Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Soon after receiving my 72 4001 I discovered that the RIC O Sound, and the regular jack where flipped when I went to plug it in. The jack plate was also flipped (number on top, letters on bottom). Last night I took the pickguard off to flip the jack plate and connections around, and discovered that beneath the pots on the body, 4001S was wrote in with a heavy pencil, or sharpie. Everything appears to be original except it looks like someone may have added a new pickup toggle switch at one point.
I guess this explains why the previous owner had listed 4001S in his Ebay description.
I wonder if the body was meant to be for a 4001S at the time of production. I wish I would have taken a picture.
Dale, maybe you could shed some light on this?

Well the 4001 S models were neck thru body, meaning the body was made in 2 pieces that were glued on to the full length neck, while the 4000 series was a fitted glued in neck attached to a seperately made body. All those marks in the control cavity on all Ricks designate the model/color and stages the instrument went thru up to the final assembly. All markings should have finish over them from the factory. Sounds like someone put a new 3 way in and got the output jacks and serial# plate reversed or maybe they wanted it that way so the stero jack was easier access for them.

Some 4001s models in the 70s were glued neck.

That's correct, we always thought the S meant Special since it had a glued in neck with dot inlays instead of tri-angles.

the original S models were neck through ... they usually lacked ric-o-sound and always lacked binding and triangle inlays ... the 4001s models with set necks usually started out as 4000 models some were factory converted and some were owner mods ...

My 1975 4001S WHT has its original Model 4000 truss rod cover.