Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi Guys

I am a newbie to this forum.

Long story short, I came across a 1972 4001 at a deceased estate auction in Brisbane Qld Australia - Believe it or not it had been thrown in a dumpster while the house was being cleaned out, but had been saved by one of the auctioneers who decided it may be worth including in the auction. (True Story). Unfortunately, there was one other person at the auction who knew what it was, so I did have to pay half a "Arm and Leg" for it
My young son is a fanatical budding bassist, so I thought that this might be a good father/son project
I have taken it to a Luthier, and he tells me that the body is in good condition, but it needs a refret and the outer white binding replaced (The inner Chequer binding is in good condition)

I would like to keep this as original as possible, so I have a couple of questions for some of you experts.....
Firstly, when refretting, should I stick with the original nickel, or move up to stainless.
Has anyone tried rechroming the gap tooth tailpiece?
The pick guard- It seems to be a little different with fewer mounting screws than the photos I can find on the net??
The Control knobs have a psychedelic rainbow effect on the silver section - I assume that this is not original?
The Chrome bezel around the "D" string tuner is smaller than the other 3 bezels

Thanks in advance for any help

Cheers
David

Hi David, and welcome to the RRF.

That's a nice Mapleglo bass in somewhat stressed cosmetic condition. It look to have the finish some refer to the finish as "Glueglo" due to the darker stain around the edge of the bass where the binding glue has seeped into the finish. This is actually a great indicator of date, as this occurred over a brief window in the early '70s.

If you're refretting, I don't think the material you use will make too much difference to the future value of the instrument, provided you go with the same gauge of fretwire as is already on the bass.

The problem with rechroming the tailpiece is finding someone to do a pro job. I have had other bits and pieces rechromed with distinctly mixed results.

The pickguard looks to be a home-made replacement to mimic the '60s style 'guards. The original would have left a 1cm gap between the guard and the treble pickup mounting ring, and it would have been white. Replacements can be sourced from a range of suppliers, such as Pickguardian or Pickguard Planet. These guys can make a new 'guard to original spec, or a replacement to '60s spec, which would cover any additional screw holes the previous owners have drilled to fit the current guard

The original knobs have a little silver cap with text such as "bass volume" and "treble tone", where "bass" and "treble" refer to pickup placement ("bass" = neck). Replacement knobs can be sourced pretty readily in theory, as they're available at the RIC Boutique, though I'm not sure whether the Oz distributor will carry them. You may need to jump through some hoops, but that's half the fun.

The "D" tuner bezel is an odd one - the original Grover bezels are somewhat larger than those used with Kluson, Schaller, or Gotoh vintage style tuners seen on 4001/3s of different vintages. The wavy Grovers and the bezels pop up on ebay or reverb every now and then. You may have to buy a tuner to get the bezel. There are a few on US ebay at the moment, but they aren't cheap - search "wavy Grover Tuner" on ebay and up they pop!

Very best of luck with the project!

Hi Antipodean


Thanks heaps for the information - That really does help

My plan is to get it back into good playable condition and only do a refret & fix the major cosmetic issues (Binding/tailpiece etc)
I wont be trying to make it look "As new"

I will add this bass to the register, and keep you updated on developments

Cheers

David

Nice score David.

That bass looks like it has a few stories to tell.

Yes, it looks like it has done plenty of gigs - Also nicotine stains on the lower side of the nut where the player has been holding his cigarette while playing

Just for interest sake, I gently removed the pick guard this morning to take a peek

Under the bass pickup it had "NAT" written in pencil. Under the controls it had "ARUNA" written in pencil & "4001-G" written in marker pen

I assume that "NAT" = Natural finish??


Thx

Dave