Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Well, I took a look at some of the pics in the register there and there does seem a lot of variation in the treble pickup surround; some were much more rounded, some had a really elongated trailing edge which even went to narrower than the bridge!

I think the way it is on mine has a nice flow to it, with the curve along the top of the pickguard blending across the pickup surround and then into the bridge tailpiece.

Looking at CS's, the top edge of the pickguard is slightly lower and perhaps the neck-end of it has been rounded off a bit; they definitely were doing things by hand, weren't they.

And you can't always assume that what you see (or what you have) is the part that was originally fitted to the instrument. With instruments this old, there's always a chance that a part broke or was corroded or damaged and was replaced with a newer (or even older) part. That's the trouble with removable/interchangeable parts; they are not always reliable evidence. Also, the part in question here was probably made in large batches at different times with possibly some changes in the material used, shape, thickness, etc. New and old parts likely merge in a "bin" (or a shelf, or a box, or a . . . ) and what is put on a particular instrument at any particular time is the result of the assembler randomly picking a part out of the bin. New one, old one, doesn't matter, never noticed, and as long as it fits and works, it's good.

bassduke49 wrote:And you can't always assume that what you see (or what you have) is the part that was originally fitted to the instrument. With instruments this old, there's always a chance that a part broke or was corroded or damaged and was replaced with a newer (or even older) part. That's the trouble with removable/interchangeable parts; they are not always reliable evidence. Also, the part in question here was probably made in large batches at different times with possibly some changes in the material used, shape, thickness, etc. New and old parts likely merge in a "bin" (or a shelf, or a box, or a . . . ) and what is put on a particular instrument at any particular time is the result of the assembler randomly picking a part out of the bin. New one, old one, doesn't matter, never noticed, and as long as it fits and works, it's good.

Sure, and to corroborate that, I've been buying up parts from someone's '78 Ric with a view to doing a project at some point, so they may appear on a different one to their original (unless the chap sells me the rest of it too, which he has hinted he might!).

But in the particular instance of my '64, I've owned it since '77, when it wasn't vintage and that's the part which was on it when I bought it; since it looks like it matches Squire's, I'm satisfied it came out of the same parts bin.

prowla wrote:... I've been buying up parts from someone's '78 Ric with a view to doing a project at some point, so they may appear on a different one to their original (unless the chap sells me the rest of it too, which he has hinted he might!)...

Nice, so you are buying a bass in parts and may eventually end up with the whole bass that you paid for piecemeal? Smart seller!

jps wrote:

prowla wrote:... I've been buying up parts from someone's '78 Ric with a view to doing a project at some point, so they may appear on a different one to their original (unless the chap sells me the rest of it too, which he has hinted he might!)...

Nice, so you are buying a bass in parts and may eventually end up with the whole bass that you paid for piecemeal? Smart seller!

Hehe; it's like buying in installments.

prowla wrote:

jps wrote:

prowla wrote:... I've been buying up parts from someone's '78 Ric with a view to doing a project at some point, so they may appear on a different one to their original (unless the chap sells me the rest of it too, which he has hinted he might!)...

Nice, so you are buying a bass in parts and may eventually end up with the whole bass that you paid for piecemeal? Smart seller!

Hehe; it's like buying in installments.

At a higher price in the end vs. buying it as a complete instrument?

That angle looks more like an early surround. I don't have any doubt it's original. You couldn't have found spare parts easily for a RM1999 in the UK in the 70's..or any other time for that matter!

Now, an import instrument, or bought in by someone with HM Customs and Excise licking their lips...

jps wrote: At a higher price in the end vs. buying it as a complete instrument?

Nope.

That's unusual. Buying on the installment plan almost always costs at least as much, and parting out an instrument pretty much always brings in more than selling an instrument in one piece.

Isaac wrote:That's unusual. Buying on the installment plan almost always costs at least as much, and parting out an instrument pretty much always brings in more than selling an instrument in one piece.

Well, I first bought the treble pickup & surround because I thought I'd lost the one from my '72 Ric which I've got a Seymour Duncan on, so I didn't have any plans (and I just took the neck one too for the heck of it). But then I went off into the loft and found my original '72 pickup & surround, which left me with the 2nd one I'd got there, and so I started thinking...

The chap I bought them off wasn't parting his bass for sale, but rather converted it to what he wanted and has been offloading the leftover bits; he bought the Ric 'cos he liked the look, but didn't like the sound(!).

I paid £150 for the two pickups & treble surround, £20 for the knobs, £10 for a couple of the pots (he'd replaced with push-pull ones) and the twin jack sockets (though not the jack plate). I already have a Hipshot bridge (free - it had a blemish so they sent me another but didn't want the original back!), a scratchplate and some Schaller machines (£10).

So, there's just the jack plate, the TRC and the incidental wooden bit to join them all together. The other project bass here at the moment would've been ideal, and would've been the right price if it was local, but unfortunately isn't.

So, all-in-all, I'm in for a smidge over £200 and I would expect a full finished product to be under £1k.

So no, I don't think I'll end up paying more. (And I'm patient about it; I'll wait for the right one to come up.)

Alternatively, I may get a custom body made of my own design (not a Ric copy), in which case I won't need the branded TRC & jack plate (but the custom build could cost more).

Well, this certainly is a rare find for this bass thread! Thanks for sharing this, Prowla!

I too love seeing these old basses, and they are just as rare as hen's teeth these days. And I can just imagine how rare a thing it is that this bass was NOT a RM, and was brought into the UK by some private individual.
Its not like 4001S models were just lying around in guitar shops all across the U.S. back in 1964 either!

I would imagine there must be an interesting story about how this bass got from point A to point B, although its likely we'll never know what it is...

I remember 1964, though I was a bit of a pip-squeak then, but E'lectric Gee-tars (as they were called back then here in Texas) were a bit of a novelty still. I remember my grandmother telling us a story of one of her friends, who's grandchild was apparently electrocuted by one of those guitars. As you can see, it made me get as far away from them as I possibly could!


I've always been a real fan of the 'S' models, whether Rose Morris or not, so I appreciate seeing this and absolutely all the pics you care to post!

squirebass wrote:Well, this certainly is a rare find for this bass thread! Thanks for sharing this, Prowla!

I too love seeing these old basses, and they are just as rare as hen's teeth these days. And I can just imagine how rare a thing it is that this bass was NOT a RM, and was brought into the UK by some private individual.
Its not like 4001S models were just lying around in guitar shops all across the U.S. back in 1964 either!

I would imagine there must be an interesting story about how this bass got from point A to point B, although its likely we'll never know what it is...

I remember 1964, though I was a bit of a pip-squeak then, but E'lectric Gee-tars (as they were called back then here in Texas) were a bit of a novelty still. I remember my grandmother telling us a story of one of her friends, who's grandchild was apparently electrocuted by one of those guitars. As you can see, it made me get as far away from them as I possibly could!


I've always been a real fan of the 'S' models, whether Rose Morris or not, so I appreciate seeing this and absolutely all the pics you care to post!

Thanks!

Yes, I'd love to know its history; I bought it in my teens in Nottinghamshire, but I don't remember who it was from (nobody famous) and I've no idea what went before.

Resurrecting this old thread, since I wanted to add a possibility to the origins of the DA07. In other threads about Rose Morris instruments (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=411738&p=828417&hil ... le#p828417 and viewtopic.php?f=2&t=412972&p=840495&hil ... le#p840495), it seems as if there was one bass sent to Rose Morris (together with four guitars) in a promotional batch of instruments. That batch predates what I think is usually referred to as "first batch", and was sent for photographing purposes, etc.

According to the info from John Hall regarding that promotional batch, the bass there had a DA serial number, and that serial wasn't DA09 but a lower one. I find it at least plausible that DA07 might actually be that bass.

Apologies if this has already been covered and/ or dismissed/confirmed elsewhere, but if so I could not find it so I thought it should be brought up. I find it somewhat intriguing that this might be the very first RM bass in the world.

I used to have DA24.Im pretty sure some of the “D” batch of RMs were given jack plates already stamped and a few of the early ones were probably already in stock at the factory so we might never have actual production the dates written in stone.

pag wrote:I used to have DA24.Im pretty sure some of the “D” batch of RMs were given jack plates already stamped and a few of the early ones were probably already in stock at the factory so we might never have actual production the dates written in stone.

Yes, it is my understanding too, that the exact order of them might not be determined by the alpha/numeric order. But still we do have this info about the promotional batch of Rose Morris instruments:

- it contained one bass
- that bass had a DA serial, which was lower than 09

It would mean that it is at least one chance out of eight that DA07 is actually that bass.