21 fret weirdo 4001 on the bay

motoryeshead · Post by **motoryeshead** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 12:36 pm

Looks like its been refinished, but in all honesty, theres something very wrong about this bass to my eyes, apart from the p/ups, plate etc. Stripey head, narrow inlays, bad refinish, is this a John Birch 4001 with added Rick TRC or something more sinister?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3764372723

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:12 pm

The walnut wings appear to be stained and not real walnut. This looks to be just an abused 4001.

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:12 pm

I count only 20 frets.

jaymi · Post by **jaymi** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:42 pm

it is just a bad stain job...

walrus · Post by **walrus** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 5:04 pm

One word comes to mind....YUCK!!
Looks like it was refinished with magic markers and a can of spray varnish.

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 5:14 pm

In every hacked Rick lies opportunity! This one could be cleaned up with some effort. As long as the price is low enough this could be worthy project.

jnbass · Post by **jnbass** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 6:00 pm

a Picasso!

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 6:04 pm

it looks like his dog pooped on it ...

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 7:30 pm

...after eating a bowl of hot peppers and exlax........

motoryeshead · Post by **motoryeshead** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 11:59 pm

Oops, my bad, it is a 20 fret

Still horrid though. Needs a good refinish, there is hope for it as a restoration.

adam_swapp · Post by **adam_swapp** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 12:53 am

To my untrained eye, this one looks like a reasonable candidate for renovation, as the body appears to be solid (if ugly), and it looks like it may have the original tuners, TRC, and bridge. Any alterations to accommodate the neck pickup would probably be covered by the new pickguard, so that's not a great cosmetic concern. Whether it's worth it (and how much you'll pay in parts) is something I couldn't begin to answer.

I don't know a lot about the minutiae of RIC basses, but what kind of pickups would this have had originally? What's the going rate for them?

henny · Post by **henny** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 2:02 am

It's a 1976 4001

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 5:33 am

This one would have had the standard button top 70's high gains. They come up on Ebay often enough. If it were my project, I would probably just get a set of modern high gains. They are a lot hotter.

jps · Post by **jps** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 1:23 pm

I have some hi gains available.