Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Also.... my horseshoe is exactly the same as the on in the Smith book. How does this H/S differ from the later ones?

Were they made for the early 63's or were they from old stock?

Bob ( getting quite excited now....! )

OK .... STOP THE PRESS.....
The bass shown in the Smith book is not just like mine.... IT IS MINE..!

I have checked the figuring in the wood & it is EXACTLY the same!

I would love to know when, and why the original pic was taken.

Got to lay down in a darken room now...

Bob

cool

Neat Bob, like I mentioned in my earlier post yours was probably a prototype and that's where the picture comes from. You do probably have an old 60/70's bridge and the horseshoes are the real deal too. Now what are you going to do...

bob slow down the one in the smith book is called a prototype to many dots on the neck.... they were ironing out bugs the one in the book has walnut wings ,something yours lacks as far as i no it was there biggest feature plus as far as i know all v63 had a square heal[they were trying to mimic a 63 4001s witch has a square heal I'm leaning toward 84 4003s with vintage parts the only holes that would be different in the wood would be one guard screw.

another thing bob ,your's has the shorter 4003 headstock every prototype ive seen has the longer headstock with walnut wings.

Hi Kenneth,

Interesting posts. Maybe in the book more that one bass is being shown. All i know is that the detail shot of the lower body, pickguard, horseshoe etc IS my bass!

In the near future I will take a propper shot of exactly the same angle shown in the book. You will see then that it is the same instrument.

Bob

I so wish I could capture on a photograph that the grain on my bass & the one shown in the book, at least the one posted on the forum are EXACTLY the same. If you look closely on this pic of mine you might be able to see.

All the best, Bob

Send me your bass Bob and I will do the best I can to reproduce the shot! In pics you posted earlier in this thread, the bridge was a 5 screw bridge, not the 3 screw as in the pic out of the Smith book. The grain does look the same however, so I must "conclude" that what you have is a "Foto-Finish"! Ken is right in that there is a full shot in b&w of the bass on page 213 showing the vintage heastock shape and walnut wings, although it is difficult to see the grain on that one so it may not be the same instrument as in the color shot.

The mystery continues...

Hi Jeff,

I don't have the book to compare. But... I am 100% sure the detail posted here is of my bass. This really is a mystery.

I have sent an e-mail to John Hall to see if he can shed any light.

Bob

The 4001V63 was publicly announced 9/15/84 and the first production units had XH serial numbers since production was timed to have these available for shipment at the time of the announcement. Big surprise- the first shipment went to Japan.

The XE0500 serial number range is shown as being assigned to Model 350 guitars.

All of this is easy enough to see in the serial logs.

Beyond that, there's thousands of invoices to search manually and I regret that there's other things that are a bit more pressing right now.

So since Bob's guitar was made before the v63 was publicly announced, and the serial number is from a range that is shown as being assigned to model 350 guitars...what does this mean? Could it be a prototype? Could it be an imposter? What gives?

Either way, it sure is a cool and unique bass!

Im sure its a 4003s ,all the prototypes had a longer headstock and walnut wings...maybe a b-series although i do not know enough about them.