Yeah the color sure is! Waited 8 months for it! The pickup cover is goofy, not too bothered by it. Agreed the pickups can be a bit stronger but being passive single coil compared to double coil soapbar pickups that I'm used to it was a big dbu drop. Nothing a booster pedal or increasing the gain can't fix. Thank you for watching!

Thanks! 👍

Thank you so very much!

@@Bassguitarist1985 , you're welcome.

Thank you!

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed!

I never sent the warranty card. You get a 2 year warranty from Sweetwater regardless. I hear the warranty with Rickenbacker isn't worth the paper its printed on sadly. My main concern is the neck twisting since that is a common issue. The lacquer cracking is another common issue too. I've kept it in a stable 72-75⁰F and 45-60% humidity environment. So far so good.

Niice! Yeah really love the Ric sound. Plenty of mid range bite!

That's how I was taught! It really has made a difference too. Thank you for watching!

It is two single coils wired in series with one in reverse polarity to cancel any hum. Still worth shielding.

Thank you!!!!

How are you liking it? Or not? These basses i will say are not without their quirks, but nothing else sounds like them.

Thank you! For the research and testing I think I discovered why the Ric is more noisy than I expected. My house I live within a thousand feet of a large electrical substation. Some more likely than not I'm guessing that area with very large transformers is bleeding 60 hz buzz in the area. I have played a few gigs with it already and it's dead quiet like not even a little bit.

@@Bassguitarist1985 Yeah I think you’ve probably nailed the problem there….if it’s doing that to the bass though I would be a tad concerned about what it’s also doing to your health mate. I think I’d be looking for a move in your situation. Anyway you’ve got yself a lovely bass there enjoy and rock on.🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Mine is twin truss rods as my previous two were and so are the guitars 6 string. Currently using a 77….4001🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

I do too! The dual truss rods can be adjusted, but you have to be so diligent equally adjusting them by feel. Its not as easy as it sounds. Plus with fluctuating temps and RH, its even more difficult.

So far it sounds great with my Peavey gear! Much of their bass guitar gear is neutral sounding so it gives you a blank canvas with the preamps and amps you use. Definitely been on my bucket list of bass guitars to have. I got maybe two more specific bass guitars I want to own but that will take a little while to be in a position to get them. I think I'll stop at 16!

I think Ampeg is the best for Rickenbacker. I've used a B15, and it sounds great.

@@jimh6763 i do like Ampeg. I find I can get a close emulation with the Sansamp and other pedals. Agreed though nothing beats that SVT voicing.

I don’t use stacks anymore live. I put my Ric through a little Roland cube 60. DI’d through the PA 5K Yamaha and throw the full Ric sound right out front, bolloks to carting car sized speakers around I’m over 70 now 😂🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

@@DavidSenderoff absolutely will keep the precision. It's my main recording bass. Thank you for watching!

No hum on full for both pickups or single. Long as you are not near any sources of interference its a pretty low noise floor. I heard of older model Rics getting the RWRP mod. But they may have already done that for the newer models www.talkbass.com/threads/rickenbacker-4003-rwrp-bridge-pickup-mod-tutorial.761909/

The pickups are single coil and they hum like single coil's do. Stock, they do NOT cancel hum when both volume pots are turned up full like they would on a stock Fender Jazz bass. There is a fairly easy mod to do on a 4003's bridge pickup which will give that hum cancelling feature. It requires removing that pickup's magnet, then rotating it 180 degrees horizontally before reattaching, then reverse resoldering the two pickups leads (hot vs cold) back at it's pot connection points. I've done this mod to two modern 4003 basses with excellent, expected results, now functions same as a stock Fender Jazz bass. Does require a soldering iron and may take 30 to 45 minutes if doing this mod for the first time. Requires no additional outside parts or hardware. Do a web search and you can find a proper explanation how to do the procedure.

They most likely did! Its a worthy upgrade! Yeah this neck is SUPER THIN PROFILE!

I have a 2020 ceilo glo 4003s and new bridge is great. My only complaint is the thicker u shaped towards the top of the neck. It’s not terrible it’s just more like a precision but I prefer a jazz neck profile. But I’ve heard the single truss rod models can be harder to repair because there is less access to the top of truss rods. There is a cheap limited edition 4003ac on reverb because the single truss rod broke off at the nut. It will likely need to go back to factory for a costly repair because the fret board will need to be removed to fix it. With dual truss rods there is more access at the top of the rods to replace them. Rich Hoffman has a video on replacing both truss rods on his 4001. I’m sure it isn’t a common issue with the Rick’s new single rods plus most other bass guitars are single rods.

@@veganbodybuilding it does sharpen a bit yes. Yeah Ricky's are cumbersome but nothing else sounds like them!

No the new style is super thin!!!

It wasn't that terrible without the shielding, but there is a noticeable difference in the noise floor with it. Shielding is good to do in general for the various gigs that have a ton of interference

@@Bassguitarist1985 so how do you like your Rickenbacker? I love them. You seem to be able to get a nice low action on them. I've always liked the way they play.

@@jimh6763 I absolutely love it! It's got the ultra thin neck for 2023 and the action was already super low from Sweetwater. That's exactly how I have all my other basses set up where the strings are behind the frets practically haha. Nothing else sounds like a Rickenbacker but a Rickenbacker. I've played and have a couple knockoff precision and jazz basses that certainly come close to my American Fenders but the Ric is in a tonal spectrum all its own. For now I'm going to leave the bridge pickup cover on I'm not finding it difficult now that I've gotten used to playing to work around it. I can always get an aftermarket bezel if I really wanted to. I have a gig coming up soon and already at rehearsal the band has made positive comments on it. They are certainly conversation pieces for those that recognize them

@@Bassguitarist1985 I've bought two that the previous owner took them off and threw them away. I bought new ones and put them back on. I rest my palm on them. Plus they look better on

@@jimh6763 I'm all for originality as well I can never throw away an original part. I mean I put a piece of paper over the serial number in the electronics cavity just so that it would be preserved lol

Thank you for the tip!

Good info thank you for that. Yeah a noise gate may be next on my pedal list

That's exactly what the Rick o sound is set up for. A tip ring sleeve Jack for that feature plus a mono jack, skipping the need for a toggle switch. One less moving part. I've yet to really take advantage of this feature but I will be experimenting with it in the coming weeks. I would really love to try it on the next gig if I could.

I will probably add normal mono switching nc jack 1neck 2neck+bridge/ bridge when jack is inserted in 1

Thank you for your reply. Yeah the warranty with Rickenbacker is insane to the point where it's not even worth having it. I am aware that I've pretty much voided the warranty by shielding it which seems asinine but other people have said that to me. To that point the results are far better than with it unshielded. How they made it in 1983 and 1999 I'm sure is not that much different than this one made in 2023 but even small changes in materials can have an effect. My only concern is of hearing about how the necks can potentially twist if they are exposed to extreme environments. Other than that I can handle pretty much anything else. Sweetwater offers their own 2-year warranty independent of Rickenbacker so I am at least covered there.

Maybe not from Rickenbacker, but Sweetwater still will warranty it. I even told my rep about it and he said that it will not void the warranty. A warranty states that any modification of the bass that directly impacts the issue they will deny the claim. So a shield job is not going to cause the neck to twist for example. That would most certainly be a manufacturer's defect and would be covered

The pickup cover isn't coming off, it doesn't bother me as much as it does others apparently. Some older models the cover was part of the pickup and not removable. Imagine the limitation of that forcing them to play with it. The modern people have it easy if they so chose to remove it.

@@Bassguitarist1985 People are outright angry at me for not removing it lol.

@@Nopulu I like it for the aesthetic. Plus some older models you had no choice since the cover was part of the shield for the horseshoe pickup.

I never claimed to be an expert. Yes the shielding did help to take the noise floor down. Granted if you are extremely close to a noise source no amount of shielding will help. If you don't like the video then don't watch it.