Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

More observations on this:

I suspected that the seller may have been related to the "Rocky Ryan" that John Hall refers to, but the seller's first name is Ryan. No go.

I've hunted high and low for a "Rocky Ryan" at RCA and got nothing. Certainly not there now, but could find nothing (on Google, anyway) with that name connected to RCA Nashville. Tried calling RCA and got SONY in NYC who were no help. Asked for a "historian" there and they said "a what?"

The seller is a first-timer, and he's done just enough research on the RCA instruments (probably lurking here) to know they are extremely rare (I figure ten or less made), and he has confused rarity with value. He's asking $3 large to start bidding, and $4 large BIN. The RCA bass is basically a Cheyenne with chrome hardware and the back-painted pickguard (and TRC). The lead photo in the listing shows it to be a leftie, but it is not, so he has posted a few closeups to show that it is a righty. It's missing the E string and there's enough dirt and corrosion to suggest it was not well kept. It was, apparently, taken from an abandoned(?) storage unit and given to the seller. To ask $3Gs to start, I feel, is not going to get the bass sold. I'm interested in having it, but for something a bit more realistic like $1800 or $2Gs. And then there's the possibility it might be "hot."

The original opening bid was listed as $2000. Within a few hours it was changed to $3000.

Probably minutes after talking to Paul...

Yeah, but I didn't advise him to raise the price. He'll learn. If he's gonna want to move it, he'll have to lower it . . . substantially.

jps wrote:Interesting! While I was in my first top 40/disco band in the mid '70s we "stole" a female singer/keyboardist from a band called Shenandoah, who were playing in a club across the street from the club we were playing in Marietta, Ohio; her last name was Thorn, same as the keyboardist in the Shenandoah out of Muscle Shoals. She was from Parkersburg, W. Va. Hmm................

Sounds like you could have had an rca bass if you just had made some differenent choices earlier in your life.

berth wrote:

jps wrote:Interesting! While I was in my first top 40/disco band in the mid '70s we "stole" a female singer/keyboardist from a band called Shenandoah, who were playing in a club across the street from the club we were playing in Marietta, Ohio; her last name was Thorn, same as the keyboardist in the Shenandoah out of Muscle Shoals. She was from Parkersburg, W. Va. Hmm................

Sounds like you could have had an rca bass if you just had made some differenent choices earlier in your life.

Where is that time machine?

I emailed the guy since I am right here and he said that I could come and look at the bass if it does not go on the bay (which I suspect it will not)

Jaymi, do me a favor and bring an E string, put it on, and take good pictures of it for me, eh? It would be nice to add it to the 4004 Cheyenne chapter in the book.

bassduke49 wrote:Jaymi, do me a favor and bring an E string, put it on, and take good pictures of it for me, eh? It would be nice to add it to the 4004 Cheyenne chapter in the book.

I will try. He is telling me that the price is $4000 no matter what...he is dreaming.

The bass isn't "hot." I actually had it checked out with the Metro Police Dept.

I think the bass is definitely worth $4k. It is a 1 of 10 (give or take a little) product, which
implies value. If I don't get the $ now, I figure that I will when the economy turns around.
Currently there are over 50 people watching the bass and I expect to sell it during this auction.

Welcome Ryan! While your bass is very cool and almost certainly unique, "1 of 1" does not always translate into $$$.

Welcome Ryan! Glad you were able to get here. I think some of the things working against a high collector value on this bass is that it is not terribly dissimilar from the 4004 Cheyenne. The RCA bass has chrome hardware as opposed the Cheyenne's gold, and the RCA has the special back-painted pickguard and a stock back-painted truss-rod cover found on several RIC "vintage" guitars. I could take a stock Cheyenne and make it look like an RCA bass for a couple of hundred dollars. But it wouldn't have any provenance. Then again, it would be difficult for any collector to determine the authenticity since so little is known about their heritage. If there was a clear trail of ownership history with your instrument, that would add value. Are you sure your friend can't help trace the bass back to anyone?

I've asked him and he has no idea.

I do have the original Warranty Registration Card that was in the bass' case. The Model is listed as RCA SPC: BASS. The SKU # is 99200 and the serial # is L53731.

I looked up how to determine when the bass was made online. It can be determined by the first letter (L) and # (5) of the serial number. The L (12th letter of the alphabet) stands for December (12th month of the year) and the 5 is the 5th year of this "era" of Ric basses. This particular "era" was between '88 and '92. So that puts this bass being made in Dec. of '92.

After researching the RCA models, I only found one source and I'm talking to you on it right now. RickResource provided that these RCA models were given as Christmas presents to RCA recording artists during 1991 and 1992, which would aligns with the L5 of the serial code.

The model number has "SPC" rather than 4001, which seems like an abbreviation of "Special." I may just be reaching on this, but I figure that is probably accurate considering that it is a unique model.

sloop_john_b wrote:Welcome Ryan! While your bass is very cool and almost certainly unique, "1 of 1" does not always translate into $$$.

+1000

jaymi wrote:

sloop_john_b wrote:Welcome Ryan! While your bass is very cool and almost certainly unique, "1 of 1" does not always translate into $$$.

+1000

-$2000