Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

bitzerguy wrote:Opening the case and havingthe Ricosmell waft over me on the first instrument I ever bought sight unseen or played. It was my 2004 660/12 shipped in from Rhoads Music. I will never forget it.

At one point I had a 660/12 Burgundy on order from Rhoads. But got a Monty Brown from POTR. Sold it (STUPIDLY) a few years later, still kicking myself.

The new ones don't have the great eau de Rick scent to them. Maybe we could get a perfumer to do a limited run?

A 4001? That's easy; 3 years ago, when I opened the box mine came in ('73 JG lefty). Guess I've led a deprived life, or was just never
anywhere near a music store. And by the way, Jeff, I have an Alembic bass; it's nice, but very overpriced. As an active bass, it is
probably slightly more versatile than a Ric - but only in the sense of being able to sound like something else. I don't play it much,
but it's my only active bass, so it's not going anywhere soon.

Anyone figure out which 007 movie that was?

Please don't make me watch all those dreadful Roger Moore movies again.

I don't like to think about the first time I saw/held/played a Rickkenbacker in person because it was a beautiful '92 FG 4003 and it got stolen If anyone here bought a FG 4003 from a pawn shop in Seattle in the early 90's let me know

GIBrat51 wrote:And by the way, Jeff, I have an Alembic bass; it's nice, but very overpriced.

Different Jeff, here............I had two Alembics I bought used and at pretty low prices, too. Both of them together cost me $1600! At the time I was very much into Jimmy Johnson and his great, virtually unknown band Flim & The BBs. Alembic has their own unique signature tone, they will never sound like a Rick, nor would I want them to. I had an '87 Persuader (flame maple top) with P/J pickups, and an '84 Exploiter (flame koa top). I took the electronics out of both of them and put in VPT+Q switches, and added a second 1/4" jack to allow for an external power supply I built for them. I eventually had the Exploiter made into a fretless. I also put the Exploiter/Spoiler electronics in a box and used it as an external two input preamp for other basses.

BTO 4 wheel drive tour '75, moncton new brunswick at the coliseum. was a burgundyglo 4000 with black pg . fred turner played with a white thumb pick...remember those ???

OMG - there's someone else who's heard of Flim & the BBs??!! Love those guys! Gotta envy you- 2 Alembics for $1600?
Mine is a '94 Epic, and cost me about half what a new one goes for(had to pay the usual lefty surcharge). No, of course it doesn't
sound like a Ric - I simply meant it has a wider range of possible tones - it IS active, after all, but "like a Ric"? No -
although, through MY amp, I can get it to sound kind of like a 4003 with the capacitor cut out; and with about 1/3 the sustain.
With the circuitry my Epic has, it will go down almost to a 4001, then up to way too bright - almost a baritone guitar. But, my 4001
is the one I reach for most of the time; especially since I put the DPDT pot in it. It feels perfect, everything is exactly where it should
be for me, and sounds like a bass should.

GIBrat51 wrote:OMG - there's someone else who's heard of Flim & the BBs??!! Love those guys! Gotta envy you

Well then, I suppose I shouldn't tell you that I saw them perform at The Wiltern Theatre back in early 1990. With their dads, too. I briefly met Jimmy and his dad at a restaurant before the show where we had dinner.

Then there's the time we saw the Wayne Johnson Trio at the Come Back Inn, in Venice, with Billy Berg playing with the trio. What an awesome drummer he is.

I've heard of them - I've got a couple Flim and the BBs cds.

Which ones?

Must be nice to live somewhere you can hear good music. Here in Vegas, we mostly get over-priced has-beens, overpriced
pop Divas, ... and Cher. Plus, cover bands for bands that should be allowed to die a decent death. And please don't remind
me about 1990; thanks to Chargin' Charlie there in my avatar, I spent that year in a succession of unpleasant 3rd world
pest holes, culminating in Desert Storm. And then I wound up here. Oh, well.... I have 3 of their CDs; Neon, Tricycle,
and the Further Adventures. dont know why I haven't looked for any others; guess I should.

You should check out some of the Wayne Johnson Trio music as both Billy and Jimmy play on those, and Wayne is one of the most amazing guitars that is not well known. He's also a really nice guy; one rainy night in L.A. my brother and a freidn and i went to the Come Back Inn to see Wayne and Jeff Richman play together. The weather was pretty lousy so the three of us were the only audience there, but Wayne and Rich did some amazing music just for us, and we had lots of time to talk together.

Here is the trio at the Inn, from a time before we started going there in the later '80s.

This is from a great albums of theirs.

First one I ever saw in a store was in Myrtle Beach SC, in a shopping mall. Probably round 1987 or so. I had come down from college to spend a weekend with my parents and we were shopping in the mall. I knew there was a small guitar shop there, but very shocked to see a 4001 hanging in the window.

I got up my nerve and asked to see the bass, and I'm sure the salesman knew I wasn't going to buy it...still looking wet behind the ears and all. Looking back, I was an idiot for not even adjusting the tone or the pickup selector. It was fairly worn, and the action was very high, strings were dead, but I was still somewhat nervous. I bet I didn't play it for more than a minute or two. I think it was priced around $375.

The next one I saw was in a pawn shop near college, and it was on the bad side of town. I didn't even ask to look at it, and it was around $500, and looking tattered as well.

I now wonder if they were even real Ricks, as I didn't have a clue about there being fakers at that point.

jps wrote:Which ones?

Haven't looked in quite a while.....