Rare Rickenbacker 2004 4004cii5 Trans Green 5 string bass
I nicknamed this bass the Edsel after the ill-fated failure from the Ford motor company.
This is a discontinued model. Less
than 100 were made. This is rarer than the 4002 model. This is rarer than the
4005 model. This is in the 4080 territory or the 1960s 4001 territory. The
reason these basses are so rare is they were an abject failure. The end user
basically had 2 options. 1 - modify the bass to make it playable, or 2 - hang it on
the wall and admire his Edsel. The poor end users were left to fend for
themselves and then got criticized for fixing the problem.
The bass is modified. The factory pickups were designed for a 2 1/8"
spacing so they were too narrow to cover the 3" string spacing.
The current pickups cover all five strings at equal volume.
The bass has a Bartolini neck pickup and a Nordstrand big single pickup. It
also has an Audere 4 band preamp.
Sound
Byte 1 Sound
Byte 2 Sound Byte 3 Sound
Byte 4
Here's why this bass needed replacement pickups. In the picture below you can see a 2 1/4" steel rail that was removed from a Rickenbacker hb pickup.
You can easily see how a pickup with that rail would not cover all 5 strings properly.
The Green Edsel
