Bass Guitar
Rickenbacker 4003S
Price: 2.091 EUR – 2.836 EUR
Price history
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Most expensive seen
Availability: 4/10 (Common)
A simplified, vintage-styled sibling to the standard 4003: the same neck-thru maple construction and dual single coils, but without body binding or triangle inlays, using dot markers on rosewood instead.
About the Rickenbacker 4003S
The 4003S shares its "Cresting Wave" maple body shape and neck-through-body construction with the standard 4003, but strips away the binding and triangle fingerboard inlays that distinguish that model, using simple dot inlays on a rosewood fingerboard instead. This gives it a plainer, more vintage-styled appearance that deliberately echös the 1960s 4001S model associated with players like Paul McCartney and Chris Squire, while keeping the 4003's modern construction and electronics underneath.
Electronics are two single-coil pickups with 3-way switching, independent volume and tone controls, and a push-pull switch for selecting between vintage and modern pickup voicing. The scale is 33.25 inches with a 42.9mm nut width and 20 frets, and the neck uses Rickenbacker's improved double-action truss rod system. At roughly 9.35 lbs, it carries the dense, resonant weight typical of Rickenbacker's neck-through basses.
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Reverb 1.819 EUR Best price View details
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Sound character of the Rickenbacker 4003S
Electronically identical to the standard 4003 - horseshoe-style neck pickup plus bridge humbucker through Rickenbacker's through-body neck - the 4003S (a simplified, unbound version) produces the same bright, growling, resonant Rickenbacker bass voice.
Technical data for the Rickenbacker 4003S
| Body | Maple, "Cresting Wave" shape, neck-thru |
|---|---|
| Fretboard | Rosewood, dot inlays, no binding |
| Frets | 20 |
| Scale length | 33.25" |
| Nut width | 42.9mm |
| Pickups | 2x single coil, vintage/modern voicing switch |
| Weight | ~9.35 lbs |
| Introduced | 2015 |
Price history for the Rickenbacker 4003S
Cheapest seen: 2.091 EUR · Most expensive seen: 2.836 EUR
Cheapest seen
Most expensive seen
The history of the Rickenbacker 4003S
Rickenbacker introduced the 4003S in 2015 as a modern-construction alternative to the bound, triangle-inlaid 4003, aimed at players who wanted the simpler, more understated look of Rickenbacker's earlier 4001S while benefiting from the 4003's updated electronics and hardware.
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