Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Who is this Mike Parks?

John - I had contacted him about it previously (He wanted a bit much IMO), but I ended up getting a killer deal on a 4004L in Blue Boy from a forumite.

Charly - Mike Parks is a renowned Rick dealer around these parts. His site: http://homer.netmar.com/~muscon2/ric.htm

Ah-HA! I was just there. The used 4004 MG is sold.

Charly, I say go for the 4004, they are awesome basses, then have Jeff Rath 4-2-5 it for you, if you'd like.
I like dealing with Mike Parks about the same as Chris from POTR. Both of those dealers get two thumbs up from me.

I sent Chris an email, after he sent the price today, and let him know I am interested. He helped me come up with a "creative" (no nothing sinister, or illegal) way for me to purchase it through my PayPal acct. All I have to do when I get to work at 7AM is start the ball rolling.

Chris is great. The only other Conrad bass owner I've ever met!

Ok, now what the heck is a Conrad bass?

Conrad was a hollowbody made in the Aria factories in Japan. My 1968 cost all of $49. Action way up in the air.




Shaped like that but in burgandy. Headstock was a bit different too.

That's a cool looking bass, John! I had a 72 Aria Les Paul guitar, Cherry red! We put DiMarzio's in and ROCKED! I had a Fender P copy from The PI. It said Fender Precision, just like here! And that was the only connection to Fender! We bough Fender amps there too, and the PA. Heck, everything said Fender! I think our ship was a Fender! I need to scan a pix of us playing. back in the day.

We played Coming into Los Angeles, as our ship celebrated its 100th safe helo landing. I will not divulge what was in our cigarettes at the time. They baked a cake, hauled the pilot out of the helo, made a big deal out of nothing, and we played rock during the whole thing!

Our signature tunes were Feelin Alright (the Grand Funk cover) and Rock N Roll Stew! Great bass lines!

I converted my 4004's to five stringers and I do mine a little different than Jeff, he's right in that there are no structural issues with the tuner placement, it's a visual thing. I've had my Cii as a fiver for over a year now with no issues except an unrelated trussrod problem which has been resolved. I put my A string tuner on the top in the wave because I prefer to see 3+2 vs. 2+3 tuners, it's just a personal preference. If you were going to refinish in a solid color it would probably be better to fill and redrill the headstock. We also differ on bridge preferences, but Jeff does good work on other peoples basses where I restrict myself to my own projects, aint no way I'm going to mess somebody elses bass up. The 4004 does make a good five string for somebody with medium sized hands, I always felt like a full sized factory fiver(any brand) was too spread out for my tastes.

Well. I put a deposit on it! I'm waiting for the final total, and it will be on its way!

All money sent! New question. I want to try the BEAD tuning just to see. The set I have is a 132 B. Isn't that too thick to just put on without some adjustment to the nut and bridge? I am wondering if I should get Jeffrey's 4 string set and just add a smaller B.

So now that I plopped down all my money, no one wants to talk anymore? ;^)

It's all very exciting, Charly! I remember my first 4004. ::sniff::

The nut will indeed need to be widened to facilitate that low B. Brian will know better what to do here, as he had his Cheyenne I strung that way.