Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Beautiful old girl in really nice shape. If it goes for that price it bodes well for all other mid-70s 4001 basses. Not to that degree, but a bump in value, I would think.

I though we weren't supposed to pass judgment and criticize people?

johnallg wrote:I though we weren't supposed to pass judgment and criticize people?

After a very quick glance at the thread again I don't see any of that here John............did I miss something?

Mea Culpa. That would be me chastising the eBayer for abuse of the English language.

One nifty extra on this bass is the rare plexi "reverse" TRC:

bassduke49 wrote:Mea Culpa. That would be me chastising the eBayer for abuse of the English language.

I would have to read it again but I seemed to me that you just asked a few tough questions Paul.

bassduke49 wrote:One nifty extra on this bass is the rare plexi "reverse" TRC:

i just noticed that as i had never seen one before i bought one off the bay last month. very cool to see one attached to the instrument.

bassduke49 wrote:One nifty extra on this bass is the rare plexi "reverse" TRC:

My '75 430 came with one of those.

FretlessOnly wrote:The Fender color being discussed is actually two colors that are often confused:
1. Walnut , which shows wood grain (I have a '76 Precision fretless w/ maple board in this finish that looks and sounds great); and
2. Mocha brown, which shows a bit less wood grain and has a somewhat metallic tinge to it. These came with black pickguards starting in about '74.

They are one and the same. Fender never had a color called Mocha Brown. They had "Walnut" which was stained ash, and showed some woodgrain. Collectors who didn't like calling ash by a wrong name have given it many names, like mocha brown, doo doo brown, baby **** brown, root beer, I'm sure there were more. But the Fender designation was 'Walnut' and it started in '74. BTW it looked nothing like real walnut.

Later they had actual walnut bodied basses, like the P Special Walnut. Which adds to the confusion.

kiramdear wrote:My '75 430 came with one of those.

My '73 White 4001 also has a black Plexi TRC. Anyone has the start date for raised letter black TRC's? It was years after the white raised letter TRC's.

Sold for $2250. Anyone here?

kiramdear wrote:

bassduke49 wrote:One nifty extra on this bass is the rare plexi "reverse" TRC:

My '75 430 came with one of those.

Mine, too...

Wow! Check out the nut slots in the above photo on the E and A strings. Looks like they were widened with the mini drum sander attachment of a Dremmel tool or somethin'!

rickaddict wrote:Wow! Check out the nut slots in the above photo on the E and A strings. Looks like they were widened with the mini drum sander attachment of a Dremmel tool or somethin'!

That could just be due to the way the nut was made, some nuts in the 1970s (from RIC and other companies) were made with those staggered slots that kind of end up looking like reverse pyramids. I know my 1976 4001FL came with one, and I've seen many MusicMan basses from the 1970s that also have these sort of nuts. They are definitely wider--my '76 had no trouble accommodating strings gauged 65-75-100-115.

Beautiful bass! I always liked that color. The black plastic makes it work. Very '70s, but in a good way. And definitely reminds me of Fender mocha.

cassius987 wrote: That could just be due to the way the nut was made, some nuts in the 1970s (from RIC and other companies) were made with those staggered slots that kind of end up looking like reverse pyramids. I know my 1976 4001FL came with one, and I've seen many MusicMan basses from the 1970s that also have these sort of nuts. They are definitely wider--my '76 had no trouble accommodating strings gauged 65-75-100-115.

I know what you're talking about with RIC's triangular filed nut slots from the late 70's, but I've had eight 70's 4001's, a 4005, and a 4002 and none of them looked like that one...look at that A slot! You could drive a bus through it!

A new nut isn't that expensive or difficult to make though, and it's still a cool bass.