Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Wow.... Amazing wood in that one! I love the tiger striping in the neck.

Thanks all for the comments, most kind. She really is a looker. One of the neat things about the wood on this guitar is that the heavy flame in the neck naturally "stops" at about the heel & the figure turns kind of curly (like the tail of a comet) - that's just on the back side. As you can see, on the top of the neck-through the flame goes all the way to the tail.

Unfortunately with the small pictures you can't see the grain too well, but that gives the guitar a very unusual aesthetic when viewed first-hand. Sorry about my ****** photography.

Okay, i'm back.

How about 4001 week?

Since we already did "s" basses, let's keep this to deluxe 4001's.

SnotGlo!

I like the ones from 1973-

My 1968 4001 MG









1976 4001FL (just slightly modded)







and my first bass which I purchased in 1982: a 1979 4001V63 JG (LOTS of alterations over the years - tuned B-E-A-D, and features wiring mods for phase reversal, .0047 cap bypass, and series/parallel)

Humble by comparison:
1977 4001 Banana Bass
Pickguard is cut from clear plexi & backpainted to match early spacing using RIC template.
Hipshot tailpiece.
Neck pup by Sergio!


Wiring harness is current RIC stock: 330k pots.

Humble-Schmumble. Nice looking bass!

Thanks, Mark!
It was a mess when I got it.
It's a bit more yellow in person than that pic.

Those 1973 and earlier 4001's are so gorgeous!
The JG & chrome looks killer!

My 'humble' '73 4001.

I know - I dig Gilbert's 73's too.

Matt Hill, who did my bass work at Bass NW in Seattle, nick-named my black & chrome '79 'The Harley Bass.'

Jeff - sweet looking bass! It must seriously rock with that reissue HS! My '79 has the HS reissue as well.

Just curious - I notice you use the same non-Rick tuners on all your basses - even the '67 4005. What's the story there?

Yeah, this bass sounds truly great, even when it had the hi-gain in it, which of course, I still have.

Years ago I started putting those Hipshot Ultralite tuners on my Zon basses as they are a direct drop-in replacement for Gotoh GB7 tuners, which it seems most manufacturers use. The ULs are lighter, have a higher tuning ratio of 27:1, and feel great. The 4001 had falling apart, sloppy feeling Grover wavy tuners, that I sold on the 'bay when I installed the ULs. As for the 4005WB, back in the early '80s I replaced the now long gone RIC tuners with Schaller M4S tuners. I had to drill out the headstock to 11/16" to fit them, but at the time the bass was just an old bass with no vintage appeal, and I liked the Schallers. I had them on the 4005WB until I found out that Hipshot started making the ULs to fit 11/16" holes a couple of years ago, so I got those to replace the M4s tuners. The ULs feel like they took a couple of lbs. off the headstock and the bass balances great. Back in May I got those NOS RIC tuners from Ric-Outlet that will some day go on the bass.

'72

Hey, time for 4001's! Here's a few - sorry for the lousy pics:


The '77 MG:


And the '79 JG, which is fairly beat-up:


I've always wondered about the JG, whether it was a 'faker or not. I know Rics vary, but still...the 'guard is screwed-in too close to the edge (and is quite wide) and the whole right body wing was attached about 1/4" too high. The neck pickup looks a little too far from the neck. The routs and the skunk stripe (which you can barely see through the finish) look spot-on. It was resprayed - you can see FireGlo peeking out all over and in the cavity (where the graffiti was taped over twice - once for the FG and again for the JG - sorry no pic of that on hand!):


I guess the graffiti also points to it being real - maybe it was a "learner" bass for someone new to the shop? It's been dropped at some point (check out this crack):


and has scratches on the bridge and jackplate that look like a bear attacked it! It's beefy (as opposed to the MG which is super crunchy).

I love 'em both, but some of you guys got me jealous! Great stuff all around!