Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Body shape looks good to me on the faker. Others can spot that the contours are not right- the wings and the cresting waves. Comments? Again, notice the fretboard color between the two.

1970s Matsumoku copy - Aria, Aria Pro II, Univox, some Grecos, some Electras & many others - all the same bass.

These were absolutely as accurate as Japanese copies got - but there are still plenty of differences to tell them from the real thing - hex truss adjusters, wrong-shaped trussrod route, dark rosewood fingerboard, pearloid plastic position markers, smooth wiring route. Look really closely and you'll find a tiny .5mm strip of wood sandwiched between the body wings & the centre section, take a tape measure to it and you'll find it's a full 34" scale rather than 33 1/4. Compared to a real Rick the body is slightly elongated and the horns quite thin. These basses are very consistently made - Matsumoku was the first guitar manufacturer to use CNC routers, from about 1973 on.

There are plenty of hardware differences - the wavy G copies have no brand and are screwed together rather than riveted (they can't "explode"!), the scratchplate has black inlaid position dots for the controls, the tailpiece has round holes at the rear, strap buttons are conventional screwed on types, jack plate reads "Stereo Sound"...

Doesn't stop plenty of these being passed off as genuine, unfortunately - I have one of these which I think had spent about 25 years living as a 1974 Rickenbacker. Fortunately it's thoroughly rehabilitated now and completely comfortable with its true identity. And it ain't going anywhere.

Jon.

Jon comes through, yet again!

jingle_jangle wrote:Jon comes through, yet again!

Cheers Paul - but I really need to learn some new tricks!

J.

bassassin wrote: ...These were absolutely as accurate as Japanese copies got - but there are still plenty of differences to tell them from the real thing - hex truss adjusters, wrong-shaped trussrod route, dark rosewood fingerboard, pearloid plastic position markers, smooth wiring route. Look really closely and you'll find a tiny .5mm strip of wood sandwiched between the body wings & the centre section, take a tape measure to it and you'll find it's a full 34" scale rather than 33 1/4. Compared to a real Rick the body is slightly elongated and the horns quite thin. These basses are very consistently made - Matsumoku was the first guitar manufacturer to use CNC routers, from about 1973 on.

There are plenty of hardware differences - the wavy G copies have no brand and are screwed together rather than riveted (they can't "explode"!), the scratchplate has black inlaid position dots for the controls, the tailpiece has round holes at the rear, strap buttons are conventional screwed on types, jack plate reads "Stereo Sound"...

You forgot one key difference, Jon: The fakers never had the secret hole/storage tank to infuse/contain the mojo like real Ricks have.

The listing has been removed.

Surprises me it took this long.

johnallg wrote:Surprises me it took this long.

I don't think the RIC legal guys work their magic over the weekend, so BIN listings from Fri night to Sun night sometimes have a chance.

But there are others who send notification to ebay - I'm not sure ebay has as fast a response time on the weekends either...

cjj wrote:But there are others who send notification to ebay

Yep - RIC don't have to do it themselves.

J.

http://jbrlsr.com/?aid=5336121837&bid=3 ... 286.c0.m14

Yet another.

HEY Jon, long time no see...how goes it man?