Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

My '73 has the completely sharp surround...

jingle_jangle wrote:Recently completed. I really like this color, and this bass was sprayed to the specs shown in a photo series on CD given me by my very particular customer.

Before:



After:









Inlays are original, reconditioned; fretboard was de-fretted, surfaced, radiused, re-fretted, frets leveled and polished. Board was re-varnished with the rest of the bass, of course.

This color is particularly nice because it's so close to the color of the fretboard wood.

Great paint job Paul, but was the bass an original Mapleglo? If so i can't believe the customer would change it out to Fireglo. Mapleglo looks beautiful with checkered binding.

rictified wrote: ... the customer would change it out to Fireglo ...

Not trying to speak for Paul, but the title says "Autumnglo" not Fireglo ... it's a difficult color to render correctly with a digital camera, as most digital cameras tend to make the finish look red when it is not. An example below is the 4001 Walnut (gloss version of Autumnglo) that now belongs to Kira:
Then after tweaking, this is more like what it actually looks like (a true brownburst):
BTW, great work as always, Paul!

That Walnut 4001 belongs to me now, Gary... and at least on my monitor, the true color is about midway between the reddish top one and the tweaked bottom one. WIN monitors have a bit more bluish color temp, too. Mine is an Apple iMac G5.

Everyone has his own personal taste, and my customer has been dreaming of owning an early Autumnglo for a long time. I'm glad to have been able to help him to realize his dream!

That beautiful '72 AG is sitting about 3 feet to my left. Hello all. I'm Andrew, a long time stalker of Ricresource, and this is my first post. I'm constantly amazed at what good eyes you all have. You picked up on the little secrets of my bass right away. But Paul's right. We decided not to sweat the details too much. I'm a bass player, not a bass collector, and I'd always dreamed of having an AG, but fate threw a '72 MG at me instead. To be really technical, Ricenbacker didn't even make any AGs in 1972. It doesn't bother me. It plays like a dream, and now it looks like one (to me), and that's what counts. I literally bring it to work every day, and set it in a stand next to my desk, and then bring it home every night, and set it in a stand next to my couch, and just stare at it. (Yes, I play it too!) I guess we're still in our honeymoon phase. (I think my Alembic Stanley Clarke is getting jealous). Some of you picked up on the fact that it's a little bit warmer than most AGs. Before I brought the bass to Paul, I downloaded hundreds of photos of AG, Walnut, and Montezuma Brown basses. The colors and tones were *all over* the map, so I sorted them into 4 subfolders: "Ugly", "OK", "Great" and "AAA_Perfect". Paul then sprayed the bass to match my favorites, and was even gracious enough to let me visit the bass before clear coating so we could tweak the color some more. (I hope I don't start a trend with your customers, Paul) That extra little warmth came from me, but I can't speak for how it looks on your monitor. I also have an '06 Fireglo, and it's definitely not FG. Like Paul said, the true beauty of the AG is that it somehow makes the neck feel like part of the body. Paul carefully pulled the tones from the fretboard into the body paint. Paul rocks!
I'd like to give a big shout out to some of the folks who helped me scrounge the replacement parts for the restoration, most notably, Dave Pascoe, Jon Walker, Colin Beswick, and most of all, Jeff Thomas for introducing me to Paul W. and his work. But seriously, I got started right here on this forum.
Some of you might find the story of how I got this bass funny, or at least interesting. My first Ric was an '82 JG 4003. I got it new when I was a teenager. Not long afterwards, I walked into a guitar store in Harvard Square, MA. and saw this beat up old Ric in the corner. It had a lot of flaws, but it looked closer to the bass that Chris Squire played than the one I was carrying, so I wanted it. I asked the guy how much I could get for my JG on a trade in for that bass in the corner. He said "That old thing? The bass you have right there is worth twice what that's worth."... (In 1984, a '72 wasn't old enough to be called "vintage", it was just plain "old"), so I thought about it and said, "Well why don't you throw in that fretless Precision too, and we'll call it a deal. Even Steven!"... and I walked out of that store with two basses... a 1972 MG 4001, and a 1969 fretless Fender Precision. Not a bad deal for a kid, eh?
- Andrew -

Wow, beautiful bass and very interesting story, Paul and Andrew!

Congratulations and welcome, Andrew.

doctorwho wrote: Then after tweaking, this is more like what it actually looks like (a true brownburst):

I agree with Paul on my iMac G5, Gary.

Love love love that bass but music plans change and the menagerie got re-ordered. I don't remember seeing that pic before, thanks, I miss that girl but it went into good hands and I got a couple of guitars I needed more than a gorgeous but neglected bass.

Great pleasure to deal with both Gary and Paul, can't say enough good things about them.

you are indeed "luckyseven" ! great story ,and the bass looks incredible now,i really love the sort of brownish red mixes,esp on older instruments. paul had done a 4000 a while back that almost looked like an antique violin (with gold plastic no less) ,and i'm still not over that one...

Great story, Andrew!
Welcome and congrats!

teeder wrote:Great story, Andrew!
Welcome and congrats!

+1! What a lovely bass!

Congrats and welcome to the forum Andrew.

Paul always does a beautiful job and in this case you both created a colour that is near and dear to my heart. I have a 1980 4001 in Autumn Glo that is very similar to Paul's (used to be Gary's and then Kira's)Walnut 4001. That bass sure gets around.

Congrats and welcome to the forum Andrew!

That's sure a beauty! Congrats and welcome!

luckyseven wrote: I'd like to give a big shout out to some of the folks who helped me ... and most of all, Jeff Thomas for introducing me to Paul W. and his work.- Andrew -

Really? I had something to do with this? Well... you're welcome, Andrew. I'm always happy to give a well deserved reference when I can, and it's nice to know that I played a small role the resurrection of your bass. It turned out beautifully (as usual, Paul)! I hope it provides you with many more years of enjoyment.

luckyseven wrote: Some of you might find the story of how I got this bass funny, or at least interesting. My first Ric was an '82 JG 4003. I got it new when I was a teenager. Not long afterwards, I walked into a guitar store in Harvard Square, MA. and saw this beat up old Ric in the corner. It had a lot of flaws, but it looked closer to the bass that Chris Squire played than the one I was carrying, so I wanted it. I asked the guy how much I could get for my JG on a trade in for that bass in the corner. He said "That old thing? The bass you have right there is worth twice what that's worth."... (In 1984, a '72 wasn't old enough to be called "vintage", it was just plain "old"), so I thought about it and said, "Well why don't you throw in that fretless Precision too, and we'll call it a deal. Even Steven!"... and I walked out of that store with two basses... a 1972 MG 4001, and a 1969 fretless Fender Precision. Not a bad deal for a kid, eh?
- Andrew -

Impressive trading skills, Andrew. Can I take you with me next time I'm shopping for a new car?!

So...You've had this bass since 1984? Wow! Has it been your main player all that time, then? How did all of the chrome and hardware get so corroded? Did you live on the beach? Or was it like that when you got it?

Oh, and welcome to the forum. Stick around!

That's right Jeff. You were a big help in hooking me up with Dave (who got me the tuners) and Paul. I had outbid you on eBay ona set of bushings and you contacted me in case I didn't want them. Somehow we got into a dialog about restoration and the rest is history. Speaking of history, I wish I could say that I inherited the bass with all that funky chrome, but the truth is, it's mostly my fault. Somehow, in the course of building a career (not in music), I made the decision to stop playing the bass altogether. I figured I'd never be the best in the world at two things, and it was as simple as that. I actually stopped playing for 20 years! My profile picture is from my teen years, or "phase one" of my bass playing. The bass just sat there, rusting away in the humid summers and frigid winters of Boston. I might pick it up when I was drunk, or something, maybe dance in front of the mirror with it, but I wasn't playing it, and unfortunately, not wiping it down. (Shoot me now! Shoot me now!) Also (and I'm embarrassed to admit this, but....) I had a dog at the time who was not fixed, had an overactive bladder, and marked anything and everything in sight. Yuk! I know! Eventually the dog died, I moved out west and the bass endured LA's heat, and now enjoys the milder SF weather. As I got into my 40's and was enjoying a reasonably successful career, I started longing to play the bass again. I really missed it! Then, after listening to me yak about playing again for years, my (now) fiance got tired of all the talk, and just went out and bought me an amp for my birthday. (It was a Mark Bass CMD 121P. A real treat! She now regrets getting me started again, I'm sure of that). Well, I plugged the '72 in and "GZZZzzzzzZZzzZZzzzzzt!", it was fried. Same thing with the Precision, so I decided that these two needed to be restored and I needed to find a new Ric in a hurry. I called around and found one out in the suburbs, drove out there and practically threw my wallet at the guy... "Gimme Ric! Must have Ric now!". I've been playing again for about 2 1/2 years, have a band at work called "ClownCar", and am happy to be deep into "phase two". I play through two Mark Bass combos (with extension cabs) for the Rick-O-Sound. They're dreamy amps, and tiny! - Andrew -

PS - I have more pics of the '72. You folks want more pics?