Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I can see many of you just love the 1968 4001...

Why this particular year?
What happened then?

lights please...

I've never ben lucky enough to play or own one, but I can say that to me it's easily the most beautiful of the series. Something about the checkerboard with the vintage inlays and a nice mellowed Fireglo...

(Entertains evil thoughts of selling 240Z...)

Its the vintage Rick features, checkered binding, toaster pickup, crushed pearl inlays, and walnut headstock wings. Some 68's still had the horseshoe treble pickup.

I used to have a 69 that I sold several years ago. Wish I'd kept it. It was a beautiful dark Fireglo and had all the vintage features except the horseshoe treble pickup.

1 - they actually made several of these ... before '68 there weren't very many made ...

2 - it was the last year of the horseshoe pickup on the 4001...

3 - it was towards the end of the slim neck era ... before the skunk stripe necks ...

4 - it was the first year of the smaller treble pickup surround ...

5 - it was one of the last years of the checkered binding ...

6 - the 60's basses were lighter and more resonant than modern rics ...

7 - the late 60's were a magical transition era ...

8 - people have fallen in love with this bass ... http://www.3dentourage.com/425/68-ric-2.htm ...

9 - they came mono from the factory ... unless you ordered the ric-o-sound option ...

10 - they still had the clear lucite finger rest ...

11 - they still had the old style truss rod cover ...

12 - it was towards the end of the walnut headwing era ...

13 - it was towards the end of the full width inlays era ...

14 - they still had the 60's shape pickguard ... 1/2" spacing and fatter size ...

15 - they still had the toaster neck pickup ...

So many of us would like to see a reissue 4001v68 bass with as many of those features as we could get ... Ric will never make a bass with a neck that is that slim and weak again ... but the rest of the features could be done ...

All that Jeff said and more....If you ever get the chance to play one, or any 60's Ric bass for that matter you'll understand. The necks are so thin it's almost silly.
My 68 has the thinnest neck of all my basses including both my 64's and a 67. My 72 4001 and 73 Fretless are club like in comparison. You can vibrato it like a guitar easily and it is probably as light as any solid bass ever made.

Oh, and they look magnificent too...
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/wintz63/album?.dir=842c&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/wintz63/my_photos

yeah a friend has a 1968 4001,, actually its very special, its a rose morris export model, but with the "american" binding and triangular inlays. also has the old style knobs and horseshoe pickup with the tapered surround.

Most of you guys might not belive me, but its true

Owen, your friends bass sounds like a domestic deluxe 4001. The RM bass were all dot inlay with no binding. It still would have a horseshoe if it's before September 68 and the export knobs could have been fitted new or at a later time.
I don't know how many deluxe 4001 basses were available in the UK in the 60's but they would probably have been ordered through Rose Morris.

i know that andrew- but its definatly a 68 by the serial number. All i can say is he knows his stuff and told me there were a batch of export models (3 to be exact) with all the deluxe features, and this is one of them apparently.

I wasnt sure either but it is certainly slightly different from the 60's 4001's i have seen on the forum. The Knobs certainly look original to it, they are very worn and rusty.

Owen, I'd take a guess that there were a few people interested in the deluxe models at that time and Rose Morris ordered a few. The old vintage export knobs may well have been fitted instead of the silver top deluxe versions.
That would be the only difference between those basses and Jeff's old domestic 68 posted earlier.

For anyone looking for a RM bass this probably wouldn't fit the bill.

Some pics and a serial number would be cool....

yeah ill try and get hold of some pics. The horseshoe surround definately looks like the ones on your RM1999's tho

Indeed

Without documentation it is very difficult to determine if someone in england ordered a 4001 deluxe and it was shipped through rose morris,the one man that could provide such information is saving this mountain of paperwork for a retirement project so don't hold your breath. As for the 68 4001 appeal it just so happens the production #s were higher in 68. The real rare birds seem to be 61-62 ,66,70-71. Ive never seen a 66 i couldn't tell you if the heal is square or rounded my 67 is rounded 65s are square.As for 70-71 they don't come up for sale too often,61-62 4001 first ears or the 4001 appears to remain allusive.

So is a '68 more valuable (financially speaking, of course) than any other 4001's? I have a '79 which I love, but my '68 feels so much nicer. Even though the neck needs restoration, the slim neck is just really comfortable in my hands. I got a mapleglo '68 from my father. He bought it in a pawn shop in San Francisco shortly before he went to Vietnam with the Navy. The bass went with him on the USS Midway. When he got back he used it for years, until the neck got too bad. When I graduated from college he gave me the bass with an IOU in the case for the cost of restoration. The only thing is I am still looking for someone to do the work. Nobody I have taken it to will touch it. I REALLY want to get that bass working again. It desperately needs some TLC.

Javier, if you look in the "Tech" section of the Forum, there are many good sources, some of us here think that this guy is pretty good for working on Ric's

"The Vibrola" Rickenbacker Technical Forum » Building A Neck Thru Body Guitar

http://photobucket.com/albums/b53/DaleFortune/000_0494.jpg

Ken; I never saw a 70 or a 71..

Did they make any in those years????