Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Yet another example of "what the hell might we find for combinations next" from 1973.Anything was possible....

Hey! I just caught in the 4001 pic Peter posted[the '71?] that This one has No walnut centerstripe in the neck!! A One piece neck from '71?Any '71 I've seen has had the stripe.
Maybe an Early '71 here, if that makes any difference. Wonder what style headstock this one has??

The Dr. is probably right about the neck, but I wonder if it may have a set neck, like on a 4000? The way to tell would be to see the headstock, definitely....

Yo Don,
That '71 is mine now, and I can tell you it has walnut headstock wings like a 'v63 reissue. It's a February '71 model(KB). I haven't seen TONS of '71s but the ones I have seen have not had stripes and they've all had walnut headstock wings. There is one stripped one out on the Basspalace site, that was originally Azureglo, according to the Swami (can you imagine how rare a '71 azureglo Rick is?). It is now Mapleglo, and it has no stripe and headstock wings. Do you think it is possible that there were some basses made earlier (like in '69 or '70) that they didn't have the demand to finish, so they laid around until '71 went they were actually finished out, and sold?

Leftybass,
Nope, this is not a set neck bass... It is definitely neck thru body, like other 4001s

Cool! It could be quite possible IMO that at least the neck was made earlier and they glued the wings on when making the bass. In another conversation about 'whose guitar was this?' I had with Don over on Voxtalks he had talked about a Rickenbacker 12 string he bought brand-new in 1970 but was made in Oct.1968!! Actually, only three numbers away from one I own now.....small world. So, who knows what all was laying around the factory at that time...!!

A '71 4001 bass would Not have the "set neck'
feature. I was In The Shop at Rick summer of '72 when the "set neck" 4000 basses started being made,and this was coincidentally the Same time as the first 480 Rick 6s[the "companion guitar"]
were being made.

Don: In your travels and while you were at Rickenbacker, did you ever see a 70's-era 4001S with neck-thru construction? I know the ones that were made for the original cast(s) of 'Beatlemania' were set-neck basses; some of those guys still have their instruments, most of which were made in late 1977. IMO they were 4000 models converted to two-pickup while still in the factory to meet the show's prop deadline....

In a word; NO. I do not think the factory ever made a set neck into a 4001.Their argument against? The routing[the way They were set up to rout for the neck PU] would have removed too much wood and they felt the neck joint strength would be compromised. I suppose "never say never" is possible as well...
Back in '73, a friend of mine had a '63 4000 bass that needed a LOT of work, and I helped him send it to Rick for assessment of damages. We inquired if while they had it, they could retrofit it with a neck PU along with all the other stuff that we wanted done. John Hall personally gave me the answer that was the first part of this post. However, I did think it strange, as a Real 63 4000 is Neck Through like a 4001, so this should not have been a problem.Maybe John had the then recently designed neck set 4000 in mind when he said that, I don't know.

Don,
So when was it that the Walnut headstock wings went away? My Feb '71 bass has them, but from what you posted above, there were a lot of '71 Ricks that had the skunk stripe, and not the headstock wings. (I'm assuming the stripe replaced the wings)

I do not have an exact timeline here; as with a lot of Rick details, there are apparently overlaps of features and time periods. But regarding just the neck construction on 4001s,I'd say that you would see in 1971, one piece necks with OS large headstock w/ walnut wings, as well as the laminated walnut centerstripe w/ maple wings and the newer smaller headstock.Then again, from this same period, we have the fellow who has posted here who has a really odd bird, a 4001, w/ 21[not 20] frets,walnut wings, and a Wide walnut center strip, as found on the 4005 hollowbody bass and the 360 series guitars.And bound headstock as well,and larger than std. position dots.

My first reaction when I saw that bass was that it was very heavily modified (please don't flame me!). It just has so many odd features that I've never seen with any other bass from that era.

About the 1971 basses, most I've seen had the larger headstock like the v63 reissue had, with Walnut wings. Seems like the smaller headstock mustva come in late '71 or '72. It is really wild how there are so many subtle changes that occured with these basses, even within the same calendar year! My '71 also has the smaller pickguard, that doesn't go completely to the bridge pickup housing. Does anyone know when they changed those?
Thanks!
GS

Don (Rick12dr) Wrote: "In a word; NO. I do not think the factory ever made a set neck into a 4001.Their argument against? The routing[the way They were set up to rout for the neck PU] would have removed too much wood and they felt the neck joint strength would be compromised. I suppose "never say never" is possible as well..."

The answer is probably in the archives, sorry if I missed it, but I have a question about the 4000 - were model 4000 basses made in 71/72 neck-through or set neck?

The reason I ask is that I was recently informed that Lemmy's first Ric bass, obtained in mid-'72 (after the first bass he played with Hawkwind was stolen - no idea if the Ric was new or used) was a 4000, not a 4001, which had been routed to install a bridge pickup (Gibson T-bird). (The knob placement makes it obvious that it was originally NOT a 4-knob Rickenbacker bass.) So if that particular 4000 was set-neck, that would contradict the theory that routing the body for a neck pu would weaken it significantly, since that particular bass lasted another 5 years of pretty heavy usage. TIA ...

The 4000 was neck thru until Jul/August of '72,when the set neck style was introduced.

In the color photo section of Richard Smith's Rickenbacker Book there is a full-page photo of a 4001-S bass with a set neck. The 'skunk stripe' in the neck is not present thru the body.

The 'Beatlemania' Rickenbackers, at least the one that still belongs to Lenie Colacino, has a set neck as well; other than being a left-handed model it is identical to the one in the book photo.