Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi, Paul. (Thanks for the great e-mails, by the way).
The bridge/tailpiece (including the saddles) assembly on your 1972 4001 is totally stock. It is just like the one on my 1970 21-fret 4001. The fact that the saddles are crudely made has led you to believe they were 'home-made'. They're not.
Sometime in 1973 the crude-looking bridge/tailpiece unit was superseded by a much better looking and accurate version which is still in use today.

Paul, I think your tailpiece is okay; look at this for comparison:

http://www.the-music-connection.com/r214.jpg

This one appears to be all there....

Paul and John. Here is the comparison photo.

Hi Paul (and everyone else) Your bridge and tail piece assembly is identical to mine, I cannot see the Jetglo saddles well enough in the foto to judge, but ours are identical, very nice bass by the way, I have a soft spot for Mapleglos, I've always wanted a Mapleglo Fretless. Actually I have compared my bridge with later ones and thought that ours were made better, I guess it's all a matter of opinion. It's nice to find a place where everybody pays attention to detail like we do, (does that make us anal retentive?) I think one of the things I like about Ric's (besides the obvious) is that as the years went by they evolved slowly, and were not stamped out by machines as were a lot of other basses. You can find two Ric basses made in the same year and there will be different parts on them, especially the transition years. Ric sells an excellent book about the company and it's products (including basses), the name escapes me at the moment, I have been in Peru´ for 4 months)I can see the writer holding a Ric 12 string though. But anyway it sheds light on the fact why there were no real cut-off points at the factory, if they ran out of current truss rod covers for example they might use old stock until they replenish their supply. For example I have a picture of a '72 4001 with a horse shoe pickup in it that the owner swears is stock, (In the book John Hall is quoted as saying that he thought horse shoes were gradually phased out in the early '70's) I had a '75 with a few older features on it, the bass pickup was in the old position (a high gain though) and the truss rod cover was an old style flat one, and it came with Grovers on it. But anyway when I get back to the States I'll send in a photo of mine for comparison. I think you treble cover may be on wrong, it looks like it is on top of the springs rather than below, I can't play with those things anyway. I pluck right over the pickup. I had two V63's and took the horse shoes off and put a block of wood under the pickup about the same thickness as the horse shoes were. It sounded pretty much the same, but was a little noisier (they were grounded)and maybe a little less thick sounding. That could have been subjective on my part though.

Sergio, John, Peter and Bob,
Thank you all for the valuable answers and infos.
I can definitely live with the crude, softly shiny looking saddles. They are perfectly functional.

Bob,
By the way, like you, I took the treble pickup covers off my '98 4003FG and '86 4003 Shadow. (I play mostly with a pick, with my palm above the treble pickup.)
However, I decided to leave the cover on my '72 Fretless, since I figured I'd play her with both picks and (mostly)fingers. Two 0.8 cm black rubber hoses were inserted between the pickup surround and cover to lower the cover, making the cover's "ceiling" just 1/16"~1/8" above the strings without touching them when played.
This makes her look totally stock and neat and easy to play with a pick, though I intend to pluck her strings with fingers most of the time.

I wish I had gotten the cover with mine, but I didn't. Is that a metal cover? I have never seen one, Rics look so cool with the covers on, I wish I could play with them on, I tried for several months with a V63, but couldn't get used to it, I use mostly fingers but do ocasionally use a pick, especially for Surf and certain Rock tunes, beautiful bass. My favorite bass is the 68 I've seen in this forum, that is my dream bass, believe me, the horse shoe would stay on the baby! I would compensate! haha. The Fireglo is beautiful on that bass, I'm sorry I did not catch the owners name (and too lazy now to go back and look) but I will next time I gaze at it (along with yours) with longing in my eyes.

Bob,
I believe 98% of the 4001/4003 basses' non-horseshoe covers are chrome-plated plastic parts.
The treble pickup cover of my 4003 Shadow is made of plain black plastic with no coating of any sort.

You can see some pictures of my '72 Fretless by clicking "Akiko" in here.

Enjoy.

Hi Paul, If there is chrome on any of my covers (I save them all) it is pretty thin! haha. No I always thought that the covers were all plastic. I saw a discussion in here where someone stated that the early covers were made of metal, I have never seen one. Nice yellow color to your bass by the way, very nice bass. I bought a '98 Fireglo 4003 a few months ago, and I haven't seen it yet. I bought it on Ebay and was going to have it shipped here to Peru´ until I saw that UPS wanted my firstborn to ship it, so I had it sent to my fathers house in Massachusetts, can't wait to get back to see the bass, my father said it looks like brand new. When I get back I'll post some pictures of my basses too.

The very earliest covers were metal and I bet it's more like only 0.1% of units produced were delivered with metal covers. The plastic cover, which is first copper plated and then nickel-chrome plated, has the advantage of not interfering with the magnetic field while at the same time shielding out electrostatic noise as you might get from flourescent lights or computer monitors. However, it's not as good as steel for shielding electromagnetic noise such as you might get from a amp transformer in proximity to the pickup.

About 0.1%? I stand corrected.
So, there are after all a tiny few 4001's out there with a metal handrest. I assume these to date from circa 1969, right? Gee, they must be as scarce as winged horses! I dare anybody to find one!

Sergio said:"Gee, they must be as scarce as winged horses!"

Man I like your phrasing!
Beats "Rare as hens' teeth" any time!
Hahahahhh...

Hey, variety is the spice of life.

Believe it or not, I haven't had any problem finding them, mostly at guitar shows and from a few luthiers. I wanted one for my '71 4001 so it would be historically "correct". I know they were putting them on basses that were shipped to my my area of the country in '72-73 and I noticed when they changed from metal to plastic. But I am one of those rare "winged horses" that likes to keep the cover on the bridge pickup! It helps me play more in the Squire style....