Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Please excuse my ignorance, but what do the three or four digits in the serial number stand for? Take the serial number on my November 1970 21-fret 4001 bass, JK 340. What does the '340' stand for? Or my February 1976 4001 bass, PB 1043. What does the '1043' mean? Or the serial number on a 1981 4003 bass I once had in my collection, UB 465. What does '465' stand for? Anyone?

mine is 01 at the top input and 08685. i have no idea what that means ..except for the `01 obviously

On current RICs('99 to present)the first 2 digits indicate the year & the first two bottom digits are the week of manufacture..ie 99 02064 is 1999, Jan. 8-15.
Sorry, I have no idea about earlier models other than year.

The easiest explanation can be found here. Thanks goes out to Mike Parks for this bit of work.

I'm sorry to say that I could not find an answer to my serial number query in 'The Rickenbacker Page'. Should I contact the Company?

Sergio, I don't think they understood the question. The numbers you refer to are just the individual sequential order of manufacture. The next following guitars would be 341 and 1044 respectfully. I hope this is helpful.

Tracy, thanks for your post. Yes, your explanation makes sense to me. Thus, I assume that any particular three of four digit number from 1960 to 1986 indicates not the number of bass guitars but the total number of guitars of every model manufactured so far in a given year, i.e. my November 1970 4001 bass, JK 340, would be the 340th guitar made in 1970. That makes perfect sense to me.

Sergio: Tracy is right, I should have read your question with more care. Your interpretation is essentially correct in theory but the serial of a given instrument may not have always been in sequence. Perhaps Mark or Don may respond to the extent to which a strict ordering was maintained or maybe John Hall could let us know.

The numbers on the jack plates are generally in sequential order .
The plates are stamped and stacked and distributed ....then as more are needed , more are stamped .Thisis how it was done in the time that I was there.

The receptionist at the factory made them . This was after Brian Carman left in 1975 or 1976 to work for Music Man . He and Bill Meyers stamped most of the plates . Tom Bland who worked in assembly also stamped plates as did I . It is a boring job if ever there was one . BUT... it is one that required trust . Lots of it .

At the last week of a month ... the plates were not necessarily all used up ... some days trhings just run slower and some days , one of the guys would load jack plates , the following day they would get into final check out ... maybe . Depended on Truss rods and if there was a tempermental one or two .. lots of things happen .
Anyway , The LAST plates of the month do not mean , They were in fact used on the last working day of the month. It did not matter .
So there could be 50 to 150 jack plates that were in fact used in the WRONG month . But as the calendar jack plate police NEVER came by ... It did not matter . Just make the guitars and F.C.Hall in his funky Econoline van would come over every work day and collect the boxed finished product .

Some times ... rather than make 10 plates for ...say July , which is what was needed to finish the days run , Bill would have a batch made that was now an August plate .... it was a matter of not having to confuse the stamper .Sometimes the receptionist barely spoke English ... we had one from Holland/Netherland and several Hispanic women who did this . As English was not their first language , it was easier to set the machine and run with it ... again , IT DID NOT MATTER.

Each month would start the number series over , but the guitars or basses do NOT necessarily finish assembling in sequential order .
The number is meaningless except for insurance and for security .

DO NOT get hung up on a number that is 'LOW' ... that does NOT mean anything . It's just a number .

Hi, Peter and Mark, and thanks for your kind replies. I'm always interested in understanding every detail regarding Rickenbacker basses, and the serial number digit thing was quite obscure to me. Thanks again. I'll come up with a new topic soon.