Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

It's painful to see such a sweet old bass slightly butchered. The combination of FWMOP "sparkle" inlays and CB always my favorite. If you go with a Jetglo finish, the CB could be restored, probably by cutting in a new wood "binding" to infill the roundover, which would then be double-ledge routed to receive the plastic and celluloid binding, which is two different heights. It's a fussy job, but paint hides all sins. If you want to keep a transparent finish with CB, they'd probably have to take a bit of wood off all around the perimeter, they really boogered it with the roundover. None of it affects the tone, of course, in which case you could just play the daylights out of it. Nice bass, whatever you choose. Have you had a look under the TRC? Sometimes that kind of abuse extends to the trussrods as well.

There are only two sources I know of for the correct CB binding:

http://winfieldvintage.com/parts/binding.html

This German company usually stocks it, but seem to be out at the moment:
http://www.shellex.de/index.php?s=1&sho ... =110000.00

The outer binding layer is just white plastic available from multiple sources.

I'll see if I can make some pictures soon. It was restored beautifully, but has some issues now. (Strings too high without room for adjustment.)

She was restored by making new body wings b.t.w. and indeed painted JG.

I thought it was cool looking. I agree with Jeff, the squared off treble surround is a bit rare, Jeff do you still have your Mapleglo? I always liked that bass.

But as far as modded / refinished / meddled with vintage Rick basses go, It could have been a lot worse.

cheyenne wrote:Jeff do you still have your Mapleglo? I always liked that bass.

It still is a great bass, although it has passed on, to a friend of mine, last year. These days, I have just my two 4004 models, but I'd love to have a new 5 string Rick.

cheyenne wrote: I agree with Jeff, the squared off treble surround is a bit rare,

It is from this forum that I know this is a specific 1968 thing.

berth wrote:

cheyenne wrote: I agree with Jeff, the squared off treble surround is a bit rare,

It is from this forum that I know this is a specific 1968 thing.

Interesting that my March '73 4001 had one.

That's not a real Ric treble pickup surround, is it?

And the bloomin' treble pickup cover is sat on top of the surround!

prowla wrote:That's not a real Ric treble pickup surround, is it?

Yes, it is. Quite a few have been sighted, and/or owned by members, over the years.