It Was 30 Years Ago Today...

[chefothefuture]

Great bass! Always love to see the pics. Wints, you get to pull it out and get that "first time" feeling.
The pictures will do the rest of us well....

At least you've kept yours

All the best and happy anni !

[opticnerve]

I rank the Bee Gees with the best of them..Beatles, Kinks, Beach Boys, Who, Queen, Stones...whatever. If I were forced to pick tunes for a desert island layover...the BG's would be prominent on my list. Maurice's playing is superb...vastly underrated...just love what he chooses to play...I can listen all day long. This bass is a treasure...and am glad that it's in worthy hands! You're a lucky so & so Andy!!! If you're ever ready to part with it......ha!!!

[teeder]

I need to bring it over sometime Tony!

How about in late April!

[wints]

Hey John~

Nice to hear from you, and again, thanks for the kind words. Tony, I'll keep you informed! Teeder..PM sent.

[chefothefuture]

Well-
There is a reason that I lay low. I come back to the forum and two months later another Capri comes to my home... LOL!

Tony- If you still have that lovely 64 4001, you should count your self among the lucky few along with wints

[pag]

Congratulations Andy.
Sorry for the delay but we had computer problems.

As the previous owner I am glad to see 163 in safe hands.
I had searched all over for an original 60s 4001 like Chris Squire played and in 1974 I turned down the black 4001 I had my eye on in Barratts Manchester.
That bass was bought by 10CC and I went for a white Jazz with maple neck and planned to one day find a 60s Rick.
In 1978 whilst reading a copy of International Musician one lunchtime at the TV shop I worked at I spotted an ad for a 1965 Rickenbacker going for £275 at Honky Tonk Music in Essex.
I bought it over the phone unseen and almost fainted when it was delivered in a Fender Precision cardboard box thinking I had been conned!
It was all original...no thumbrest by the way..apart from the white finish and had the best neck ever.
Vintage and previous name owner stuff was years in the future (unless it was the Beatles or Elvis nobody cared) and I had an incling this was possibly the white bass I had see Maurice with on the pages of one of my sisters pop magazines.
I had Bird Brothers of Rochdale build a custom flight case for it and it went all over with me from punk/new wave to soul bands etc.
I thought that it would be my bass for life until........

The sad part of all this for me is the way I had to sell the bass.
I had lost my job (unfairly as it turned out due to a complaint about another member of staff not me) and bills were being left unpaid.
In a panic I sold all my gear to make ends meet.
A week or two later my brother came home on leave from the RAF and offered to buy it back from the shop for me.
The shop wouldnt reply to my letters asking to contact whoever had bought it.
I dont think they had sold it by this time because this was two months befor Andy bought the bass.
Unless the shop had sold it to another dealer I couldnt account for the way I was fobbed off.

Worse was yet to come when my (then) wife walked out on me shortly before Christmas 1980.
The mortgage on the house was what I paid for with the money from selling my gear and that was because my wife was worried about the bills.
Of course as these things often go I was the last to find out she had been seeing another guy for some time.
Had I known the bills would have been left unpaid and I would have moved out with my bass!

Let this be a salutory lesson to anyone selling a prized possession....dont panic like I did.
Find a buyer who might hold it for you until things get better or a family member etc.
Dont do what I did.
Luckily one day when I had just discivered the wonders of the internet I noticed a forum about Rickenbacker Artists.
The rest you all know.
One worry I had even though I no longer owned DH163 was that as the years went by someone might have ruined the bass by customising it or it might get badly damaged etc.
Thats why I am so glad to see you with the bass Andy.

Look after her.

Pete.

[dricard]

Any chance this bass is DH163?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKGZNZOkTPQ

[opticnerve]

Yup, that's the one. Here too...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0Ycg1zY ... re=related

[spongebob]

That's quite a story.

Bit like the myth of the 'Blood Red Rickenbacker' maybe....a real life-changing bass in many ways for those lucky enough to own such a beauty.

[opticnerve]

Well-
There is a reason that I lay low. I come back to the forum and two months later another Capri comes to my home... LOL!

Tony- If you still have that lovely 64 4001, you should count your self among the lucky few along with wints

Hey John,

Hope you're well!

Yup, still have it. Next September it'll be 5 years. Hopefully
we can stick it out as long as Andy & Rose M.!!!

[wints]

Pete,

Kind, gracious words as ever. Thank you. This thread would not be possible without you. Your attention to detail back in the day has made this topic credible, and without it, I would be still be the dark. I hope I can possibly catch up with you this summer back in the UK.

Iain, I am a Kent boy originally, and get back there in summertime. I can still remember my teacher at Canterbury being less than impressed when I told him where I went that day...

[rickaddict]

Pete,

Iain, I am a Kent boy originally, and get back there in summertime. I can still remember my teacher at Canterbury being less than impressed when I told him where I went that day...

Less than impressed because of regional rivalries, or did he not like Rickenbacker basses?

My bass teacher was a P-bass guy and didn't seem too excited when I showed him my first Rick, some 29 years ago.

[spongebob]

Iain, I am a Kent boy originally, and get back there in summertime. I can still remember my teacher at Canterbury being less than impressed when I told him where I went that day...

Summertime certainly is the time to come.....not now in February...brrrr!

I can only imagine your teacher's face.....!