1973 4001 Lineup

[markbass99]

My wife has been out of town for about a month and in the mean time I bought a March 73 4001......and didn't tell her about it......(she knew I was looking for one though). She returned two days ago and I tried to figure out a way to break the news to her, so when she was in the shower I took all of the 73's I had in the house (5 of 7 - 2 are being refinished) and lined them up on the couch. I told her to pick out the one that was made in March 73 and she walked over and looked at them and correctly chose the fireglo with the full inlays. She didn't even ask me how much I paid, what's the point, she knew I was going to pay whatever it took. I took some pictures while I had them out, I think this is the first time they have all been out of their cases at the same time. One thing I noticed besides the obvious (like the inlays changing) was the upper horns started to get fatter as you went from Feb to July, very interesting.

Feb, March, April, June, July


Feb, March


April(eggplantglo), June


June, July

[Spanky(Andy)]

markbass99,

Wow! When I grow up, I wanna be just like you!

Are these beautiful 4001's all in original condition, or have they been refinished? They look amazingly clean.

Are early 70's 4001's in good condition hard to come by in the US? I've only seen a couple of early 70's 4001 basses here in Australia - they were very expensive and in quite poor condition.

Andy-the-envious
Canberra
Australia

[teeder]

Wow!

[marc61]

Anyone here besides me just a wee bit envious?

[tennis_nick]

Anyone here besides me just a wee bit envious?

Yeah... but not for anything in particular. Nice basses!

[teeder]

Anyone here besides me just a wee bit envious?

Right there with ya' Marc!

[8mileshigh]

They look fantastic Mark! But fancy having 7 basses - you can only play one at a time!!

[rickenbrother]

What? No August?!?

[markbass99]

Andrew- all basses pictured are original finish, the eggplant one is really hard to capture correctly in a picture, like a 75th DCM it looks black unless it's in a bright light. The missing January will be refinished trans-burgundy, the missing May will be refinished bright white.

Joey- I'm thinking about an August someday in Mapleglo since that is a color that has eluded me. It probably won't have C/B though, you might be the only person that has one, we'll see.


Eggplantglo

[loendmaestro]

Um, what's your street address? And when are you most likely to be out of the house for awhile?

Just curious...

[teeder]

Did you say August MG?
http://www.gbase.com/Stores/Gear/GearDe ... em=1630787

[LeftyRickBass]

Um, what's your street address? And when are you most likely to be out of the house for awhile?

Just curious...

OMG!!!!! Too funny!!!!!
NICE basses Marc!!!!!!

LeftyRickBass

[LeftyRickBass]

OOOOOPPPSSSS, I mean Mark!!!!!

[markbass99]

Did you say August MG?
http://www.gbase.com/Stores/Gear/GearDe ... em=1630787

That one's been on Gbase for a while now and I did think about checking it out, but they have the s/n listed as NH which is 1974 vs MH (Aug 73), other than that it's a nice looking bass.

[rickaddict]

Sweet collection, Marc. Looks like your diabolical plan is finally coming to fruition!



I have a question about bridge pickups: My July '73 4001 has the larger magnet bridge pickup and its one of the best sounding Rick basses I've ever heard. My former July '72 4001 had the smaller magnet bridge pickup and was one of the most feeble sounding Ricks I've ever played (Obviously I usually run mine bridge pickup dominant).

It looks to me like all of the above examples have the larger magnet. Do they? How about your Jan '72? Does anybody know when the change was made from the smaller magnet to the larger magnet bridge pickup?