Rocktile Redneck Electronic Bass Red Sunburst

I'm a guitarist and I bought this bass mostly to use as a decorative piece for its rickenbacker looks. But then I started playing and I liked it a lot that I even started riffing on it.

the bass is good but needs set up.the neck pickup was on the air (not stable) and the metallic cover over the bridge pickup was in contact with the string when i tune the bass and need to put out so as to play

... and perhaps even better up close than the original! I've always liked the look and sound of the Rick design, but it never really fit on the belly. A long time ago I tested both an original 4003 and a Chris Squier 4001 CS. The quality was shocking and completely at odds with the price. In any case, I think that the original ribbed braker is basically a pretty bad design. The electronics and bridge are no engineering marvels and I still don't understand how they came up with the idea of squeezing two trussrods into a four-string neck. The price is outrageously exorbitant! But: the sound has made history.

This piece here for just under 170 euros is - if you ignore your personal aversion to Made-in-China - worth every penny. The workmanship is above average for this price. The two-tone sunburst finish is flawless. The body is made of three pieces of basswood and the neck is not continuous like the original, but glued in. The weight certainly varies from batch to batch. The 3.88kg here is pretty shoulder-friendly. The neck-to-body transition is - just like the binding of the neck and body - flawless. Nothing protrudes, no corners or edges. The 20 frets are cleanly inserted and well dressed at the edges. The surface is slightly rough, but that plays down. I've experienced worse with >3k euro basses! Visually and - fortunately - technically, the bridge has nothing in common with the original! But it works and fulfills its purpose!

As already mentioned by others here, you should have some knowledge of the technology and adjustment work on the bass. As I said, the bridge is adjustable in all necessary dimensions and you have to make use of this. The intonation was probably only visually adjusted at the factory. After using the saddle file, a low, comfortable string action can be achieved without any problems.

The four large-wing tuners are really not bad and hold the tuning reliably. The rather low-output pickups, on the other hand, can confidently give in to the desire for an upgrade. There is a selection of usable replacements for the neck pickup, which correspond to the Rickenbacker format and should fit without much tinkering. In the bridge position, the Jazz Bass format has probably been chosen for the sake of simplicity. You could therefore install any JB bridge pickup here. For a replacement in Rick format, the router would have to be used. The electronics are simple and do their job without any shielding. But at this price, you can still let off steam here when upgrading!

The strings are not completely unusable, and the feel is also ok, but with your favorite wires (Bass Centre Elites) you will experience a quantum leap in sound even with the factory pickups.

All in all a great offer, especially if you enjoy a bit of tinkering and have always wanted to have a Ricky (not only) as a second bass ...

After reading through the other reviews, I decided to buy the thing as a decoration for my basement anyway. Either I was lucky or others unlucky. Because: contrary to other reviews, the bass delivered to me looks really great. No paint damage, no incorporated barcodes or anything else. Visually in any case close to the original.

After unpacking, however, something is immediately noticeable ... You definitely need a Badis understanding of how to adjust a bass (or a guitar). The bass was not playable. The strings were resting on the fingerboard and it was not fretless. So if you want to play it, you have to invest 5 minutes beforehand and get the thing going. After that, however, you experience a small surprise for the price ... lirz tuned and you have an amazingly good sound for just 170 euros ... my first bass has then cost a little more than twice as much and that had nen less good sound...

The workmanship is not bad either. Sure, you buy a bass for 170 euros. You should not expect a premium instrument. This is also noticeable in some places. The knobs for the pots sit very high, for example. There could have been used more suitable pots. But otherwise really good. No paint defects, no paint damage... Nothing... visually very close to the original...

I will give it a new set of strings and then it will be played at home... he will probably not see a stage with me.

In summary:

Much better than I thought!

Who can adjust a bass, may even have fun with this... and if you do not feel like it, you could not change the pickups and you get nen quite acceptable instrument for little money.

One star deduction because the bass was obviously not adjusted at the factory... this also indicates that the function was also not tested... here would be a quality control desirable

After unpacking, it turned out that the bass was not tuned at all. The strings were hitting the frets and I had to raise the bridge a bit. Also, the neck was crooked and I had to correct that with the adjustment screw on the headstock as well. Other than that, it looks good, and now that it's playable, it sounds good.