Your first Rick tales

[BigJohnAZ]

It was spring of 1981, I was playing a Fender Jaguar copy bass in our garage band. Wanted a 4001 really bad. Our band was learning Rush tunes and I loved that tone. The guitarist in our band, who was still in high school, said he saw a community post at his school that someone was selling a 4001. I went over to the guy's house, it was a 1977 AutumnGlo with Rotos and Rick case. I picked it up, played some Rush "Camera Eye" and asked him how much. He said $325 for everything, I said I will be back tomorrow with the cash. I paid for and picked up the guitar the next day, I didn't tell my band mates I was getting it. We had rehearsal that night, and when we were plugging in and tuning up, they heard it and blew them away! It was awesome to surprise them like that. I still have it and play it, its a great bass. I have one little nick on the top of the headstock and that's about it. With the help of Joey's Bass Notes I have it set up nicely and it still sounds great.

[AndyM]

told the story hear a few years back. short version...in 1967 I had left my band to go to college. The replacement guy wasn't available for an out of town gig. I filled in using his 4001 and Vox Beatle amp..it even had the chrome frame. Didn't like the looks, feel or sound of it all because I played a Fender P. Fast forward to this decade. Saw a movie poster for that Pilgrim movie where the kid plays a Ric bass. Couldn't take my eyes off the bass. Within a month I bought a barely used 4003 in Montezuma brown. It's not my #1 but it's a beautiful instrument, well ugly duckling to me but I still love its looks and feel. My sound is not that of Squire and others; still an R&B Motown/Stax sound and the 4003 comes pretty close to it.
Still glad to own it and I won't be selling it, ever. Not likely I'll buy any more Ric basses. That doesn't make me a bad person on the forum

[woodyng]

.
Here's a clue. I lived in Memphis,which was smack dab on the state lines of ARKANSAS and Mrs. Sippi.

Oh, you must mean that Southern rock hillbilly psycho boogie band...

Yep,that's it,the one that also featured washboard in the instrument lineup....

[cjj]

.
Here's a clue. I lived in Memphis,which was smack dab on the state lines of ARKANSAS and Mrs. Sippi.

Oh, you must mean that Southern rock hillbilly psycho boogie band...

Yep,that's it,the one that also featured washboard in the instrument lineup....

You can't see it too well in this vid, but that must be your first Rick...

[glking14]

In 1975 - 76 I bought a used 1971 MG , in the early eighties it got stolen. It took me years to find another one, I finally found one on Ebay a few years ago and we lived happily ever after.

[woodyng]

CJ,Yep,that would be it! Jetglo,black pickguard,and white plexi TRC. One vol,one tone,pickup selector. I guess given that it was a neck through 4000,it would have been a '72 or earlier vintage.
Thanks for sharing that,i have one picture of me and that bass,and have never really searched for any video,etc,of it. (I was about as fond of BOA as i was of Kiss in those days,which is to say,not at all. And that never changed...)

[Benjamin]

My first bass was nearly a Ric copy. Being young, I didn't want a bass with only three strings and I didn't know what to do about getting another. Young and foolish... or was I?

For years I lusted after various (... ANY!!) Rics, just knew that one day I had to have one. For years all I really wanted was a 4001BG because that's what Cliff Burton played. At one point five years ago I thought I had an opportunity to buy a 4001/v63/c64 and that's what I wanted because it would be closest to a CS. Alas, the money never came. After that, for some reason a 4003MID was what I felt I needed.

Last year a 4003JG appeared at The Bass Centre in Melbourne. Just so happened that I was to get a good tax return. Also happened that my wife said yes, without any coercement on my behalf. So I made a verbal commitment to the shop and promised to be down there in the next couple of days while I waited for money to arrive in my bank account. Those few days were horrible. Then finally she was in my hands. I had to drive 2 hours home, running late for rehearsal to that night's 80s tribute gig. I ended up 15 minutes late to rehearsal, after quickly getting into the worst 70s washup/80s rocker clothes I could find. The Ric was perfect!

Then a week later a 2010ish 4003MID arrives at the shop for about the same money. Full-width inlays, vintage tone push-pull from factory. Never mind, my previous black bass had been retired, I needed a black bass, as everyone should have at least one in their arsenal. I retrofited the vintage cap mod with push-pull knob. I have MY Ric

[iamthebassman]

Had to be 1978, I was 20, been playing for 2 years, and had just started my Punk band. I was playing a sunburst '72 P-Bass with tort guard and rosewood 'board but, as a foreshadowing of my future, I grew bored with it. I went down to the local music store; The Horn Shop in Corpus Christi, Texas. Being young and impressionable I bought the latest next big thing; a Musicman Stingray, in sunburst. I remember the bridge said Patent Pending. Well, I couldn't get a sound I liked outta the damn thing. One week later I was back at The Horn Shop, there I saw the first Rickenbacker bass I'd ever seen in person, it was white with black trim. Being a Squire/McCartney fan, I loved them, also my new fave Bruce Foxton from The Jam played them so they were FAR more hip than the horrid Musicman I'd just bought. I worked a deal for an even swap for my Musicman. I hauled *** home, grabbed the MM, brought it in, and walked out with my Ric. At rehearsal that night I remember walking in, putting the case on a table, and having the guys gather round as I opened it. It was a hit. We played a gig soon after and the paper had a write-up of the gig with a pic of me with my new Ric bass.

[edski]

I was wanting to learn bass, and helping with summer school band registration. A guy came in transferring into our school for his senior year and wanting learn the bari sax. He had a bass guitar belt buckle (early 1980's)...I struck a conversation, we became friends.

My bud had an extra bass to lend me while he gave me a few lessons, a Ventura short scale. He had a Rick My favorite bass players (Sqire, Lee, McCartney) played Ricks. It was an infatuation. I got my mom to agree to help me get one, and soon a local store had an overstock of used 4001's and had a blowout. I got to the store and they had 2 left. I got my 75 Burgundy 4001 (it was 1981). I think it had the factory flats still on it.

The bass player in the HS jazz band got to the store about 10 minutes after I left and got the last of the blow outs (a FG if I recall), and had rotosounds on it for the first rehearsal he showed up with it. I asked my bari sax bud "why doesn't my bass sound like that?"...

Funny, I knew that the bass was more than I should have had given my skill at the time. I figured I grow into it, and I feel like I did. And though I've almost parted with it several times, I think I've been dissuaded of that tendency now (I almost traded it in in for a Gibson Victory Bass a year after I got it...yukkk!). And it's not #1 now, but I can recognize that it's a musical instrument that has "it".

So maybe I like my Laredo better now. But OB1087 will always have my heart.

[cestlamort]

Early-mid 90s in Santa Cruz CA (at college) I desperately wanted a Ric guitar (preferably 330) as I was just starting out playing in (punk) bands. I was the designated bass player at the time (we drew lots for guitar v. bass) and I was playing a beat up Peavey something (hideous and horrible). I saw a classified ad for a 4001 and went with a roommate to check it out. $400 later I had a 78 7001 MG and proudly took it into a local shop to get set up (the tech used to be in The Avengers, an amazing SF punk band). Played it in the band I was in, moved back to Seattle after graduation and played it sporadically (eventually switching to guitar at some point).

I loaned it to my girlfriend who had started a band with some friends (after she got bored with her 70s Fender music master and was, even then, an order of magnitude better than me on bass). She's played it for probably 15 years or more now, a few years longer than we've been married. Most of that time spent collaborating on various projects. I think it became "her bass" a good while ago.

[henry5]

My first Ric was actually my first bass, bought in approx Sept 1980; a new Jetglo 4001, serial no TC915 ( I list it because it was stolen from the band's van in Hendon, London in approx 1986).

I was a big Lemmy, Deep Purple and Rush fan at the time, and the first basses I ever remember seeing in real life were Rics (one in my dad's Jazz orchestra, early '70s Fireglo with crushed pearl, the other on the wall of a local guitar shop). I really wanted a blue one, having seen some pics of Gaye Advert's, but Azure was the one colour I couldn't get new from the supplier (another local shop). I picked Jetglo as Geddy's was Jetglo. I'll never forget opening the box in the (tiny) shop and all the packing falling out everywhere. I was so proud of it.

To be honest though, as much as I loved it in some ways, I could never get the sound I wanted out of it. The '76 Azure I eventually got to replace it was better, but it wasn't until my third Ric (my Fireglo '72) that I really got what I wanted. That story is actually more interesting; in 1993 I went into a guitar shop in Manchester with my girfriend at the time, just browsing, and it was sitting on a stand. I thought "wow, an old Ric". I picked it up and fell in love. It was perfect, easily my favourite bass that I'd ever played (and I play everything, even now). Sadly I didn't have any money; I remember going away thinking "well that was the best bass I'ever played and probably ever will play".

A year later and I went back to the same shop having saved up to buy a new amp head; I took my '76 with me. I walked in and there it was on the wall, and on sale, reduced by £190. I tried it against the '76 and it blew it into the dust in every way. Needless to say I bought it and I've never looked back. The way I see it, it waited for me."The wand chooses the wizard", in a sense. (BTW, that's a Harry Potter reference, just in case anyone missed it.... )

[rictified]

In 1977 I bought a brand new mapleglo 4001 at E. U. Wurlitzer's in Boston for 450.00, I was used to Fenders with all kinds of bottom and didn't really like the sound. I didn't realize until years later that the problem was THE CAP. I can remember raising the bridge pickup way high to try to compensate for it's lack of fullness. I kept it for a few years and eventually gave it to a guy whom I owed money for a car. I bought my next one (an early 80's 4001FL) in around 1990 and have been using them for the most part since then.

[MikeZito]

I'll try to keep it short:

For a few years I kept complaining that my Strat was not cutting it as a rhythm guitar, and some friends keep telling me to get a Ric - but there were none to been seen in this area . . . besides, I unknowingly thought of them as strictly a "60's guitar", and I wasn't interested in being a oldies act. When I finally saw one (mid-1995) it was almost $800, and I had never spent more than $150 on a guitar, in my life. When I finally broke down and tried my first Ric, (an incredibly GORGEOUS FG 330), I literally started to sweat . . . it was the single most perfect guitar I had ever played in my life - I couldn't have custom built a better guitar. Unfortunately, the guitar was ruined, by my own stupidity, a few years later. I have owned about 20 Ric's since then.

. . .and did I forget to mention that hanging right next to that gorgeous 330, was an equally gorgeous 4003-FG. I bought it just a couple of months later . . . and it too was ruined in the unfortunate incident that took the life of my above-mentioned 330, and several other Ric's.

[deaconblues]

Had a Squier Strat that wasn't cutting it. Saved my pennies for a Epi Dot and drove to a store a few miles from my hometown with my father.

On the wall at the shop is a gorgeous 330. I'd never played a Rickenbacker before; It was so different from anything I was used to. My father told me that he would match the money I'd saved for the Dot. The rest is history. I still own the 330 -- through many years of jams, gigs, and good times.

[necrobacker]

My first Ric, ive barely had it a month now but i remember the build up to getting it like it was yesterday.........
For 3 years i had been playing a 5 string BC Rich (vortex signature) in a death metal and a groove metal band.
However i left those bands last year after my taste in music had drasticly changed ( i discovered Hawkwind ), and i stopped listening to "extreme" metal.
I wanted something new and...well lets face it good. So, i bought a MIM Fender Jazz Bass. The change was amazing and the tone, supberb.(saying that though, a used toilet seat with a elastic band going down the middle, would have sounded better than that BC rich).

The idea of buying a Rick at the time, was out the question, due to the fact id tried one in Liverpool and didnt like the thickness of the neck, and of course, the price.

However, despite the enlightment of the Fender Jazz revolution, the Ric tone was always something i sort after. And the fact my idols (The Holy Trinity: Geddy Lee, Lemmy and Cliff Burton) had or still use them was a major pull factor. (plus they look awesome!)
Last Autumn one appeared in a store in Cardiff (the first id seen in Wales). Out of curiosity I asked if i could try it. It was perfect, and my fears about the neck thickness were no longer an issue (i dont know why it ever was).
I didn't buy it then due to the price: £2200-$3553. I was dreaming about having one for months. Untill.... I got offered a well payed job in High wycombe for 6+months in April. I promised
myself if i got the job i would buy a Ric. I began saving and mercilessly selling things i no longer needed on ebay: good bye Xbox, good bye Warhammer..........good bye BC Rich.

After 4months of saving and selling i had the money.
I bought a Fireglow 4003 i had wanted on ebay for £1300-$2000 (always a bit of a leap of faith buying on ebay, but hey...im a beleiver ). It arrived 3 weeks ago, and i havnt put it down since