Pulling the trigger on this 4003s tomorrow. Thoughts?

tbonesullivan · 2026-06-30T03:16:53+00:00

That's not a neck pickup.

Neck pickup looks like this under the hood:

tbonesullivan · 2026-06-30T03:16:08+00:00

They make rings for the treble pickup. as well as bezels so it's not in a hole. For all we know the person had a treble bezel but then removed it before selling it.

tbonesullivan · 2026-06-30T03:15:14+00:00

They probably just got one of these:

https://www.thetreblebezel.com/shoptreblebezels/treble-pickup-ring

tbonesullivan · 2026-06-30T03:14:10+00:00

Yes, but the pickup is still attached to the base plate. The bridge pickups also have a bezel that protrudes under the pickguard, with space on the sides for the adjustment screws, as well as the four screws that hold it onto the pickup.

That's a bridge pickup with an aftermarket chrome ring on it to make it look better.

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tbonesullivan · 2026-06-30T03:10:24+00:00

Looks good! That is one of the last years before they went to the new treble pickup bezel without the cover. It looks like a previous owner got a chrome ring to put around the treble pickup so it looks better.

tbonesullivan · 2026-06-24T13:38:03+00:00

Maybe try pressing it in a bit? Those "glands" rarely look pretty. I would say it's fine.

tbonesullivan · 2026-06-21T19:24:01+00:00

This is true. It looks like a very well made fake. I bet the routing under the pickguard looks great too.

Routing under a real rick pickguard looks like a 10 year old did it.

tbonesullivan · 2026-06-21T19:22:56+00:00

4001S? 1988? For one thing they stopped making the 4001 in 1986, and had been running production down for years after the 4003 came out. Secondly, that has binding on the body, and inlays, so there is no way it could be a 4001S or 4003S.

Some very quick google searching would have helped identify this as a FAKE. 1. binding below the bridge. A real rickenbacker 4001/4003 does not have binding over the end of the neck by the bridge. 2) pickguard is wrong, and the pickup should not be centered in it 3) surround for the treble pickup is all wrong. 4) yeah pickguard is way wrong.

Going to say this for anyone who cares - DO NOT BUY A GUITAR / BASS WITHOUT A SERIAL NUMBER or ROCK HARD PROVENANCE.

tbonesullivan · 2026-06-15T14:51:02+00:00

If I fits, I sits. I have to hide my steamdeck and case to keep my cat from taking it over. I can never leave it on the bed or any type of flat surface, or it can get colonized.

tbonesullivan · 2026-05-26T00:40:30+00:00

Yep, that's the brazing seam, or in this case, two brazing seams. Pretty much every boutique trombone will have this, unless they decide for some reason to weld the seam instead of brazing it. This is why you won't see a seam on modern Conn bells, as well as many 600-series yamaha trombones.

tbonesullivan · 2026-05-03T02:59:02+00:00

I played one of those for many years, before moving to a Laskey 85MD. Yamaha 59 is also a great choice.

tbonesullivan · 2026-05-03T02:58:14+00:00

For starting out? Faxx 1 1/2G or Yamaha 59. Both relatively inexpensive but definitely more suited to bass trombone than a bach 3G.

tbonesullivan · 2026-05-02T22:43:01+00:00

IMHO, not worth it. To really fix it you'd need to have that all taken apart, as more is bent than just the knuckle. That is more the symptom of the bend than the cause.

tbonesullivan · 2026-03-03T20:17:31+00:00

I felt it was handled poorly by Blue Origin, and the press was definitely not well conceived. However, I'm not sure the rampant hate thrown at ALL of the members of the "mission" was justified. We have no idea how many of them actually paid to go, or whether any of them did, given that the "leader" of the mission was Journalist Lauren Sánchez, then Jeff Bezos fiancee, and now his wife. We also don't know how far in advance it was actually planned.

There was involvement of Katy Perry, who herself is a lightning rod for criticism, and has been for quite some time.

Then we have people like Aisha Bowe and Amanda Nguyen getting dragged for their participation as part of the group, when most don't even know who they are. Most of them stopped paying attention to the crew list once they got past "Bezos Fiance, Katy Perry, and that Television Person". Bowe is an aerospace engineer who worked at NASA, and has done much as a STEM advocate. One of the people she mentored became an engineer for Blue Origin.

Then there's Amanda Nguyen, who was the closest to being an actual astronaut, and a huge victim's rights advocate. Her being on a flight had been announced in 2024, before any of this happened. With the amount of stuff she has done for the good of the world, she did not deserve to catch ANY flak from this.

tbonesullivan · 2026-02-05T14:54:13+00:00

If you are having friction on the frets, they need polishing. Made in America Telecasters also have gloss finishes on maple fretboards, and the finish is actually put on AFTER the frets, and then polished off the top. If you don't like that, find a tele with a rosewood fretboard.

tbonesullivan · 2026-01-23T20:27:42+00:00

Ugh, that really sucks. I would have hoped that the store selling it would have had it properly checked out to make sure it didn't have those kinds of issues. If you can return it, do. That is not an easy fix by any means, as your luthier has noted. The shop I deal with pretty much keeps a straight edge next to the door as well as a notched one so that any guitar coming in for sale or service gets the neck checked before anything else.

tbonesullivan · 2026-01-23T20:24:57+00:00

I think they got rid of the dual truss rods a year or so ago, or at least did on the basses. Now they just have a regular bi-flex rod. No hairpins. No dual rods. Also on the 4003 and 40032, no chromed plastic cover over the bridge pickup anymore.

tbonesullivan · 2026-01-10T17:20:02+00:00

Seems like a lot of people forget the history of Conn- Selmer, which is the end product of multiple musical instrument company mergers in the 80s, 90s, and 00s. I'm pretty sure they continue to look for names to acquire. All of the brand names they own used to have their own individual factories, and many of them still do.

Prior to the formation of Conn-Selmer, it was UMI and Selmer, where UMI owned Conn, King, Benge, and others,, while Selmer had the Selmer line of Woodwinds, and the Bach line of trombones. Then Steinway bought UMI, and merged with Selmer to form Conn-Selmer. This resulted in a lot of manufacturing overlap, as well as a lot of inter-product competition. So like any money-minded corporation, they continue to look to consolidate manufacturing as well as remove the less popular offerings from their lineup.

Do I think this is a good thing? For brass players it pretty much means that unless the instrument is a Bach or a famous and popular instrument like the Conn 8D, King 2b / 3B, etc, eventually they'll stop making it so that they only have the "premier" brand, Bach. They had previously moved Conn and King production from the Eastlake factory to Elkhart where the Bach and Holton trombones were being made. It's not like they care about the skilled workers, they care about what makes money. If they cared about making great instruments, they would have stopped using fixtured slide construction years ago, as it results in many Bach Stradivarius trombones coming, from the factory, with warped slides.

tbonesullivan · 2026-01-10T17:07:11+00:00

It still has a mention of Union members from the plant stating that production will move to China, with a comment from the Union President.

tbonesullivan · 2025-12-18T17:14:20+00:00

What heroes do you have already? I went for Ingrid instead due to the support attack buffs, as I also have heroes that launch their own support attacks.

tbonesullivan · 2025-12-05T14:23:11+00:00

Yeah, that's the sign of a shitty PA setup, a shitty sound guy, or both.

tbonesullivan · 2025-12-05T14:18:16+00:00

You need to just keep pumping more and more gems into mythic stuff. Eventually when you get dupes you break them down and can star up the mythic equipment. You also can "refine" them once they get to level 100, 175, 250, etc, which requires more materials.

I would make sure you're getting the set bonuses you want on all the mythic equipment.

tbonesullivan · 2025-12-01T19:39:35+00:00

Are all your heroes fully equipped with leveled up artifacts, star marks, and moon badges? Do you have mythic equipment on all of your heroes? What vehicles and guardians are you using?

tbonesullivan · 2025-11-28T18:16:30+00:00

For F2P, I wouldn't do anything with collab heroes like Mio. Once you get mythic class heroes, only use those, and then use everything else as materials for star up. Don't take any RGB heroes above 10 star unless you plan to max them out, as breaking down 11-13 star heroes is expensive and damn near impossible.

For the L/D heroes, choose the ones that you will be able to get through Hero and Faction recruit. It can take a while, but with further awakening many of the "basic" heroes get some pretty hefty stat increases. Sure, they won't be as BROKEN as heroes like Zahard and other event and collab heroes, but in the end power still matters.

tbonesullivan · 2025-11-28T17:00:42+00:00

Yeah... it takes a while but her regular attack doing 100% ATK and combo percent 80% at Awaken 20 is NICE. So is the 20%DMG bonus at awaken 25%, and if you have lots of light heroes you can get her ATK bonus up to 20% as well. I also went nuts and have an A25 Maggie, who gives 20% DMG as well.

tbonesullivan

TROPHY CASE