Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

"HOw often do you get more than one or two 4005's in the same place at once? It can;t be that frequent."

Chris Pappas sees that every day!

Yeah, I lucked out on the lighting. My plan was to light the studio setup with two strobes through soft boxes (Jeff S. knows what I'm talking about), but I couldn't get the strobes to cooperate. I noticed how evenly the basses were lit by the four banks of fluorescent lights in the room (that's a reflection of a light bank on the Blackstar fingerboard) and figured I could shoot them that way. The nice thing about pro-quality digital cameras is that you can change the "white balance," the "color" of white that changes with the light source. Fluorescents are actually greenish light compared with daylight, incandescent bulbs are orangey. With my new Nikon 8700, I could just spin a dial and choose among a wide selection of light source compensations, and the nifty thing is that in doing so, it changes the color right on the camera screen! Spiffy! So I ended up shooting all the basses this way and they'll look fine. More shortly.

Yes, Jeff....and I DO look at them and PLAY them almost every evening!! The unbound one that you adjusted plays great since the neck has settled...

Paul - are you taking additional photo submissions for your book? If so, I have a couple of interesting basses and would be glad to send you pics if you could supply some info on how they should be shot.

Sure, Steve. To translate well to the printed page, I need at least high-resolution jpgs, preferrably shot with a 5-meg (and up) digital camera. Old-fashioned film or slides is fine, too. Usually, pocket-sized digis that are less than 5-meg can't provide the resolution or file size that can survive being translated into "CMYK" (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) for book printing.

Obviously, good focus and lighting help also. Let me know what you have. You should be able to see my e-mail address on my profile (click on my name at left).

Here is Brian Chrisman's '98 4003s8 in Jetglo. Ooo nice!

Next up, Ted's '63 4001 Fireglo with all the classic features. Beauty, eh?

The cavity in that '63 is outragious. Also the grooves for the truss rods go all the way to the pup surround.

The only 4000 to show up, Randy Hawkins' 1968. He said it used to be Fireglo and will be refinished someday.

One of the essentials: Randy Hawkins' '87 4003 in Jetglo. Just gotta have one in your wardrobe:

Also in black with white trim, Jeff Scott's 4005WB (white bound) in Jetglo. This hollow body was from the class of 1967. He modified it with Hipshot Ultralite tuners and installed a Ric-O-Sound jack in the pickguard. Jeff says this was his first bass, purchased in '73 for $175. OK, everybody: Bwaaaah!

Another from Jeff Scott's arsenal, a '98 V63 in Fireglo. The classic British Invasion Rick bass:

All great shots Paul. For me, that Fireglo on Ted's 63 really jumps out. Very vivid...

One more from Jeff Scott, his 2004 fretless 4003 Mapleglo with Toaster-Top pickups and the new Hipshot bridge. He had Tony Dudzik of Pickguardian make a new "vintage" white pickguard (slightly larger). Jeff says this is a great sounding fretless. Closeup shows the beautiful figuring in the maple.

I thought the the dual toaster setup would be a bit weak sounding but I was wrong. This bass sounds great.