Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Yeah, I had an '88 or so 350 in RUBY.

Wow, thanks everyone! Silver will be OK, Mike - since Fender used gold under red I figured Rick did too. As noted earlier, this will be my first Ruby. I am glad the timeline from the web site http://www.the-music-connection.com/ricinfo.htm is wrong! This timeline says no Ruby after 1984, glad that there was after all

What do YOU guys use as a more-definitive timeline of color web page?

Gee, John, I though I was leaving plenty for everyone else! I only buy one out of every ten I see, if that

The finish time line above is good. It might be off for one or two colors, but I think its generally good. I also can confirm Rubys after 1984. I have a 4003S in Ruby from 1987(played in band practice tonight) and a 4003S/5 in Ruby from 1989.

My S/5 is the only one in Ruby I've seen. My 4003S is one of two that I've seen(but I've heard of an extreme beater in Europe), and your FL is the only one in Ruby I've seen.

Congrats. It's a great find, and it'll be a great bass.

But will you play it, or are you trying to build a Rick-Picket fence(a Ricket Fence?) around your house?!

Beautiful vintage headstock shape on that one too. Enjoy the mwaaaa.

It WILL be played

Thanks, Alan!!!

Paul Boyer had another site, I thought, that he posted recently. Can't seem to find that confounded bridge, er, post, right now.

Congrats Elys!

"... since Fender used gold under red I figured Rick did too"

Fender changed from silver to gold undercoat in 1965. Pre-65 CAR's had silver undercoats.

Um, I don't know of any color timeline, other than the one on Mike Park's site. I think that was taken from a Japanese publication; maybe the Rittor book or a magazine article.

I have built a Rick bass timeline as to when certain models appeared and ended, but I haven't done so with the colors. The colors, as we've seen from the above discussion, will be a much more fluid time line. Back a few years ago when RIC was taking special orders, it is conceivable that they would use a discontinued color to satisfy a customer, thus unofficially extending the color timeline.

As I do the research for the book, I find that the only absolute on Rick bass production is that there are no absolutes. There will have to be a lot of hedging in the book: "Usually," "normally," "in most cases" will be found a lot in the text.

And, yes, Ruby was over silver, not gold. My drummer has a Ruby 4003 with a couple of chips on the finish, and you can see the clear, red, and silver layers to the finish.