Help me find my 4001?

[coolingitdown]

That's a great story! Really warms the heart!

[marc61]

This is a very cool story. I often wish I could find my 79 4001jg. Unfortunately, I don't know the serial number but, I would recognize it if I saw it.

[lostRic]

HA! Hello everyone! Well, I guess you are right, I will have to change my handle, because my Ric is no longer lost! I quickly read through all of the posts on here and I can see that Jeff has basically filled you in on all the news. For those who don't want to read the entire history, I bought a burgundy 4001 in 1982. I kept it for almost 20 years and then traded it for a Telecaster at one of the local music shops here in Boston. It wasn't long after that, that I started regretting what I did. I searched for it for years and told myself that if I ever walked into a guitar store and found it, I would buy it on the spot. But I never had any luck. And, I was always afraid that when I did find it, it would be badly used. But every once in a while, I would punch the serial number into Google and see if it would come up on Craigslist or Ebay or something! But it never did, until a couple of weeks after last Christmas! The weird thing is, I joined this forum looking for it in September 2008 and Jeff registered the guitar in November 2008. I never saw it. For two years after it was registered, all I got from Google when I typed "Rickenbacker SD2272" was a zip code in North Dakota! Ughhhhhh! I guess Google eventually got around to picking it up in their database, because that's the only way I would have ever found it. When I brought up the pictures from the registration, I almost died because I recognized it immediately, all the way down to the nick I put in the headstock when I was a teenager. By the way, I knew the serial number because I kept the receipts from when I bought the guitar, shipped it to Rickenbacker for a neck adjustment, and traded it at Mr. Music. All those receipts had the serial number on them. I sent a scan of the receipts to Jeff, partly to build my case as the original owner and partly because Jeff bought his first Ric only a couple of months before I bought mine way back in 1982. So, we bonded immediately and promptly traded pictures of us and our first loves from back in the day. Ironically, I bought a 330 just before last Christmas, partly because I mostly play guitar now and not bass, but also because I missed my 4001 and thought the 330 would be somewhat of a replacement for what I lost. Hehe, but now I am the very proud owner of two Rickenbackers. I contacted the administrator on the forum, thanks to some great advice from you guys, and he contacted Jeff who agreed to be contacted by me (sorry, a little wordy, but hey, it's late!).

Anyway, Jeff and I hit it off right away. We shared stories and pics and Jeff shared a whole lot of valuable information on Rickenbackers and amp recommendations. I have obviously been very lucky to find my guitar again, but the icing on the cake was that SD 2272 could not have had a better owner than Jeff Thomas over the last ten years. The guitar is in exactly the same condition as when I parted with it, if not better. Jeff took excellent care of it, replacing rusty screws, cleaning the tuners, and replacing those stubborn bridge saddles. So thanks to all of you for your tremendous help and thanks to Jeff for being such a great guy and a Rickenbacker expert.

I am attaching a picture of my reunited bass and my brand spanking new Mesa Boogie Walkabout Scout! Jeff helped a lot with my amp search, never really pushing one brand over the other. In the end, he told me to just take the bass out and try it with a bunch of different amps until I found the one that I liked. When I was in HS, I had a Sun Beta Bass head and two giant cabs that I could hardly fit in the giant cars of the 70's. Wow! Technology sure has done amazing things since then, because the Walkabout is tiny, but sounds way better than that Sun ever did and it will fit in my hatchback!! Woohoo!!

OK. I don't want to ramble on too much. But I think you guys got the gist of it all. Thanks again to all of you who helped make this possible. Enjoy the pics!

P.S. I tried to add a couple of additional pictures. One of me at the HS talent show holding my 4001 and one of the bass in December 1982 when I sent it back to Rickenbacker for a neck adjustment. The first file is a .tif and the second is a .pdf. I don't know if they got uploaded or not, or if they did, if they will be visible. Bear with me, and I will try to get them to work or in a format that will work.

[lostRic]

OK. Here's an attempt of me trying to get this HS talent show pic up. This is me at the HS talent show holding my 4001. It's from 1985. I'll have to work on the other .pdf file later, it's just a little too late tonight!

[jps]

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Rick Gallery!

[Fretjob]

OK. Here's an attempt of me trying to get this HS talent show pic up. This is me at the HS talent show holding my 4001. It's from 1985. I'll have to work on the other .pdf file later, it's just a little too late tonight!

That's a great story. Guess you were lucky it got picked up by a Ric enthusiast. Looking at the picture, you were also a lucky kid getting a nice new Ric at that age

[lostRic]

Yep, I was. Even luckier getting it back! Thanks Fretjob!

[rickaddict]

Hey John! It's nice to see a photo of SD 2272 in his new home, reunited with his original owner.

It was a pleasure to do deal with you, and it was fun to be a part of this story.

And that Walkabout is almost as cool looking as the Rick that leans on it! Congrats on your purchase of my favorite little amp!

[ubdrum]

This is a GREAT story! Congratulations John on getting your long lost bass back, and Jeff, you are truly a hero among men!!

I too have a long lost Rick I'd like to find again someday ... a 1986 325V63 which was my very first guitar, I bagged groceries in high school to pay for it and made payments for months until it was ordered for me at Walpole Music in MA (I picked it up at their defunct West Roxbury location which was called Music First). Sold it around 1991/92 to pay bills and have regretted it ever since. If I can find the receipt it might have the serial number on it.

Ah, the folly of youth ...

[steversaurus]

Great story! Just another example of how tight knit the Ric community is.

[rickaddict]

...you are truly a hero among men!!

Ha! I'm not so sure that's the word I'd use, but if you insist!

4 months later I'm still glad that John has his bass back. He's a great guy, and one of these days (maybe this summer even) we're gonna get together for a beer.

Good luck finding your own long lost Rick, Steven!

[dbriggy]

What a great tale, thanks for sharing!
Like probably many guys here I too have a long lost Rick, an old 4001 FG. I was working as a Saturday boy in a music shop in north London when I was about 16 and a guy came in and traded in his battered old Rickenbacker for something shiny. I was a major Rush fan (Geddy was the main reason I took up bass) and I cajoled and begged Sid the shop owner and eventually he gave in and let me have it at a rock bottom price and pay it off in instalments. By the time I was 20 I was playing a lot more funky stuff and ended up trading it for a jazz bass (I know!)
I always missed it and when I was in a position to be able to I got me another 4001 in FG, then another in BG, then a 4003 in JG! Now I am hooked again and although I know I will never find that first one as I don't have the serial number, I will always appreciate that I was fortunate enough to begin my bass playing with one of the finest basses ever made.

[jps]

I was playing a lot more funky stuff and ended up trading it for a jazz bass (I know!)

Hmm, in '73, while in high school, I traded my Jazz Bass for my first Rick, my '67 4005WB.

[just_bassics]

Great story, just came a cross it - No surprise, Jeff T. is one of the good guys. Wish I had the s/n of my first Les Paul, a tobacco sunburst '71 standard that I sold in Newport News in 1982.

I also remember Lomakin Music, the big multi-floored music store in downtown Pittsburgh, my bass playing friend and I used to skip school and browse around there for hours just dreaming (he still has his '75 AZ 4001). Lomakin had a white 4001 in its front window for so long that it had yellowed to the point of being the same shade as Chris Squire's RM, possibly why I never realized at the time that Chris had done his own refin... I thought that was just a standard color. I left Pittsburgh in 1979, don't know how long Lomakin remained open after that. When I moved back in '97, the store was long gone.

Anyway, congrats on getting your bass returned and Jeff, I hope your kindness is repaid many time over!

[jps]

I spent yesterday with JT @ MARC, great to get to know him better and play some music with Jeff. Now, if only he'd give me that 4002.....