Faker alert

[ilan]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1978-Rickenback ... 2a2d326469

I reported it to eBay.

[wilmingtonian]

Not doubting you at all, just curious: what indicates fake? I don't know enough to say myself, especially about older, more faithful fakes.

Things that I would guess: fretboard too dark? binding excessively yellowed? inlays wrong? TRC and tuners?

I guess this is one big giveaway: "Jack has been wired together to 1 input"

We don't see the jackplate or the binding at the bottom. The pics aren't too numerous or very good, maybe on purpose.

Auction is live and peeps are bidding real $. Hope it gets some attention, quick.

[bassduke49]

The biggest clues for me are the rather pearly inlays (more obvious compared with the swirly poured pearlescent resin used by RIC), the dark fingerboard, and the indicator dots on the pick guard next to the control knobs. Definitely a faker.

[aceonbass]

Look at the holes the strings pass through behind the bridge. The shape of those holes is the same too-round shape that all the copies are, as well as the AllParts replacement tailpiece. The tuners and truss rod cover are correct on this one, and probably came from a real RIC bass. I've emailed the seller for more pics, but he's not talkin', so I believe he knows he's trying to pull a fast one. Let's all bid this up into the stratosphere and see what he does

[Ashgray]

Looks like the seller's been rumbled - it's been taken down.

[bassduke49]

Look at the holes the strings pass through behind the bridge. The shape of those holes is the same too-round shape that all the copies are, as well as the AllParts replacement tailpiece. The tuners and truss rod cover are correct on this one, and probably came from a real RIC bass. I've emailed the seller for more pics, but he's not talkin', so I believe he knows he's trying to pull a fast one. Let's all bid this up into the stratosphere and see what he does

That's exactly the problem with trying to determine an instrument's authenticity by looking at the attached hardware. A genuine Rick with an Allparts bridge/tailpiece, or Seymour Duncan pickups, or somebody's tuners, is really still a Rick at the chassis level. That's why the best clues are in the core materials (wood) and construction methods -- not easily masked or changed.

[aceonbass]

True enough, but the fingerboard was the real giveaway on this one. All of the other details were just icing on the cake. That this guy was selling a fake is not what bothered me so much since it happens all the time. He was trying to pass off a fake as the real deal and defraud someone out of their money. I knew that was the case when he wouldn't answer my questions about the bass.

[bassduke49]

True enough, but the fingerboard was the real giveaway on this one. All of the other details were just icing on the cake. That this guy was selling a fake is not what bothered me so much since it happens all the time. He was trying to pass off a fake as the real deal and defraud someone out of their money. I knew that was the case when he wouldn't answer my questions about the bass.

Yep, either that or he's never realized he's had a fake all these years and is now hesitating as he questions his misfortune.