bump from a soggy Wales :)

Been some speculation in other threads about what these rare birds sound like.
Unsuprisingly sounds like a Rick; a fretless Jazz Bass is still a Jazz bass, a fretless Wal is still a Wal; just with added "mwah". So on the classic combined p/up setting you get that cutting, middy growl; but here considerably mellowed by the use of flats - think late Beatles-era Paul McCartney and early Pink Floyd. I was thinking of trying D'addario half-round ("groundwound") strings on the next change to get a bit more zing without trashing the fingerboard lacquer.
What did make a big difference to this bass was fitting the vintage toaster; as I mentioned in my OP it sounds remarkably double-bassy; not just the tone but the whole attack / swell / decay dynamics of the note. No "clank" here, although I'm sure it could be got!

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Beedster Grand Master

Beedster

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I have to say that, with much recent DB and fretless playing, this bass is starting to really 're-grow' on me, albeit somewhat too late in the day! When I owned it, although I loved its depth, I found the lack of really tight and sparkly top end, compared to fretless Fenders for example, a little limiting. Now I've learned how to get the best out of the dusty end of a DB fretboard, I'm realising that the fault was with the player not the machine. In my bass playing experience, DB and electric, I've yet to come across a bass on which the strings resonate with the whole instrument as they did with this bass. I remember reading Ric's marketing and thinking 'there's no way that's gonna sound like a Double Bass', but it really can produce a lovely sweet and melodic 'loose' sound. That said, it can do the opposite also - the first time we did Whole Lotta Love this baby absolutely rocked the place with a monstrously powerful sound that made me realise why the likes of Lemmy use Rics.

And McCartney's lines? Whadaya reckon? :)

Anyway, I sincerely wish I had £1200 lying around that wasn't already earmarked for the studio! Greg's also a great guy to deal with also, so you'll know you're getting both a special bass and a totally up-front genuine seller here

C

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Stag Community Regular

Stag

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As an avower lover of Ric I would really like to hear this actually, never heard an FL one... someone is gonna be a happy happy man I think, free pickups and spare guard, Beedster's seal of approval... what more could a buyer want! :)

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Shaggy Mentor

Shaggy

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[quote name='Beedster' post='933512' date='Aug 23 2010, 12:07 PM']I have to say that, with much recent DB and fretless playing, this bass is starting to really 're-grow' on me, albeit somewhat too late in the day! When I owned it, although I loved its depth, I found the lack of really tight and sparkly top end, compared to fretless Fenders for example, a little limiting. Now I've learned how to get the best out of the dusty end of a DB fretboard, I'm realising that the fault was with the player not the machine. In my bass playing experience, DB and electric, I've yet to come across a bass on which the strings resonate with the whole instrument as they did with this bass. I remember reading Ric's marketing and thinking 'there's no way that's gonna sound like a Double Bass', but it really can produce a lovely sweet and melodic 'loose' sound. That said, it can do the opposite also - the first time we did Whole Lotta Love this baby absolutely rocked the place with a monstrously powerful sound that made me realise why the likes of Lemmy use Rics.

And McCartney's lines? Whadaya reckon? :rolleyes:

Anyway, I sincerely wish I had £1200 lying around that wasn't already earmarked for the studio! Greg's also a great guy to deal with also, so you'll know you're getting both a special bass and a totally up-front genuine seller here

C[/quote]

Thanks Chris, great description of the bass, and I'm really going to have to get into this DB / EUB thing myself! Though given a pot of money I'd have snapped up that unfeasably gorgeous LPB '64 P of yours :lol:

Best of luck with the studio project!

[quote name='Stag' post='933594' date='Aug 23 2010, 01:17 PM']As an avower lover of Ric I would really like to hear this actually, never heard an FL one... someone is gonna be a happy happy man I think, free pickups and spare guard, Beedster's seal of approval... what more could a buyer want! :o[/quote]

......I swear that cat blinked at me...... :)

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Shaggy Mentor

Shaggy

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.........though I admit the original opal white p/g looks more "trad" Ric, and as stated will be included with the bass. The idea was also - since I was upgrading the bass to my personal tastes - to make a "twin" for my maple-board '78 fretless Fender P, which is also natural / tort.

Edited by Shaggy
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Stag Community Regular

Stag

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I also note the last picture with the original P/G - still nice... but I prefer the tort on maple look, its one I havent seen on a Ric before... cool!

I suppose you can just change it over anyway since you are getting both P/G's with this...

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Shaggy Mentor

Shaggy

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You can't go wrong with a Jaco Jazz, Ziggor! :) Enjoy it.

Schnozalee - true words - this a "double niche" bass being both fretless AND a Rickenbacker. Have to say though, having played mainly fretless and almost entirely finger-style for 30+ years, this bass in its current set-up is one of the very, very best I've played, and I've played the best there is. I'm only considering letting it go as 1. I recently acquired a Wal Mk 1 Custom fretless, and 2. I'm GAS-ing for my main weakness - a rare vintage Gibson. :rolleyes: Oh well

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Stag Community Regular

Stag

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Just to "let the cat out of the bag" somewhat, the bass Mr Shaggy is GAS'sing for is my Gibson, which im only considering letting go to fund a certain type and colour of bass that has appeared on BC, hence why I why I have not put it up for sale here. The Gibson isnt for sale - unless its to Greg, as I know he will give it a loving home!

It appears that the seller of the bass that im looking at may be going down the eBay route... so I would not be selling my Gibson in this case (as the bass I want would have "got away" on eBay) - then I presume all bets would be off on this glorious Rick FL that Shaggy is selling here. So if you want this bass you may want to make an offer for it as it may not be around on here much longer - Shaggy is a top guy to deal with (as confirmed by others above) so deal with confidence.

:-)

Edited by Stag
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Schnozzalee Experienced

Schnozzalee

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[quote name='Shaggy' post='962694' date='Sep 20 2010, 08:31 PM']Cheers Schozz, but

1. WTF is that in your avatar?
2. Why are you selling all your bass gear? :)[/quote]

Thats me new Masterbuilt Charvel Star lol :rolleyes: its a classic '78 finish, pretty marmite but think of Ziggy Stardust n it don't seem all that bad...really...hmm? Take my word for it haha. Plays like a dream though and sounds the biz plus the woods are top quality, just can't shake the GAS for cheesey LA hair metal guitars :blush:

I'm not intending to give up bass entirely, just got a lil too peeved at my hands being too small for 75% with the hand injury n so on but there ain't no guitar I can't play and I thought it might help my theory/inspiration. I've only played a John Birch Rickenbacker so i'm not so sure how a real one would feel, but tonally, that with flatwounds is where its at!

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