Rickenbacker 4003

Ever since I started playing bass and looked up what my heroes played, I've wanted a Rickenbacker bass. Geddy Lee of Rush and Chris Squire of Yes both used one among many other great players like Paul McCartney of The Beatles. After the Westone Spectrum bass (which I don't really count anymore) my first bass was a Made in Mexico Geddy Lee Signature Fender Jazz Bass. Pretty quickly after getting that I bought some Geddy Lee Signature Pickups from Tom Brantley to put in there, but I guess that's a story for a different post.

I bought the Jazz mainly because it had Geddy’s name on it and after that I bought a few more basses inspired by what Geddy played, A Steinberger Spirit to copy Ged’s Steinberger days, and a DR Heartfield with an active filter sweep to mimic a Wal, but I haven’t gotten a Ric yet. Recently I got some G.A.S. again and started looking at new pedals. The new Tech 21 XB Driver looks so cool, and I thought I may as well overhaul my board with some top tier gear like a Cali 76 compressor from Origin Effects and/or an HX Stomp by Line 6 to replace my Zoom MS70-CDR. Again, this tangent should probably be a different post.

I fought off that G.A.S. but after playing a beautiful vintage Autumnglo 4001 at Chicago Music Exchange and watching the bassist of a local band called Candy Cigarette (They’re such great players and so young too! Made me think of Rush in their early days) play a vintage Mapleglo 4003 on a daytrip to Waukegan, IL (photos here) I decided that my next purchase must be a Ric.

Rickenbacker 4003 in Matte Black

Rickenbacker 4003 in Matte Black
(Not jetglo but close enough)

Rickenbacker 4003 in Walnut

Rickenbacker 4003 in Walnut

I’m a fan of the Dave’s World of Fun Stuff YouTube channel (which I started watching to try to learn how to fix the Westone Spectrum), and Dave has some strong opinions on Rickenbacker basses. From him I learned that the standard bridge sucks and is more than a pain to intonate or adjust in any meaningful way. I learned that vintage Rics have two truss rods which makes adjusting the neck relief more than a pain. The two truss rods were originally intended to fix and prevent warping in the neck wood, but they ended up introducing it more than preventing it. Those are my two main complaints, but among other “quirks” Rics have become a bass that people either love or hate. The newest 4003 models from 2020 on seem to have resolved these main issues by using a new bridge that’s more similar to other standard bridges and using a single truss rod instead of two. Because of that, I intend to get a modern 4003 rather than a vintage one.

I love the sound of them, and despite what some might say, I think they’re very versatile too. Individual tone and volume controls for each pickup give you more options to blend and craft a tone than on a P or a Jazz bass. Plus, the built-in mute is great for swapping to a more Motown sound without extra gear. The thing that gets me maybe the most excited is Rick-o-Sound. Rick-o-Sound lets you take a stereo cable and route each pickup through its own effects and to its own amp rather than both pickups getting mixed in the bass and through a mono cable like on a Jazz bass. I don’t really know how practical it is or how much I would use it, but my imagination goes wild thinking about all the different routing options.

Chris Squire says he likes to put a fuzz through his bass (neck) pickup and something else through the treble (bridge) pickup. I’m imagining a fuzz or a compressor through the bass pickup and something like a Klon through the treble pickup, and maybe even use the stereo input of the HX Stomp to add an SVT amp simulation to the bass pickup and a Marshall amp sim to the treble too.

I’ve been watching a lot of Rickenbacker bass videos recently and am getting really excited to buy one. I’ve listed some of my bass gear that I haven’t used much online so that I can use that money to put toward a Ric. I’m on a few waitlists for a Rickenbacker too so that I can try to get one from the next batch that comes in. Now I still have to decide which color to get!

Jetglo is classic and seems to be the most popular. This is the kind that Geddy Lee uses the most and it matches my Jazz bass so I might get that one.

The other one that’s in the running and which I think might be my favorite is the Walnut. The natural wood looks so cool. I love the white binding against the dark wood, and this is the only Ric that has a maple fingerboard like my Jazz bass. I’m not sure if the fingerboard wood makes a difference to the feel or sound, but I’m biased just because my favorite bass has a maple fingerboard. The downside with that though is that you can’t see the cool white triangle inlays as well against the white maple wood.

I think my decision might come down to whichever I can get my hands on first.