Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

If the photo is from the '90's, then that guy is making an awful lot of custom instruments for himself - look at all the walnut wings!

I'm puzzled.

I wouldn't be. There's nothing except your assumptions at work here. There's always stuff being tried out, rejected and half-finished parts to be found in a shop situation. Oftentimes, there will be sample parts or pattern parts present, too.

Were you to see the section in question in the Rittor "mook", it would be obvious that, right from the beginning shot of the exterior of the Rick factory (with the cars parked out front being from the mid-'90s), through the tour, that the photos were taken with one (or at most, two) cameras, with focus, color saturation, and color balance indicating they were all shot at the same time.

My '93 Cheyenne has a maple fretboard with walnut headstock wings.

It looks like the neck being worked on has full-width inlays though. Unless that's what the poured inlays look like before they're finished.

Good eye on the tilt-back headstock Jeff R, I also noticed that.

Did anybody at the 75th Anniversary take photos at the Museum of Making Music? Wasn't there an 8-string 4005 on display that had been made in the 90's and had a mix of modern and vintage features? Did it have a regular headstock or the potatohead?

It does apear that the majority of those necks are for Cheyennes (ci's). Good eye, Jeff T.!

OK, pure speculation, but have to date photos often at work. If someone gave me this photo and said to date it here is what I'd say.
1. His shirt looks about a size or so too big. That style started in the early 90's. Note how long the sleeves go.
2.He looks to be in his 40's or 50's with a pony tail. There were not a lot of people that age with pony tails in 1973? Again his age and hair style would put it in the 90's or 00's.
3. Photo quality is hard to date. It does not have a 70's look. Could be 80's-00's.
4. Evidence in photos. The only item in the photo that looks mass-produced is the swinging light. I'm not an expert on swinging lights but by the way it looks I'd say 80's-00s.

And yes, I have too much time on my hands;-)

Jeff T. - I already looked at my picture of that 4005 8-string at the MOMI and it is a potatohead bass.

What ever year this may be, we did have 3 guys in the wood shop in the early 70's that had pony tails just like this happy fellow.

Gentlemen - about the issue of the date of the Rittor book picture - through digital photo manipulation, I have managed to confirm the approximate age of this photo. First, I noticed a possible point of detail in the upper right hand corner, specifically on the black looking piece of equipment, so I enlarged that area and sharpened it slightly:



and again; notice detail starting to take shape on the lower white-hued area:



more sharpening and further enlarging is bringing out more detail:



repeat the process one more time, and...



ba-BAMM!!! A sticker for Pearl Jam's 2nd album 'vs' which wasn't released until 1993!

So those who guessed '90's are correct. Congratulations, Junior Sleuths!

The neck in the Rittor '(b)mook' has full width inlays for sure.



I think this may be a '90s photo due to the number of maple fingerboard necks in the background, most likely for 4004 Cheyennes. If not for those I would say '70s as the rest of the image has a vintage look to it.

So back to the original question, has anyone seen an 8 string bass with a standard 4000 series headstock with large walnut wings that sports FW inlays?

Yeah, Right on Mark!

You are good Mark

...and I thought it was a dataplate label!

But...were we guessing? I do have the book right in front of me...

"Wasn't there an 8-string 4005 on display that had been made in the 90's and had a mix of modern and vintage features? Did it have a regular headstock or the potatohead?"

That's a reverse potato head. The octave strings are on top. (Either direction looks a bit ridiculous to me but that's just my humble opinion, I'm sure some consider them a work of art).

BTW, the maple-board necks in the background in the Rittor book photo have baby headstocks.

Not all of them.

Maybe this is the rare, "secret" room at Rickenbacker where employees can build whatever they want too for free?