Is this a real ric? The guy thinks it's fake (his dad got it for 15 pounds, no output jack or TR cover), but how does one tell for sure?
Have there been any copies with a neck-thru AND twin trussrods?
More pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fractalpotato/
I've never heard of a fake with dual truss rods, but there are way too many incorrect features on that bass, (neck inlays, bridge, pickup...). It's got to be a fake.
I think you guys are seeing the same optical illusion that I saw when I first glanced at this photo. You can easily make out the bottom side of the control cavity, but because of the angle the photo was taken from, its hard to make out the top of the control cavity. The cavity is shaped fairly similar to a real RIC cavity. Also messing with the mind here is the one black wire in the photo that is attached to the output jack toward the back of the cavity.
If you look at the remainder of the photos using the link, you'll see a completely different bridge system, vol/tone knobs with different lettering, a single outlet, etc.
Author: "The Rickenbacker Electric Bass - 50 Years As Rock's Bottom"
I don’t get why some people go to so much trouble to manufacture a fake RIC. Like this thing or not, a lot of effort and time has gone into making it/them. Unless when it was first manufactured it was sold as a RIC there can’t really have been a big profit margin in it. Of course if it was sold as an original the manufacture deserves the book to be thrown at him.
I would have thought that it would be so much easier and with greater profit margins to make a product based around a Fender P like everyone else does.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not condoning making fake RICs, I just don’t see that it is the most financially prudent way to make a bass.