Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Ilan wrote:
""What's the CPJP?" - "Mine is 25." - "Oh, must be 70's or earlier." - "Yeah, they changed to bigger bits in the 80's." - "They don't make them like they used to any more. I really liked the smaller checks. The 11% increase is really noticeable." - "Sure is."

Ilan, you're talking to yourself...

"unquestionably...the bridge is hanging out OVER the body........by a country mile............and that TRC is NOT centered........also, the bottom corners of the TRC are much more rounded than the TRC on my RIC......"

FWIW my Rics' tailpieces look the same from that angle. Same with the bottom corners in two black TRC's I have. Looks kosher to me.

The tailpiece is not that close to the edge. It is just the angle of the photo. I have RIC installed CB binding from the early 60's to the late 80's. It did vary in size.

Probably different suppliers of the CB binding material. CB binding strips start with alternating layers of black and white sheets, glued together until there's a large cube (about 1m x 1m x 1m), then cut across.

This is a fun one...
Machine heads, TRC, strap button, jack plate, color, fingerboard wood, and inlays all look legit to me. If you look at the strap pin photo, you can see that the bridge is NOT hanging over the edge of the body. You can also see how the binding stops where the body wings meet the neck. Even the wear around the strap pin look normal for a white Ric. I think a lot of the "question marks" are due to camera angle and/or lighting. Also, this wouldn't be the first Ric with a slightly crooked TRC angle. My 4003S looks like that.
I vote "REAL"!

My $.02: This one is 100% Rickenbacker. The case is from a faker. The photos are poor quality. The photo was taken at an angle that makes the tailpiece appear to be hanging off, but its just a camera angle. The checkers did get larger over the years. The jackplate is in great shape, but I've got a couple that are 5 yrs older that are in the same shape. It just hasn't been played much and hasn't been exposed to much humidity.

The seller finally put up a pic of the back and I agree with Jeff, it looks real. It's the unusual ones like this that cause you take your time checking them out. I won't be bidding on this because I'm a check binding snob, anything less than a 25 CPJP is just beneath my standards....hee,hee

Still not convinced this is a real Ric. The fade near the binding on the back picture is a real scare to me. Little feedback, lousy pictures, knowing that jap neckthoughs with checks were made, the case, 1982?, tuner bushings pushing the TRC out of place. Imho someone is either going to get ripped or get a very rare Ric.

I think it's the first one.

Custom orders were still possible in the early 80's. We have seen several unusual examples pop up on Ebay in the last few years. There were two with white-on-black laminated binding. There was an MG 4003 with a maple skunk stripe. Odd combinations are not impossible or unlikely. Factory employees sometimes made their own custom models. I read a post elsewhere written by a former Rickenbacker employee where he described how back in the 70's he built a 4001 using 4002 pickups, CB binding, ebony fingerboard, and fancy maple for the body. It was stolen from him in California and recovered some years later in Texas.

This one looks legit to me.

SOLD! $1,592.

11 seconds left Ben Brown was leading, then it got sniped by "guillello".

Funny how a refinished 6 year old white 4003 fetches $2K, and a rare (one of a kind?) white with checkerboard goes for under $1.6.

I could taste it!

Hey Ben- remember how we were talking about "the hunt"....sometimes just the chase for a rick is as exciting as actually winning....there will be more....they're right around the corner....get your trigger finger ready.

Ahhhh....

...white on white checkerboard...