Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

John wrote:

1978 4001MG

Seems like a good guess. My lefty 1978 4001MG looks identical to the one in the picture excepting of course it's left handed and I have the pickup cover on mine. I'll go with the 1978 guess as well.

johnallg wrote:1978 4001MG.

The knobs on the pick guard are even staggered so it must be an earlier model late '74/early '75 onwards to maximum 1977.
Than the knobs were staggered uneven until around 1997 when they became even staggered again 'til nowadays. But could well be a replaced pick guard, then the 1978 may become possible?

Welcome, Ruben.

Assuming your 4001MG is all original, I'd say its a '76 or '77. If it were later it wouldn't have the parallel knob configuration. Its kinda hard to tell from such a distant photo, but I think it has a raised-letter molded TRC which tells me it was made in '76 or later.

Since I've seen a whole lot more '77's than '76's, I'll go out on a limb and say it's a '77.

Hey Ruben!

Your bass reminds me of my old QB-coded (Feb/'77) 4001.

I was referring to Roy's bass in my comment above. I have to go with Jeff Thomas on Ruben's bass & say it's a '77.

This is me on my 89 4003s and my guitarist with the desert gold 330.

No, I'm just using the ampeg on the left. The other one belonged to another band. I bet that would sound good though!

You guys and gals did well zeroing into the date of my 4001... the actual build date is April 1976.

There is also a story that goes with this bass. It was purchased in SoCal in '76 or '77 by my friend and fellow bass player Mark. He was always a very gracious guy and allowed me to borrow the bass for gigs or recording. I eventually moved to Northern California but Mark and I have always stayed in touch. As he progressed as a bass player he moved to 5-string and fretless basses, and about 10 years ago he realized that the 4001 had been sitting untouched in the back of his music closet for several years. He thought that was a waste of a good guitar and, knowing how much I liked the bass, he called me up and gave it to me. So this bass is worth a whole lot more to me than I could ever get on eBay, and I'll probably own it for the rest of my life.

tbplayer wrote:You guys and gals did well zeroing into the date of my 4001... the actual build date is April 1976.

Mine too!

Ade from Boxeddy in the UK !

Nice shot of the both of yas regardless of gear!

During my hiatus from this forum, I had the pleasure of putting together a band with a young hard rock singer after mixing his debut album in early 2007. Here are some gig pics spanning from August last year to this past May.













Unfortunately, I had to find a substitute bassist and resign from the band this past June because my studio work schedule allowed me no time for playing with the band.

Cool pics Paul!
Sorry to hear that you to had to give up the gigs.