
1973 Fireglo 4001 on eBay
Moderators: rickenbrother, ajish4
Ron: Fireball was the Fender P, he bought the Ric after that record, shortly before they went to record Machine Head.
Here's the story in his own words (source):
The Rickenbacker was the only bass I used on
Machine Head, strung with Rotosound strings, I seem to remember. The bass
has a bit of a history; I bought it in New York and in an effort to save
customs duty, about £25 or so, I had a receipt saying it cost less than it
did, which wasn¹t a lot anyway, $400 or thereabouts. Ian Hansford, our
roadie at the time, brought the guitar back through British customs a day
ahead of me for some reason I stayed an extra 24 hours in NY. Anyway,
they smelled a rat, arrested and charged Ian and impounded the bass. When
Ian called and told me what had happened, I was armed with what seemed like
a plausible story when I came through the next day. ³Ah, Mr. Glover, would
you open all your bags please?² Putting on my best innocent face I waited
while they went through everything, even the pages of my address book. At
last I asked if I could help and the officer showed me the false receipt,
asking if I recognized it. I replied that it certainly looked like a
receipt for a bass, but added that it couldn¹t be mine because the amount
was wrong (for this was my story, that the store had given me a false
receipt without my, or Ian¹s, knowledge). I was ushered into a private room
where they grilled me for about two hours. I stuck to the story but my
halo was beginning to tarnish as successively tougher people came into the
room to work on me. I finally cracked when they bluffed about telephone
records (when asked, I had told them that Ian Hansford hadn¹t called me in
New York to warn me that the customs had my guitar which of course he
had!). The end came when a senior office came into the room, sat on the
desk looking down at me and said, ³OK, Glover, what¹s this ********?² When
I admitted at last that yes, I was trying to save $25 (even after Fireball I
didn¹t have much money all that I earned went to pay back earlier
advances) and owned up saying, ³it¹s a fair cop guv, I¹ll go quietly,² and
things like that. Strangely enough, after that they were as nice as pie as
they read me my rights and formally charged me with evading customs and
excise duties. The real catch was that they had the guitar and explained
that I wouldn¹t be able to get it back until after the court case, if there
was one. I told them I couldn¹t wait that long, I was due to go to
Switzerland in less than two weeks to make a record and I needed the guitar.
The only option, they said, was to plead guilty, pay the fines for both Ian
Hansford and myself, and also pay an enormous sum to get the guitar back.
In all, I paid more than double the price for that guitar. It is only
fitting then, that soon afterwards I went to Montreux with DP and recorded
our biggest selling album ever with that guitar.
RG
Here's the story in his own words (source):
The Rickenbacker was the only bass I used on
Machine Head, strung with Rotosound strings, I seem to remember. The bass
has a bit of a history; I bought it in New York and in an effort to save
customs duty, about £25 or so, I had a receipt saying it cost less than it
did, which wasn¹t a lot anyway, $400 or thereabouts. Ian Hansford, our
roadie at the time, brought the guitar back through British customs a day
ahead of me for some reason I stayed an extra 24 hours in NY. Anyway,
they smelled a rat, arrested and charged Ian and impounded the bass. When
Ian called and told me what had happened, I was armed with what seemed like
a plausible story when I came through the next day. ³Ah, Mr. Glover, would
you open all your bags please?² Putting on my best innocent face I waited
while they went through everything, even the pages of my address book. At
last I asked if I could help and the officer showed me the false receipt,
asking if I recognized it. I replied that it certainly looked like a
receipt for a bass, but added that it couldn¹t be mine because the amount
was wrong (for this was my story, that the store had given me a false
receipt without my, or Ian¹s, knowledge). I was ushered into a private room
where they grilled me for about two hours. I stuck to the story but my
halo was beginning to tarnish as successively tougher people came into the
room to work on me. I finally cracked when they bluffed about telephone
records (when asked, I had told them that Ian Hansford hadn¹t called me in
New York to warn me that the customs had my guitar which of course he
had!). The end came when a senior office came into the room, sat on the
desk looking down at me and said, ³OK, Glover, what¹s this ********?² When
I admitted at last that yes, I was trying to save $25 (even after Fireball I
didn¹t have much money all that I earned went to pay back earlier
advances) and owned up saying, ³it¹s a fair cop guv, I¹ll go quietly,² and
things like that. Strangely enough, after that they were as nice as pie as
they read me my rights and formally charged me with evading customs and
excise duties. The real catch was that they had the guitar and explained
that I wouldn¹t be able to get it back until after the court case, if there
was one. I told them I couldn¹t wait that long, I was due to go to
Switzerland in less than two weeks to make a record and I needed the guitar.
The only option, they said, was to plead guilty, pay the fines for both Ian
Hansford and myself, and also pay an enormous sum to get the guitar back.
In all, I paid more than double the price for that guitar. It is only
fitting then, that soon afterwards I went to Montreux with DP and recorded
our biggest selling album ever with that guitar.
RG
"A Noble Instrument Must Be Nobly Regarded"
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