Rickenbacker Bass roundup
The Best Rickenbacker Bass for the Money
The current range is small and focused. Here's how the 4003, 4003S and vintage 4001 stack up depending on what you're actually chasing.
The current Rickenbacker bass range is small and focused, which actually makes this easier than it looks. There's essentially one core design philosophy, expressed through a handful of variants, plus the used vintage market sitting alongside it. Here's how they stack up depending on what you're actually chasing.
Best All-Round Current Model: The 4003
For most players wanting the classic sound without wading into the vintage market, the 4003 is the obvious pick. It carries the full design — neck-through maple-and-walnut construction, 33¼-inch scale, twin Hi-Gain pickups — with a truss-rod system engineered specifically to handle modern roundwound strings without the risk that comes with older necks. It's the version most current players actually mean when they say they want "a Rickenbacker."
Best for Understated Looks: The 4003S
Same construction, same pickups, same electronics — the 4003S simply drops the body/neck binding and swaps triangle inlays for dots. It's the look Paul McCartney and Chris Squire both favoured on their original 4001S instruments, and it's a genuinely sensible choice for anyone who finds the standard model's ornamentation a bit much, or just wants to pay for tone rather than trim.
Best for Genuine Vintage Character: A Well-Kept 4001
If flatwound-era tone is specifically what you're after, nothing new fully replicates an original 4001 — the truss-rod design and general construction of that era genuinely feel different under the fingers, particularly when strung as originally intended. The catch is that this is a used-market purchase with real risk attached; you're relying entirely on the individual instrument's condition rather than a current factory spec. Our buyer's guide covers exactly what to inspect before paying vintage prices.
Best for Studio Experimentation: Rick-O-Sound Stereo Rig
For players who record as much as they perform live, the Rick-O-Sound stereo output opens up genuinely unusual options — a clean neck-pickup signal on one amp, a driven bridge-pickup signal on another, each with independent effects. It's not a feature most gigging players will use nightly, but for studio work it's a legitimate creative tool, provided you're prepared to deal with phase and level-matching between the two chains.
Best String Setup by Genre
| Style | String type | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1960s pop and rock | Flatwounds | Smoother attack, closer to the original 4001 voicing |
| Progressive rock | Roundwounds, bridge-forward | Brighter growl and definition for busy, melodic lines |
| Punk and post-punk | Roundwounds | Aggressive upper-midrange presence cuts through fast strumming |
| Hard rock and metal | Roundwounds, compressed | Controlled low end under distortion and dense arrangements |
How a Rickenbacker Bass Compares to a Fender-Style Bass
| Rickenbacker (4003) | Typical Fender-style bass | |
|---|---|---|
| Construction | Neck-through | Bolt-on neck |
| Scale length | 33¼" | 34" |
| Tone character | Bright, cutting, compressed | Rounder, deeper, more neutral |
| Stereo output | Available via Rick-O-Sound | Not typically offered |
Neither design is objectively better — they're built around different priorities. If you're still working out whether that priority suits you, our full overview unpacks the sound in more detail, and our beginner's guide is a gentler starting point if this is your first one.
The Verdict
For nearly everyone, the current 4003 is the sensible, lowest-risk way into a genuine Rickenbacker bass sound. Choose the 4003S if the plainer look appeals, chase a vintage 4001 only if you've genuinely got the patience to inspect it properly, and treat Rick-O-Sound as a studio bonus rather than a reason to buy on its own. Whichever you land on, it's one of the few basses where the design philosophy hasn't meaningfully changed in six decades — which says something about how well it was worked out the first time.
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