Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Okay, we have a winner: STEVE!

Hold on, I'll be right here.

Now, just for the fun of it, what exactly gives those parts away as being non-Rick parts?

Steve didn't even mention the tailpiece in addition to the bridge, switch knob, pickguard and pickup surround. That's the most obvious part due to the holes where the strings go through.

The pickguard should not have holes for the finger rest. The bridge was mentioned above. I guess the switch tip should be black? Not certain how you can tell about the rear pickup surround.

Not only on the Rick, but the grill cloth is not original to the amp!

Steve referred to the bridge/tailpiece assembly simply as "bridge".

"The pickguard should not have holes for a finger rest". That and both the wrong shape of its "left" shoulder and the incorrectly-sized neck pickup opening give it away as fake.
The oval-shaped tailpiece string holes are a dead giveaway, yes.
Right, the plastic switch cap should be black.
As for the treble pu surround, take a good look at it: on a legit Rick surround, the holding screws on the front (narrow) flange are not as spaced apart as those on the rear (wide) flange. Right, RIC?

Steve, I'll ship the pickup in a few days' time.

P.S. Jeffrey, sorry, but said amp & grill cloth do not qualify as Rickenbacker products...

Jim Glen pointed out the black nut. I think he's right because the '72's and early '73's that I have seen had a white nut. No?

I got 3 out of 4, so I'm happy !!!

The tailpiece should have still been split and it's not !

Thank you Sergio, your posts and faker-spotting wisdom have taught me well

You're welcome, Steve.

Dave, you may be right about the white nut.

Jim, I thought the split tailpiece went out in late '72 ?

Even with all these repro parts it's still a very nice bass IMHO.

Most small inlay 73's, checkered or not, had the non-split tailpiece. And for what it's worth, my May 73 with small inlays has a black nut and it appears to be original. My other two earlier 73's have white nuts... .

Obviously, the first 4001 appointments to go out - in April/May 1973 - were the split tailpiece and the full-width fretboard inlays. Later that year, the block binding was discontinued together with the toaster pickup. One thing I'm not sure though is whether the "2nd version" (= "button top") treble high-gain pickup replaced the "1st version" (= "screw top") on the 4001 model prior to the toaster being replaced by a high-gain as well.