Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

cangaroo wrote:

jps wrote:Try Won't Get Fooled Again, it is an easy song to play on bass, perfect for a newbie!

Are you kidding ?

Me, kid? Never! Although, it is easier than it seems at first, really. For the most part, anyway.

possibly an interesting observation would be that the full width inlays get the headstock with the top two tuners offset and the smaller '73 inlays have the headstock with the top two tuners even/parallel ?

That is how mine were/are.

Danotron wrote:

rickenbrother wrote:Last week, a SoCal forum member came by my place with an April '73 4001 Jetglo that he recently found. It has all of the goodies, except the full width inlays were not the sparkly ones. It even has the screw top pole piece bridge hi gain. It's in very nice condition. I wish he'd come in here and post some pictures. Please!

Oops, that's me!

Hi Bass Guys, My name's Dan, I'm a guitar player and this is my first time in the Bass room!

I just bought my first Ric Bass and I'm all excited about it. I took it over to Joey's and he set it up and gave me some of the history on it's features. I will be taking it to the next So Cal mini jam where I will attempt to play a song or two on it with the group (at which point I will hastily retreat back to the guitar where I am much more comfortable).

It's an April '73 model with checkered binding and it has FWI (but not crushed pearl).

Welcome to the low end side, Dan. Don't be a stranger here, c'mon in any time! Congrats again, That's one sweet 4001!

just saw this on the bay...blows my observation out of the water !!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/1973-RICKENBACKER-4 ... 56361e709a


i think the person in charge of neck selection before attaching bodywing laminations was blindfolded and could not know if they were selecting a new or old milled neck blank ! or did the "eany meany miney mo" selection !

BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS wrote:possibly an interesting observation would be that the full width inlays get the headstock with the top two tuners offset and the smaller '73 inlays have the headstock with the top two tuners even/parallel ?

I have an early NA with offset tuners and without full-width inlays.

jamespaul71 wrote:

BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS wrote:possibly an interesting observation would be that the full width inlays get the headstock with the top two tuners offset and the smaller '73 inlays have the headstock with the top two tuners even/parallel ?

I have an early NA with offset tuners and without full-width inlays.

That makes sense since yours is a year later than the era that is being discussed.

jps wrote:

jamespaul71 wrote:

BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS wrote:possibly an interesting observation would be that the full width inlays get the headstock with the top two tuners offset and the smaller '73 inlays have the headstock with the top two tuners even/parallel ?

I have an early NA with offset tuners and without full-width inlays.

That makes sense since yours is a year later than the era that is being discussed.

Is it a year later? An era later? The instrument in question is allegedly september 73 and I was bringing up january 74 with identical features and a tuner offset that is out of place. We know rick is inconsistent and this era is particularly volatile, so we'll just have to leave it at that.

Anyway the observation doesn't hold up. A quick look at the register will show you that the tuner offset and the width of the inlay does not indicate a patter, there are some with full widths that are parallel and there are some with the smaller inlays with offset tuners. There is something peculiar I saw though, and it could be that I missed some examples, but with only 2 exceptions I didn't see any offset tuners after june 73. All of the 4001s before july 73 appear to have the offset, and after that there is only 1 in december 73 and 1 in jan 74. There are no offset examples in the register in the rest of 74 and there are no examples in all of 75 ( didn't look further). That was sort of interesting.

ajish4 wrote:

rickenbrother wrote:Looks like a sweet one, T! You shoulda kept it!

It WAS Joey, but the neck was H U G E which really surprised me for a 73.

As the RIC gods had it, I flipped it to purchase my 71 BG.

NOT as clean as the 73 was, but a MUCH NICER NECK!

Last year I played an early '73 with a HUGE neck. Biggest Rick neck I've ever played by a mile. My '73 4000 had a very slim neck, and my current '73 Azure PW and previous '73 Azure both have/had fairly slim necks. My Feb '72 is still my Holy Grail.

BTW, me wants that '71. I've always preferred the pre-skunks to the skunkers sonically. My Feb '72 is my Holy Grail soundwise too; no skunk on that!