RIC LOVE STORIES

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:47 am

Ronn, you should have married that girl. Talk about a good luck charm! AND a Ric Enabler, to boot!

iamthebassman · Post by **iamthebassman** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:55 am

Actually she was my best man at my wedding two years ago!

She has(among others)a mid-60s
450-12. It's beautiful.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:58 am

Ronn the other bass I tried in 77 besides the Ric and in fact the one my guitar player tried to talk me into buying was a 77 Musicman, first year they made them I think. Was no contest.
Paul I'm from Worcester and Northeast Expressway sounds familiar, I think I remember them but never saw them. I used to play Bunratties, Jacks and The Channel a lot during the early 80's though, in several bands, one was called The Fans.

rickaddict · Post by **rickaddict** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 12:53 pm

Harry-

That Autumnglo is really cool!

green_us90 · Post by **green_us90** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 2:32 pm

Bought my first Rickenbacker in 1994, Sept 13 to be exact.

I bought it in a local New England chain store which will remain nameless. The chain had 3 Rickenbackers in stock, all lebeled as 4003s, a "sunburst", a black" and a "creme" The creme sounded pretty cool so I asked for this one to be sent to the store I was near.

The vintage was unknown at the time of purchase but the sales puke said "looks to be early eighties, man that has some tobacco stains on it"!

Anyway after some tinkering, and set up etc It played fine. The original case smelled like an attic so this thing must have sat for a while. I later found out the ser# OJ 7200 stood for Oct. 1975. Ha! So much for the sales puke's guess.

Anyway I played it off and on for 5 years or so then just more or less put it away. The pickups, the neck in particular, were sounding weak....didn't know why except for they were old, but hey it was my first Rick so I wasn't about to get rid of it.

Only when I joined this forum did I learn about the .0047uf cap in the treble tone circuit....after that was removed, this thing soungs like it is ALIVE. Still Have it. Still Love it.
Bought the 2nd Rick on 10/4/97. I had been dating my now wife a month when I decided to run to GC to buy a 4003 on a whim. Still have it as well.

http://fenderforum.com/userphotos/index ... ecid=14630

rob · Post by **rob** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:39 pm

I always wanted a RIC bass for the longest time. I bought my first (used) in October of 2000. It came with the "optional" furball from probably a cat imbedded in the treble pickup cavity. I still have the bass (minus the furball).

ricosound · Post by **ricosound** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 4:53 am

I won't bore you with the many basses I've had over the last 25 odd years, just the Ricks. I really wanted to play bass after being a Rush fan for several years. In 1979 I went in to a local music store, not a guitar store but a music store with pianos and horns and stuff. The only bass they had that I could afford was a sunburst Jazz copy for $149. I signed up for lessons thought the store and got to be good friends with my teacher who was a year younger. He had what I now know as an Auzure Glo 4001, probably a 75-77 range.

One day years later while cruising local guitar shops, I spotted what turned out to be a '71 4001JG. The nut and strings were missing and the fret board was separated cleanly to the 3rd fret. I fixed it up and played it for a while but the neck was a horrible twisted mess, the rods were stripped and the 20th fret was popped on the treble side. All I heard was Rick = neck problems so I dumped it for $200. Today it would be an easy fix with info from this forum. I've been trying to replace it ever since- checkerboard, MOP, toaster, green lead pickup, mono. I missed a 4003S MGBT at the local GC for $600 two years ago by waiting too long. I thought the dot neck/mono a compromise. Last year I picked up a white '77 4001 BT from Chris Pappas and proceeded with a refin. I put it back together for a test fit and have been playing it raw wood ever since. I love it but the output is a little weak, even uncapped. As of this writing I've had 14 basses including the two Ricks. My next bass purchase will be a newer 4003MG to do the retro-look thing like Jeff Scott's fretless, or the holy grail would be a V63MG with a standard hi-gain lead. I just have to tinker with every guitar I own!

titanic_tony · Post by **titanic_tony** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 7:22 am

I bought my first Ric in 1978. It was a new white 4001, cost $625. I was told by the music store that white was a special order (was it?) and that I'd have to wait for it. I waited about 3 months for it (pretty quick turn-around for a special order by today's standards). Back then everyone wanted jetglo or fireglo , and the music store had a mapleglo and burgandy in stock that they'd let me borrow because they felt bad that I had to wait so long for my bass! Anyway, I was so happy when my bass finally arrived, but through the years I was constantly trying to get more low-end out of it. I now have a '79 Jetglo that I just had "de-capped". Man does it sound great now. If only I'd known about the mod back then.
By the way, the '78 white is still in the family (my cousin now owns it).

rickaddict · Post by **rickaddict** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 7:30 am

Back in '82, my dealer told me that white was a "custom color" and said that there was an extra charge involved. I can't remember how much extra, but I want to say $90.00.

titanic_tony · Post by **titanic_tony** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 9:45 am

I've always wondered if the dealer was pulling my leg. Thanks Jeff.

Tony

johnhall · Post by **johnhall** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 11:41 am

Way back when some colors were considered custom and other standard, with an upcharge for the custom. I can remember in the 70's when even Maple was considered a custom color.

pma · Post by **pma** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 2:47 pm

I got my first Ricky in '74 by trading a custom speaker cabinet wtih 2 15" JBL's for the bass. As part of the trade, Bartolini (I know the guy) installed his very first bridge pickup for me to try and him to hear. I ended up having some problems with the action and had to have the bass reworked scrapping the stock bridge and getting a custom one made. I also swapped out the stock tuners. I eventually refinished the bass from Jetglo to red but am not playing it anymore since switching to 5 string a couple of years ago.

If you want to see pics, go to www.timelinemusic.net

Paul

jonpaul · Post by **jonpaul** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 5:43 pm

Got me first Rick in 1977. I wanted a 4001 MG but settled for a sunburst brown color (I'm not sure of the actual color name). I had that for a couple of years then upgraded to 4001 MG in 1979. During the next 5 years I played that bass non-stop, with the exception of purchasing a Rick 325 around 1983. After getting married and having the kidz I lost touch with playing (other responsibilities - the family thing) and started to trade or sell my Ricks (bad idea). Anyway, I was Rick-less for about 15-16 years. I finally got back into it last year and have since purhased A 325V63, 325C58 and am hunting for a 4001V63 MG. It's funny, once you have experienced the Rick vibe it's hard not to have at least one in your possession no matter what your playing status might be.

elgranluis · Post by **elgranluis** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 6:39 pm

now this is a nice story... I'd been looking at MF catalogue, pics on the net, etc, and i didnt like the ric bass. That is, until one day I walked into GC at denver. They had a fireglow 4003 (which I specially disliked, since ihadnt seen it in person and it doesnt photograph well). I was shocked, amazed, and right then and there I knew I must get a ric. This was around january. Anyway, I get home (I was on vacation @ vail) and my wife asks what would I want for my birthday (august)... The bass ended up being a present from my brother, mother, and wife, and hell, how i love that bass! My other ric I got from a trade... Someone was foolish enough to hand over a ric and 200 bucks in trade for a usa jazz bass...

49_degrees · Post by **49_degrees** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 7:10 pm

My dad taught me to play bass when I was twelve. I saw my first Rick bass in a small music store in downtown Vancouver that year and knew I had to have one. However, they were fairly rare in our corner of the world. Literally my dream bass, I would sketch pictures of 4001's in my high school notebooks.

In the early eighties, I got a job in a small town in the interior. During beverages after a ball game one night, I mentioned that I had played bass in various bands. A girl we were with said she had a bass stored at her place and, not having any idea what it was, would I have a look.

Her story was that she had shared a house during university with 5 or 6 people. One guy dropped out and asked if she would look after his things including his bass while he traveled. Four years later she was still carting his stuff around and quite fed up.

I recall opening the case and ... there it was. An MG 4001. The case hadn't been opened in a long while and there were some moisture issues but no permanent harm.

I eventually tracked down the owner a few time zones away and, over the next couple of months, convinced him to sell it.

I gigged with it steady for 6 or 7 years until marriage/house/kids came along. Recently (since discovering this forum in December) I have pulled it out of the basement for minor restoration.

It has an MD date code (April 73) and is a bit of a transitional platypus according to forum information. I'm looking forward to getting her re-wired, strung up and plugged in again.