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When your hearing goes bad or the tinnitus level grows, youāll only want better equipment to overcome or compensate!
That is why I got my Focal Bathys headphones. They are among the three best bluetooth headphones you can get. And when using in USB/DAC or analog mode they are still among the very good wired ones.
My reasoning was: before my hearing gets bad, I want to enjoy music as much as possible (anytime/anywhere) for as long as possible, no matter the cost.
So that was easy money to spend ā¦ and these are the headphones that allow me to really immerse into music!
oooohhh SHEās purdy.
Update:
Just got back from testing the Rick at the guyās house. Super nice guy. Very much, āIām happy to do this. I get it. I wish I could have had this opportunity for someone to let me test things out when I was at your stage in learning bass.ā He had 5 Rickenbackers lined up for me to test them all out.
Verdict: I get it. I want one. Grinding my teeth a bit, because the one he has listed for sale is the one I liked the best. But there is time. There will be others.
On parting, he said to let him know when my financial situation is better that Iām back in the market for one, because he might have one for sale. Also to let him know when my band starts playing shows.
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Iāve owned a lot of Ricās. The oldest being from the 80ās and the newest being from 2023. I much prefer the necks on the older ones, but they have a tendency to move quite a bit with weather changes. The new ones are much more stable. The year bass you are interested in had a thinner neck profile and were comfortable to most folks. A lot of talk of problems with the blue bleeding into the binding if I remember correctly. Here is what you need to know:
- The bridges on that year 4003 are atrocious. Notoriously difficult to intonate and set up. Itās a wood chipper for your digits / hand. You will want to swap it with the Hipshot replacement probably.
- Dual truss rods - these are actually fine, but people are scared of them for some reason. Adjusting the rods is a pain in the neck though.
- The quality of a Ric varies widely. Some are fantastic. Some are dogs.
- They are not the most ācomfortableā to play generally speaking.
- The neck pickup is awful. Youād do well with replacing it with a Classic Amplification or Nordstrand neck pickup. The bridge pickup is great.
- You will most likely want to install a treble bezel to cover up the giant pickup hole for the bridge and provide a place for your thumb to rest.
- Ricās arenāt shielded and are prone to be noisy. A RWRP mod can help with that.
- You probably wonāt use the Ric-O-Sound. A 4003S is a much more comfortable, less expensive, and more useful instrument. Not sure if it came in blue or not though.
- The nuts on Ricās are cut almost universally bad. Having someone do a proper set up and filing the nut to spec will make the bass way more playable. The nuts just kind of sit there though and are held on mostly via string pressure, so filing them can be a chore as they have a tendency to just fall out when you are working on them. There is no dedicated nut āslotā.
- The company is awful. Their owner is a real piece of work. Just assume that dealing with any kind of warranty issue will be nightmarish.
- When I worked at Sweetwater (2018), the cost on a 4003 was 1200.00 and they were charging 2400.00 for them. My last Rickenbacker I purchased new I got for 1800.00 back in 2023.
Ricās do hold value and have this insane collector following so people ask ridiculous prices for them online, but generally they have been selling under 2K for many years, and I think if you wait, you will still be able to find one in this price range 5 years from now. I mean if you look up my last Ric purchase, similar Ricās are listed anywhere from 3-5 grand, which is silly for a Rickenbacker in general. They are not the āhandmade in Americaā quality that people generally think of. They are production instruments and not even that great of a production instrument.
With all that said, I love my Ricās - warts and all. Nothing sounds like them and they look cool as hell. But they are far from perfect.
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Yeahā¦that there is the right answer.
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A colleague has a Rick. Iāve played it a number of times - we have bass-offs in the office - and is really is an uncomfortable bass to play. It looks cool, very Rock ānā Roll, but for me, itās a hard ānoā. Weāve done back-to-backs with my Dingwall Combustion where my colleague has conceded that the Dingwall is a ābetterā (easier, more comfortable) bass to actually playā¦
Of course, many are happy to trade practicality for a perception of glamourā¦!!
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I just bought a Dingwall and I agree. Itās a superior bass in just about every way. In fact, it is a superior bass to a lot of basses, LOL. I canāt tell you the last time I picked up my 4003. It is pretty though.
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Yeah, right, good luck with that! 
What did you buy, @dwithers714?
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I was able to try out a D-roc, one of their SP1ās, and a Combustion NG3 model and ultimately went with the NG3. The D-roc sounded incredible but the playability wasnāt there for me with the neck length. The SP1 sounded good, but the NG3 kind of checked all the boxes. I just got through half the course and the only bass I picked up was the NG3. Tremendous bass, in my opinion.
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Yeah I would go with the Nolly or the normal Combustion/Afterburner myself too.
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What was the challenge wit the neck length?
The NG3 is a solid decision, BTW.
Just sitting down with it and playing was difficult because of the body shape and the neck seemed farther away than with the NG3. Iād have no problem playing it standing up I donāt think, but the Nolly was a better fit ergonomically. I do most of my playing at home sitting down though, so I wanted something that was comfortable sitting down and standing up.
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Yep, the D-Roc really is a stand up and play kindāa bass!
I have both a D-Roc and a Combustion. Standing, the main difference I feel is the weight - the Combustion is noticeably heavier. Not uncomfortably so, but it certainly has more heft to it. The scale lengths are +/-the same, although the D-Roc has fewer frets (20 vs 24). On the strap, standing, they hang about the same, so there no issue swapping between them. I really like my Combustion, but damn, the D-Roc looks so cool 
I would like to have a go on an SP-1, I think the scale length is a bit shorter. Iād be interested to see how it feels.
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This is going to sound extremely silly - thereās no way, as in no fāing way, would I entertain a bass with the name āNollyā in the title. I donāt care how good, how expensive, even if it was free.
You could get one and call it a Getgood, if that would help youā¦erā¦get good.
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Or I could call it Adam, and Eve it there.
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Itās your apple to nibble. But chances are you nolly wonāt.
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