Vintage Lefty 4001 - need help from the group...

[route66guitars]

There is no reason to believe that in that era the pots would have been lying around for an extended period of time (in this case 3+ years) before being used in an instrument.

It does have the smaller headstock, so it is likely that it was started at some point in 1968 and shelved until an order came in for one in 1971. It makes sense that at that time the serial number plate, logo plate, tuners, and either the tailpiece & bridge or just the bridge were installed.

When I inventoried Rickenbacker's unsold vintage stock in 1988 there were quite a few instruments that had been sitting in shipping boxes since the 1960s that were complete except for their tuners and bridges (obviously the bridges fall off without the strings...)

[ken_swearingen]

as for the pots lying around anything is possible when were talking about a lefty how many lefty's do you think were ordered in the late 60's to early 70's,the harnesses may have been already made waiting for a bass,I dont know how they worked it thats a tough one you could check 68s and see if the pots are dated 68 or 67 this would give you an idea.

[route66guitars]

It is my experiance that they didn't make the harnesses up in advance for lefties. They wouldn't have someone on the line spend their time doing that.

The lefties are great research projects. Most companies walk them through as special production runs to prevent silly errors (such as the routing errors Gibson made on McCartney's and my 1960 Les Paul Standards.) I have documented the batch Rickenbacker ran of lefty 360s in 1967 simply by owning most of them at various points over the years, but I haven't found any pattern to the lefty basses. So few have surfaced.

[leftybass]

I have never opened up my Oct. 72 4001 LH since I've owned it, but I know it's got the 'dust bunnies' up in the cavity from looking thru the input jack holes, LOL. I may have to crack it open and look inside...I don't think I'll find pots with date codes 1-2 years earlier than the sn# date..

As far as having ready-made harnesses at the factory, I can't speak for what the practice was in the 60's and 70's....BUT they did have a lefty bass harness in stock and on the shelf when I needed one a couple of years ago.

[ken_swearingen]

I cant imagine they don't have the harnesses already made up it would hinder production otherwise, i just think they made up a few lefty's back then and they sat around awaiting a bass. sounds plausible to me.

[headbanger]

So...thinking about early lefty basses, if they were all routed this way then DA23 would be the same?

[leftybass]

More than likely, yes.

[wints]

My 68 actually has a larger headstock than my 67. That neck profile looks very similar to the 71 that Pete bought on E Bay recently in the U.K. We need him to look at his pots to see what dates they have on them.
It looks like a late 60's/early 70's body and I would think it's feasible that a L/H harness was lying around. There were so few being made, it could have been on the shelf a while waiting...

[route66guitars]

Pete's has 21 frets, so his was definitely made in '71. That his was built this way likely means that others from that run were as well.

Another reason mine has a bit of mystery to it, with only 20 frets.

[leftyguitars]

<<< is singing to a 12 bar blues pattern...

"Woke up this morning...
my ears were burning...
Scott needs my pot codes...
so I got my screwdriver turning..."

Well is sounded better than that in my head!

Pot codes on my 4001, Serial number KB 048, are... 137 6808.

[route66guitars]

Wow, Pete. Earlier Serial Number, 21 frets, and pot dates six months later than mine but still 3 years prior to completion date.

Mongo have headache from trying to put worms back in can.

[leftyguitars]

From what I've found in the past left handed guitars (especially F***** and G*****) don't always seem to follow the rules regarding serial numbers, "correct" hardware for the year and even colours. I think that they ran batches of lefty parts which may have been kept on the shelves for years in some cases before being used up. But then again, I may be wrong!

[route66guitars]

Except for one-off instruments that got out, which were generally employee instruments, Fender and Gibson really didn't have much hanging around to be used later.

The only instance of that I can think of with Fender is that they made up a batch of left handed Telecaster bridges in 1953 by notching the corners and bending over the sides on right handed ones. They're easy to spot, as they have serial numbers and the patent stamps on the underside. Fender used these bridges as late as 1962.

[larrylaruebass]

I bought a Lefty Mapleglo Ric Bass in 1971 with checkered binding (month uncertain, possibly after June).

I have been told that there weren't too many made during that year. Do you have a specific number of those manufactured?

[cjj]

Welcome to the forum Larry!

RIC doesn't release production numbers, so nobody really has any idea how many of what were produced when. Any numbers you see are just guesses...