Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Good point Gary.

"There are clear shots of it with the stripped front"

Could it be that only the front or just the body was stripped first? Maybe it was stripped in increments? Maybe this really isn't all that important!

is it in the formal version of "two of us"'? i looked but couldn't find the "fast" version with Paul and John on one microphone... that, if i remember correctly had the Rick in the background.

Lennon's Casino looks very white to me.

The story I heard about the stripping is that it was done in one afternoon by some guy in the Soho district in London. Saville Row, from what I remember, is not far from Soho. He could have had the work done anytime during the sessions.

The only time you see the Rickenbacker in this video, George is seen in the background wearing a white shirt with the collar open and a bowtie around his neck. At the beginning you see George wearing the same clothes, and Paul is seen wearing a yellow shirt with a tan sweater vest. This is tantalizing because throughout the second half of the video, Paul is shown singing in that outfit, but only from shoulders up. His bass is almost never shown.

There is one short segment near the end where you see Billy Preston, Paul and Ringo (L to R) playing, and Paul is wearing the yellow shirt and tan vest, but you can't clearly make out the bass. Looks more like the Hofner than a stripped Rickenbacker though.

Incidentally, Ringo was wearing the open necked black shirt that day, and John is wearing all white. Much of the footage shown is them working on Get Back (Ringo is clearly playing Get Back most of the time) although filmed on different days and in different locations.

Since the Beatles seem to have never worn the exact same clothes twice, I wonder if you could tie the photograph to a certain day (I know I've seen pics of Paul in those clothes before) which would in turn could some yield session information about what they were working on.

...anyone?

Yeah, I don't know how anyone could mistake a Hofner for a Ricenbacker Bass.

True, true, they are about as different as basses can be! In the segment I'm speaking of, Paul occupies a very small portion of the screen, and a mic boom near the camera obscures the instrument in his lap which makes identifiying the bass difficult. If it is a Rickenbacker, which it probably isn't, it must still have its MMT paintjob which would be consistent with the back of the neck still being fireglo. It's definitely *not* stripped, whatever it is.

And anyway it's probably the Hofner...

And upon further examination, the instrument obscured by the boom is the Hofner. And in the earlier clips, you can see the little leather Hofner strap on his shoulder, so... sorry for wasting space on this! Still, in theory one might be able to pinpoint the day...

Okay, I played the clip again, and you're probably looking at the wrong one. George is sitting and wearing a red shirt with a vest. The Ric is to his right arm, under Paul.

A good look at some Silver-faced Fenders in the studio.

Pick your guitars up from the floor this instant, young man!

Mom always said don't leave your guitars laying around the house.

That's the scene I meant. Thanks Peter!

You can see the Fender Bass VI in the far right of that photo... just to the side of McC's Martin. Fender has just reissued those guitars!

Douglas, have you priced the Fender Bass VI out?