What to do with a faker?

12stringbassist · Post by **12stringbassist** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 1:33 pm

I've seen a couple of Ibanez 4001 style basses
at guitar fairs over the last few years and they
DO look very convincing. I doubt that they sound
anything like the original Ric, though.

I'd keep the bass and just use it as a backup.
If you sold it and lost track of it, someone may
end up with it a few years down the line with a
fake Ric TRC.

rickcrazy · Post by **rickcrazy** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 2:22 pm

I'll say. Some weeks ago this young guy put up an ad for an obvious 4001 faker for 2,000 EUR. From the photo I could tell there was a legit Rick TRC on the bass. I e-mailed the guy to let him know he was trying to sell a fake. He went on to post on the RIC forum to ascertain whether or not he had a fake 4001. Responses from some contributors apparently convinced him that he did, as shortly after he removed the ad for the faker.
A couple years back, one-time forumite Paul Yan told me how one of his friends got ripped off by a British instrument store that sold him a fake 4001 for an obscene amount of money. Upon realizing that he had been had, Paul's friend tried to talk the store into giving him back his money and taking the fake 4001 back. He even threatened to litigate. Undaunted, the store maintained that they had sold him a legit Rick bass, and that his poor knowledge of Rickenbacker instruments was no excuse for going back on the deal (!). I don't know the end of the story, but I think I've made my point.

tennis_nick · Post by **tennis_nick** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:40 pm

Now THERE'S a policy worth enforcing... instead of suing the buyer of said fake... make him give it to an under privileged kid who dosen't have the means to buy a bass or guitar but wants to play music, as long as he follows the same "not a Rick, never sell, only give" policy... Now if only the courts would accept that...

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:26 pm

Paul Yan.....now there is a guy we need to coax back!

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 8:11 pm

If I had a faker I would not put a Ric nameplate on it ... but I have too many real Ric basses to ever get a faker ... when I build my own fender style basses I never put a fender logo on them ... I leave the headstock blank ...

ilan · Post by **ilan** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:00 am

Is this one a faker?

jps · Post by **jps** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 2:36 pm

Huh?

aceonbass · Post by **aceonbass** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 2:42 pm

There was a discussion over at The Dude Pit that just about got out of hand about this very subject. A few individuals were still of the opinion that the Halls were dead wrong on this issue, even though it was explained by a few people from this forum. Paul W. finally made a post that made me fall off my chair which offended a couple of Pitters and even got him chastized by the webmaster/big cheese over there. It was brilliant and sharpened in such a way as to only offend people who were actually stupid enough to still hold onto their obsolete notions on trademark law. Then again, what would you expect of individuals who play what often comes down to a glorified copy of a Fender?

12stringbassist · Post by **12stringbassist** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 8:27 am

I am fairly astonished that Fender haven't sat on Fernandez and all the rest for ripping off their P and J designs so blatantly. If I want a Fender, as a rule I buy a Fender.

The reason there are so few poor quality versions of Rics out there is because Ric have always stuck up for themselves. I won't bring my 1976 John Birch SCDR into it (I would have bought it if it was a shovel shape!!), but am surprised they still make them.

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 8:32 am

Here's that thread, Dane: http://www.vintagebass.com/thedudepit/showthread.php?t=25954

I too loved Paul's response.

squirebass · Post by **squirebass** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 9:29 am

Man, that one dude says that John Hall thinks he's God, and that us Rickenbacker posters are all yuppies, that just makes my blood boil! I ain't no yuppy, but maybe Mr Hall is Godlike, which explains why the instruments are so good!
I wish he'd cast a pox on the backorder time though...

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 10:11 am

Har! Just read the thread, decided not to respond over there. I do thank the webmaster for not blocking me.

Every Forum, like every corporation, has its own atmosphere and culture. Dudepit seems to be a more literal place than some.

You folks know (I hope) that my tone ranges between dead serious to silly, but can be dry and sometimes quite tongue-in-cheek.

They took me literally in nearly every word, and bass-ically my point was lost in all the complaining about my bashing of Edinburgh, one of my favorite UK cities. Oops. And yes, I did make a pun on "Bassassin"s screen name. I found it an entertaining pun when he appeared on the RIC Forum (and was promptly bounced off), and those with entertaining puns for screen names should expect the occasional play on same.

I do remember being put out by BA's tone and content on the RIC Forum, and possibly posting my own rejoinders, but for the life of me can't locate the thread now.

Hate to say it, but my own post was in reaction to the uninformed and just plain dumb anti-Rick comments and beliefs that many were busy airing.

sowhat · Post by **sowhat** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 11:04 am

I don't want to start a fight, but... personally, i think your comment there was quite rude, Paul. Or could it be - you took their words as an offence to RIC which they didn't mean, and they didn't understand your humour? I dunno. But had i been one of them, i would have taken a comment like the one you've made there as an offence, too. Call me stupid, uneducated (especially in the domain of US law - we have our own law here, and i'm not a professional lawyer so i cannot know everything about law in other countries), or whatever. That doesn't mean i agree with them about RIC trademark policy, of course. Exactly vice versa. Every company has its policy, and we should respect that. Still, i think that "Eddy" comment was impolite.

ozover50 · Post by **ozover50** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 12:34 pm

Wow!! Good read, that one..... two large buckets of popcorn later and I'm still trying to take all those fakers in - the basses, I mean!

johnhall · Post by **johnhall** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 12:48 pm

It was funny, given that I used to practically commute to Edinburgh, that I had no idea what Paul was talking about when he said "Eddyland".

No so funny to see how people manage to take random bits of information, fasten them together, and create a new, alternate, totally distorted reality.