Rickenbacker 4003 Bass

Same as always.

It does one thing better than any other bass: It sounds like a Rickenbacker. There are plenty of modern basses that get a wider tonal range. You have to get a Rcickenbacker if you want that tone. If you prefer a different tone, there are much better modern choices that give much wider tonal range. If you were looking for an extremely versatile bass, this would rate a 5 compared to some others. The flatsawn non-reinforced neck has pronounced wolf notes that you have to work around. It also warps very easily if you don't attend to those truss rods religiously and you go through wide temperature changes. It needs some strengthening to raise the resonant frequency above the fundamental bass range. Make sure you get a reinforced neck if you want to eliminate wolf notes that plague you. I get tired of listening to fans of this bass talk about its character. Not all of its character is good. So it competed very well against old P-basses, J-basses, and Thunderbirds. Big freaking deal. That was the 70's, dude. I'm being generous here, not too critical. I'm actually looking to sell mine if I can get out without losing money.

RIC quality is all over the map these days. They are trying to increase production, and it really shows in the varying quality. I have seen everything from great Rickenbackers to ones that had the action of a dog turd. I have seen their necks warp as they season out. I mean REALLY bad warps. Sideways warps where the strings were actually off the side of the fretboard! John Entwistle gave up on their basses early in his career because he felt they had weak necks. I must concur from my own experience. The 4003 had dual truss rods added to address deficiencies in the 4001 neck. It helped, but it hasn't cured the problem. I would HIGHLY suggest that you only buy a used one and have it checked very thoroughly if you don't know how to do this yourself. Any bass neck at least 5 years old has done all the shifting around it's going to do (unless you abuse it). A new Rick bass is a crapshoot. Just a fact. The Jetglo finish is very pretty, if you just want a wallhanger bass.

Rickenbackers are very reliable, IF YOU GET A GOOD ONE! The next category tells you why you need a good one.

This category is below par for the reputation of the instrument, and highly variable depending on the mood of the day at RIC. If they are in a bad mood that day, you had best just hang up the phone and call back later. You only have a warranty if you bought it new and nuerous stipulations are met. If you buy NOS, some or all of your warranty is shot, as the 5 years starts the day it leaves the factory. I decided to be generous here, as some people have gotten good service. I suggest you BUY USED AND NEVER CALL THEM. They referred me to a private luthier to fix my problem, which was probably a manufacturing defect, if that tells you something.

My bass looked mint in the showroom, but I discovered neck problems later on. Maybe I can fix them. RIC doesn't care. The bass sounds good, but I want a wider range of tones. I will sell it if I can't resolve the neck problem at a reasonable cost. I would not buy the bass again. Spector, Warwick, Status Graphite, Peavey Cirrus, and a bunch of others have passed RIC and Fender a long time ago. Even Fender is reinforcing the necks of their basses. RIC has decided to stay in the stone ages. A shiny flashy finish does not by itself make a great bass, but it does look good in the showroom and gets a lot of Rick basses out the door fairly quickly. BUY A USED ONE AND CHECK IT OUT THOROUGHLY BEFORE YOU BUY. That neck is far from the most stable in bassdom. If you ignore this advice, you are playing dice with your money.

2003 Rickenbacker 4003...you know all the specs, if not just browse this site a little more.
Here's the rather poetic description off the RIC website:
"The Classic Rickenbacker bass - famous for its ringing sustain, treble punch and solid underlying bass. A subtle strip of binding graces the elegantly curved body and the Rosewood fingerboard. Deluxe triangular inlays and stereo capability are standard features."

2 passive p/u's, 2 tone & 2 volume controls, pickup selector switch. Classic design.

Mine is the BEAUTIFUL limited edition color for 2003 - Montezuma Brown. A tobacco sunburst type finish...very similar to their Autumnglo finish from the '70s. Best looking bass I have ever owned.

I also upgraded to the vintage silver tolex case. Well worth it. Very unique silver exterior & a blue crushed velvet interior. Almost as cool looking as the bass.

....and of course it's American made.

I am a Rick man through & through (this is my 3rd), but don't believe the lies that "Ricks have no low end". You can go from the classic Geddy Lee/Chris Squire/Roger Glover/Glenn Hughes tones to enough bottom to rattle windows from their frames.

I use it with a late '80s Fender BXR 400 through an Eminence 15" as well as a Peavey TNT 115 combo with the 15" Blue Marvel speaker. They both sound great.

Great 'Rick Clank' especially when played with a pick. Nice full finger tone too.

Sounds flat out evil when I run it distorted and/or through a wah.

I bought mine from Mike Parks @ The Music Connection/Rickenbacker Page. He's a legendary Rick dealer & it was ready to go out of the box as soon as it arrived. Even UPS couldn't screw it up!

Playes beautifully.

Gorgeous, perfect, flawless.

I've only had it for a month, but it's solid as a rock.
One of the tone control knob silver tops fell off, but that's a typical Rick issue. One drop of glue, problem solved.

Rick finishes are legendary. Great gloss that will last forever.

New Rick strap buttons are a huge improvement over the old style ones. They are strap lock ready.

Always take a back up you fool!

I've got a friend at Rick so my opinions may be biased, but this is my 3rd Rick & they have always been a dream to deal with.

I've been playing for about 18 years & own the following basses:
1974 Rickenbacker 4001
1978 Rickenbacker 3001
1990 Fender Jazz Bass
2001 Gibson Thunderbird.

Do your research. I almost got the vintage style "toaster pickups", but wisely decided against it. The standard hi-gains are much hotter & give you more of the classic Rick growl.

Steal it...I dare you. Your will had better be in order.

I love everything about this bass. The ltd. ed. color has got to be my fave feature.

Rickenbacker 4003 burgundyglo, 1981
20 frets, tone and volume control for each pickup, 2 single coil original ric pu's. Modified: stero/mono switch- you can use two normal mono cables to run it "ric-o-sound" which sound really great especially with the neck pu "dry" and the middle pu with wahwah or anything else.
everything on this bassgutar is original (except for that stero switcht)
I give a 9 because of the great "STEREO" sound

I play many different music styles from heavy old school rock (sabbath) to nu metal and they all told me it sound great. sometimes it gets noisy when i hit the strings very hard, but that is obvious.
Likes: Sounds very cool. Thru the right amp configuration it sounds aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa great. i played thru a 8x10. sounded great.
i play thru a 1x15 with an old 100Watt tube amp - great sound
well- if you like that ric sound (I do) you'll love it...
I give an 8 because sometimes i have hum on it on live gigs (not in the rehearsal room) when there are a lot of lights switching on/off
No- it sound fantastic---10

I bought is used in 2003.
I put flatwound strigs on it an sewt it up for my needs. So i can't tell if it was set up well by rickenbacker people.
After 22 years the finish has marks that show the basses age - it5 has to be that way!

Very reliable. Until now. I take care of my axe (it is HOLY to me!!)
Whatever. You can destruct anything.

I'm from Germany. The instrument is 22 years old. I won't call them.

I give a 9. I can't give a 10, bacause it means "perfect". And the might always be something better. I don't think so. I trid Fenders and Musicman and... I LOVE Rick. But this is THE AXE. I love it and won't evr sell it. Perfect action and sound (to me). I love the neck thru body construction and everything!!

A Brand new Torquise Ricky with all the standard features. It's all been stated before in the previous posts.

I had a 1974 and sold it because I liked the new color. The 2003 does not sound like the vintage bass at all. I'm not sure why it sounds so different. I LOVED my 1974 and ran it with two amps for Ric-O-Sound but never even got that far with this bass.

TERRIBLE! Chrome was falling off the bridge and the finish had fisheyes on the neck(solvent pops)so bad that you could feel them with your hand. It appears Ricky quality is now a historic footnote. Set up was equaly as bad. It appeared to have never been intonated and the action was 1/4" high. I play very hard and have extremely high action on all my basses but this was ridiculous.

This bass scared me. Even the cheapest Chinese import blew it away in quality. I sent it back to Musicians Friend. They told me it would be sold as a blem..

The worst new bass I've ever purchased since 1968. I contacted Ricky Customer Service about this and after several days got a repsonse to send it back under Warantee and they would "See what they could do"

No one cared and it was easy to tell....They have lost it.

Pure Garbage....Buy a vintage but watch out for the neck problems they had in earlier 4003s. Make sure it is the model with the double truss rods...

Nothing has changed. See other reviews.

Nothing has changed. See other reviews

HERE'S SOMETHING THAT HAS CHANGED!

What is going on here? I purchased a brand new Turqoise 4003 from Musician's Friend. What do I find? Chrome literally falling off of the tailpiece. Fisheyes in the neck paint so bad you can feel them with your hand.

Another manufacture falls apart. The Korenas and Chinese manufactures have significantly higher quality. I'm crushed and will never buy a Rickenbacker product again....

Scared to death of Rickenbacker now that they obviously have no quality control...

Not worth calling when you ship this junk...

TERRIBLE.....The set up was equally as bad AVOID! I play very hard and have high action on all of my basses, but a 1/4"? Who plays with that? BTW- I'm no rookie at this. I'm 50 years old and have played over 25 years. I currently own approximately 20 basses and have gone thru at least 50 in the last 10 years.

This is the story of an awesome Rickenbacker 4003, in JetGlo finish (black), made in February 2003, and purchased used in July 2003. It is in absolutely as new condition, except the fact that the bridge pickup cover has been removed (but supplied with the bass). Anyway I prefer playing without this cover, so I even didn?t have to remove that cover.

It was delivered with all its original accessories: SKB hard case, polishing cloth and hex key for saddle adjustment. Unfortunately, Rickenbackers are never supplied with the key for truss rod adjustment. But I have one, so that's not a problem.

The features are those everyone knows, and that can be found on the RIC website.

I work simultaneously on two projects : a progressive rock band (currently studio working), and a Beatles tribute band (gigs). For both of these projects, the sounds I get from my 4003 are perfect.

For the studio, I basically plug my 4003 into a Johnson J-Station, which has a great SVT emulation. No much tweaking needed to get a heavy tone, something between Geddy Lee and Chris Squire.

For gigs, I use an Ampeg B-100R amp, and I add a Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver DI in between. I have a fat tone, and even though my bass is mounted with roundwounds, my tone gets very close to Paul McCartney?s.

The 4003 is a bit noisy, but as far as I experienced, all single coils are a bit noisy.

When I received this bass, the strings had been changed, and I didn?t like those that were mounted. I even don?t know what brand of strings that was. The action was a bit high too, but I must say I play with VERY low action.

I mounted Rotosound SR66 strings (45-105), made an adjustment of the saddles, and got a perfect action in seconds. This means you really can have a very low action if you want. Many basses don't allow this.

The finish of this bass is perfect. No flaws at all. It appears that high care is given to the making of these basses.

I always have another bass when on stage (a Fender Precision), but it is dedicated to some songs, not as a backup. Of course, if I experienced any problem on stage, I?d use the P as a backup, but I never had to do. The 4003 seems very solid and reliable, and if I had no other bass I wouldn't be afraid to gig without a backup.

I didn?t have to deal with the company.

I?ve been playing bass for almost 28 years. I knew what I was buying because this is my fourth Rickenbacker through the years. There?s nothing I hate in this bass, but what I love the most is the neck. Perfect for me. And of course this unique tone that no other bass can mimic.

If it was lost or stolen, I?d immediately get another one. This is my main bass, and more specifically in my progressive rock project this is THE bass of MY tone. And I?m not afraid to say that the way it plays and sounds inspires me every time I build a bass line. There are many of my bass lines that I believe wouldn?t sound good if played with another bass model. No other bass ever inspired me like a Rickennbacker does.

Made in 2002 in the US. Maple Glo. Comes with case. All the other features are here alredy, so I won't bore you with that.

I play Contemporary Christian and Classic Rock. This bass is perfect for both. It nails the old Rush and Yes stuff, and really sounds good in church. It can always be heard through the mix. I'm playing through a David Eden WT 300 head, Eden 210 cab and GK 115 cabinet. Sounds amazing. Very rich, sweet sounding bass. Like nothing else. You could take 1000 different bass guitars, play each one, and the Rick would be the easiest to pick out. Nothing comes close to the sound. The pickups are a little noisy, more than I would like. I've only played on stage and it's great. Compliment after compliment on the sound.

Factory setup was bad. Action was way high. I lowered it as much as I could, but still higher than I'd like. Pickups were equally high, and needed to be lowered, but that was the easy part. No flaws in the finish. Everything was tight.

Haven't had it very long, but I don't forsee anything going wrong with it.

I sent a few emails, and usually don't recieve a reply for a few days. Up to 5. That's not too good.

I've been playing off and on for 11 years. I actually sold this bass to buy a Stingray. I miss it now. I was displeased with the action, so I sold it for something easier to play, but also gave up the sound that I love so much. I will buy another one day, but it will be a 4001v63. I don't care for the binding on the 4003, the cheap plastick pickup cover, the sharktooth inlays, and the action on this particular bass. I would recommend playing one before you buy it

2002 Fireglo 4003. For details go to www.rickenbacker.com

Awesome! I put some Rotosound JAzz flatwounds on mine and it sounds alot better then the rounds that came with it. I'm running it through a Vox t-60 and I have no complaints at all. This bass will keep you interested.

High action but I was able to adjust it pretty easy. I have small hands and its still feels good to play. I never feel like I'm not going to make a note in time.

Seems solid! Its freakin heavy!

I haven't broken it yet.

I can't put this thing down. I was going to buy another hofner bass after selling my last one, (long story) But I decided to try something new. I was glad I did! This bass is like a drug!!!

Mine is a 2002 4003 in Jetglow (black). Its absolutely bog standard - 2 ricky pick ups, volume for each and tone for each. It has the ri-o-sound option too, but i've never used it. The bridge pick up had one of those awful covers, but i've removed that.

It came in a gorgeous fully lined ric case that smells 'new guitar'.

The sound is great! I played a music man in my band prior to switching. I got sick of the music man having poor output volumes on the G and D string. I plugged this beauty in Sound Control and was totally blown away! Straight into my Ashdown (300W 1X15 and 10X10 Hartke) this bass sounds perrrfect. Lots of bottom end and too much top! I just kill the treble on the amp and its just brilliant.

I use a carl martin compressor for studio work, but find absolutely no need for it live as the pick up out puts are very even and warm. Add in to this a chorus pedal and wow! this baby sings!

As said earlier - the pick up cover has to come off as I believe it seriously compromises your sound. Its positioned right in the sweet spot for finger playing!

Basically, when people talk of clank and fret buzz from rics they are just admitting their own 'ham-fisted' technique! Play her nice and light and let the pickups do the work.

Odd, I assume Soundcontrol carry out setups prior to releasing their goods. Rockenbacker are known for their terrible set ups, but mine was fine straight off the shelf (obviously the pick up cover had to come off - those things annoy me).

The bass was finished to a very high standard, although the black finish shows every scratch and finger print on it under lights (I'm glad i don't have a black car!!!). The pick up selector was a little noisy due to being sat on the shelf unplayed for a while. Some DW40 in there sorted it out!

This bass is an absolute animal. They are certainly built to last (apart from minor deterioration in the paint work). Everything on the bass is built for the long haul. I don't believe I will have to replace anything. Oh and genius! Rickenbacker fit it up with schaller strap-locks!

Would I use it at a gig without a back up??? WHilst I totally trust the bass I always carry a spare (spector). If I had to take just one bass, it would by the Ric!

I wouldn't know and hopefully will never have to contact them!

I have been playing bass for about 10 years. I suffer from a condition called 'gottahavit. Basically this condition means I see a nice bass and I've got to have it. The side affects are never having cash in the bank. The positives are that you get to use a lot of differenf gear. However, I think I've found a cure....... My Rickenbacker!

I've played warwick, spector, fender, gibson, danelectro, G&L, music man etc and to be honest nothing comes close to this!

If I lost it or it got stollen/broken I'd probably cry! .... then buy another!

Why do I love it? It looks like a porn star and sounds like a bass should!

This is a review of my Rickenbacker 4003, purchased used in July 2003 in mint condition, since it was made in February 2003.
Many people here, before me, described the features of this bass. I'll just specify that this bass is in JetGlo (black) finish. Looks awesome.
About the features, I'll add that I never use the Ric'O'Sound (stereo) output.
This is a passive bass with simple features, but it has all you need. Perfect for me.

This bass is very versatile, and the sound you'll get will depend on what you do with your fingers, and which strings you'll mount. For me, it's always been Rotosound Swing Bass (RS66) in 45-105 gauge.
It's a very rich sound, and depending on the controls you go from very agressive tone to very smooth. But you'll always cut through, and that's one of the most characteristic things in the Rickenbacker tone.
I use this bass with an Ampeg B-100R. Either with or without my SansAmp Bass Driver D.I. in between, and either when I player with fingers or with a pick, the sounds I get are awesome.

Well, that's an interesting point. As I said above, this is my 4th Rickenbacker. I had two 4001's and another 4003 before this one. I often switched to something else (Fender, Ibanez, Status, Music Man, etc.), and always came back to a Rickenbacker. I believe this is because the Rickenbacker neck is the one I feel the most comfortable with.
As I said, this bass came in mint condition, and was perfectly setup.

My 4001's never caused me any trouble. I had some with my previous 4003, but I won't say whether it was a manufacturing default.
I have owned this new 4003 for only a few weeks, so I can't tell for the moment.

Didn't have to deal with them.

Probably one of the best basses in their price range.