Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I think the BT option would have looked cool on a Blue Boy.

Hey Jared, does the pooch have an endorsement from Krispy Creme donuts? LOL

I only like it on black and white basses also. I passed on a midnight blue fretless 4003 once because it had black trim. That and the neck surface had been Jaco-ized.

Although now that I look at Jeff's basses I like all of them.

Black trim YES!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not a big fan of black trim, (I agree with Ilan - too 80's), but would love to see a gold trim option! I've always thought it a bit strange that the 4004cii's don't come with a gold TRC considering that all their hardware is gold.

We're talking about options here. Not everyone will like certain things, like black trim for example, but it certainly would be a nice option. As would vintage PU's and checker binding.

How many Rics are actually ordered these days as opposed to just stocked? I can imagine that if Ric's big customers are stores like Musicians Friend or big retailers, maybe they don't want to get into that many different SKUs. Places that specialize in Rics might want this flexibility, but I aint waiting a year for cosmetic options. A person's taste will probably change by the time it's delivered.

I have to order anything I want, and if you are changing pickups and so forth there is little choice. While Ric doesn't have a custom shop, almost everything I have ordered has been built for me specifically, which accounts for the many months it takes to get the instruments.

The point in posting this thread was to see if having a less involved BT option was an idea others would welcome. Like i said at the start, I could understand Ric not wanting to stock tuners, bridges and pickup surrounds in black, but having an option for nameplates and pickguards in black (and perhaps binding) should be manageable.

My comment is phrased in the form of a question because I don't know who orders and what the logistics are. I'm sure Ric gives careful consideration to the "look" and marketability of each combination. In the '60s you could order cars from the factory in all goofy combinations- olive green body, white painted top, beige interior, big V-8, delete the radio and heater, but add power windows. Pretty cool today for the collector, but impossible to sell off the lot in the day. As such, you won't likely see black plastic with white binding and chrome hardware or other like combinations from Ric. I agree some of these odd-balls floating around make for great discussion here though. I think the BT's were pretty nice and not entirely '80s as Rath's 4003MGBT proves. The red and blue ones with the black plastic and hardware (also Jeff's), now that's 80's. Maybe Mr. Hall can shed light on the demise of the BT option if it's more than just low demand. As long as were asking for black binding, I'll take the Checkered binding option like the Japan market can seem to get. It doesn't seem much more labor intensive than the solid binding and the cool is worth a few extra bucks.

you can easily get the black plastic parts ... the metal parts can be powder coated ... you can get schaller m4 black tuners ...

but what about black binding?

one of the problems with the black trim is that is wears off the pickup surround and the tailpiece faster than chrome ... chrome is just more durable ...

so then mix chrome hardware with the black plastic....I LIKE it!!!

No one bought or seemed to want the black trim when we had it. It certainly was an inventory nightmare (that still isn't completely over) and it's unlikely we'd bring it back anytime soon.

Checked binding is not only about 100 times more expensive for the material itself, there's much more work involved to the binding process. It requires an extra stairstep routing pass in the wood itself, two complete rounds of binding hand work, and decidely more skilled effort in the finish and scraping process.

Would you, Mr. Hall, be consider selling some of the black plastic (pickguards etc) to some of us here who are really wanting tht option?

So... You're saying that checked binding IS an option if we pay for it! =)

:: (Who's ready to order his creemie Blue-Burst-Glo with checked binding!)

if you have any NOS black Ric parts you want to unload I'll take them ...

us cunsumers must drive RIC nuts ... they come out with stuff ... it doesn't sell ... then they discontinue it and the demand skyrockets ... case and point ... the 4002 ... or the s5 or s8 or cs ... etc ...

it seems what we want most is what we don't have ...