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Rickenbacker is definitely not a "typical" guitar company, and availability, wait times, special runs, and so forth have always been part of getting a Rick. Seems like many dealers often don't know when they will arrive, so when one actually has some in stock, it's best to go for it. Sweetwater was supposed to get some in sometime during late 2025 and then when I was checking my wishlist at the beginning of April, I noticed they were in stock, 5 of them. They don't list the price so you have to email them for it. I was at work so I sent in an email. I checked again at 3pm and then there were 4 left, and right as I was about I was going to call in, I got a call back. My Sales engineer was on vacation that week but his coverage knew that they wouldn't last long (they were all gone within a week or so). I looked at the 4 left, picked one, and called my shot. It arrived about 10 days ago but I've been super busy and unfortunately didn't get a time to take an actual picture until last night. One thing you're sure to notice is the new for 2025 redesigned "treble" pickup bezel, without the pickup cover. There is not even a slot for it, and also there is now a thumb rest. Some purists are up in arms, while others feel its "about time". The original 4001 basses had a pickup with a big "horse shoe" magnet, however that ended up being expensive and kinda not working well, so over 50 years ago in 1971, they changed to a standard single coil pickup with magnets underneath, and put a chromed plastic pickup cover that is cosmetic only on top of it. They also originally had a "toaster" pickup in the neck, but now both have "high gain" pickups, which have more winds now than they did in the good old days, so some people will replace the pickups with more "vintage correct" ones, or they will put in the current "toaster" single coil pickup. I even saw a recent dealer run that still had the covers, and came stock with the toaster, as well as a light blue finish and checkered binding. Anyway, it takes a bit of getting used to, but the neck is definitely comfortable, and I would consider the "new" profile to be more of a "D" shape, as it has a bit of a flat area on the sides. it plays well, and definitely has a VERY distinctive sound. The original 4001 basses had a capacitor on the bridge / treble pickup that cut a lot of the bass. This was later removed, but the current 4003 have a push / pull cap on the tone for that pickup that can give you the vintage treble sound or a more bass heavy modern sound for the bridge pickup. As expected, there is definitely a bit of hum, and the pickups are not RWRP like a jazz bass, so even mixing them together you still get full hum. If you're looking to play like Lemmy a noise suppressor is highly recommended. It's definitely going to take a while to explore all the tones in this bass, which I look forward too. Such a distinctive sound and look.

I keep going back and forth on this one... anyhow lets see if there is interest in this beauty HSC and paperwork and candy $1900 pp plus shipping from Ohio we can do PP/FF knock off maybe $40 .. we can facetime and you can see the guitar ect.... anyhow. .here are some pics

Happy Easter everyone🐣

A drummer who "overplayed" during a Who concert...? Hmmm... Nope. I cannot recall anyone having done that before.

The auction ended, but the listing shows Reserve Price Not Met when viewing after signed in.

I feel bad for the legitimate owner of this guitar. Imagine if he decides to sell it - everyone will think it's a scam.

Nice bass! I liked the natural one w/maple fb that was for sale. An accurate straightedge is essential to setting up double-tr Rics. The hard part is balancing each rod to a good zero point. I use a fine-point Sharpie to mark the (tr) nuts to duplicate each adjustment so that the marks are in the same location. Interesting how Rickenbacker went with the Hipshot 4000-series bridge. The best upgrade you can get for any Ric bass.

Never shipped a combo with them but I shipped a head at Fedex/Kinkos once. They charged me the cost to ship and the cost of the box, but didn't add anything extra for packing it. This was maybe fifteen years ago so things could be different now, but that's where I'd start.

I’ll send him a message to get fucked, generally.

This looks like something a Wookie would wield in sacred battle. UuuUUUUUUUGGGHH!!!!

Senior Year 1968, I know, old as ****. The Who played a concert in our high school gym. They were killing time before playing the Grande Ballroom. Tickets were a few bucks. Got the whole show including the destruction during My Generation!!! Debra and Joan went on to become the band's groupies and the un-named male is still a roadie for the group!! arniez

How dare you.

Nice!! I loved playing Rickenbackers in the 80s/90s, and as many times as I thought I'd just pick one up again eventually, prices shot up and kept going, and I just didn't get around to it. Would love eventually snag another like yours one day - looks great!

And I imagine if you matched it up with the Friedman IR-D (Dirty Shirley type preamp) that you'd have a lot of tones to footswitch between......

Wow. They really need to stop.

Gramma Daltrey... fired Ringo Jr.... only to have Pete re-hire him the next day. Someone forgot their Metamucil. https://www.vulture.com/article/the-who-zak-starkey-drummer-fired.html

I was at the 4/15/25 show and it was a great show. Warren and Derrick were on fire, Oteil played his ass off, the drummers beat it up good. Chuck L has magic fingers, and sang a bit . They didn't have Reese high in the mix, and that's what was missing. The organ pallet that Greg always gave, Just the leslie painting the back. I would be happy to see a tour, or a few Beacon shows. I need my Beacon fix again.

This one just sold (mint condition 2003):

https://nashville.craigslist.org/msg/d/columbia-hamer-usa-standard/7840309731.html I think the asking price is not realistic, but whadda I know?

Yeah, they redesigned the neck, and now it's been redesigned again. The original 4001 basses had double truss rods, which they thought would really help fine tune the action, but didn't work out as intended.The 4003 moved the truss rod adjusting nuts to under the pickguard, and not under the truss rod cover. Since then it has been revised several times, moving back and forth. I also think there was a "hairpin" type of trussrod design. I'm not really sure what the difference is between the current basses with the center stripe and the ones from a few years ago that did not have a center stripe. The old pictures of the 4003S without binding had no center stripe, but their most recent shipment had them. Per the manual the current generation have dual action truss rods of a "modern" design like used in many other guitars and basses.

If you can't afford it, it doesn't matter.. f****** Finance it!

Ah! Shazam! I was approaching it like a Neanderthal. They're doing the signal manipulation in the Time Domain. Grabbing a snapshot over time, sweeping it for frequency content, then futzing with it in accordance to some algorithm they have variable control over and reinserting it into the signal path. Simple! Not at all intuitive. I can see why it gets him hard though. He gets to play with Math and SPEAKERS! “The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is a powerful mathematical tool used in audio analysis to break down complex audio signals into their individual frequency components. This process reveals the presence and magnitude of different sinusoidal waves (or tones) within the audio. By analyzing the frequency spectrum, engineers can gain insights into the characteristics of sounds, identify specific tones, and even analyze the quality of audio signal”

^^^What Dave said. Definitely get an estimate because UPS-packed shipping is expensive and could turn a good deal into a bad experience. The local place here (no longer in business. I wonder why....) was pricey and did not pack very well, either. At least the guy is smart enough to know his limitations and didn't half-ass it. Some guys really don't care after it's sold.

Call his local preferred shipper with the measurements & weight for an estimate "with insurance"

I was there the next night for the last one and it was unbelievable.

I hate pickguards in general, exceptions being a fender strat/jazz bass/P bass, and the smaller V pickguard.

Must be a prototype!

My Vanguard (99) has a D shape. Pretty substantial carve. Most possibly it is what later became the "Vintage" carve. My 00 Newport has a big neck too, but I think it is a tad wider. The Vanguard is more baseball bat. It's a great neck, but perhaps nothing you shred with ease.

Preach! Now do V1. http://www.audiotubes.com/12ax7.htm

All of the SoCal Towers had shrinkwrap machines. If the return had a receipt and wasn’t TOO damaged, back in the bins it went.

I’m not sure how common this footage is, but meet the High Numbers, circa 1964