Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

It's been two years to the day since I placed my order for a 4004LK with Mike Parks at the Rickenbacker Connection. Is anyone else here waiting for one? Any word on when a few more of these may trickle out? Mike seemed to think there was a good chance that there would be some more later this spring ...

Thanks!

Doug

What?!

Forgive my ignorance, but I thought the 60 Lemmy basses have all been produced and shipped.

Or that's not the case?

Nope. Only a handfull have been shipped; actually, the only one I know of is the guy who bought one in a store about 6 months ago and posted some pictures on alt.guitar.rickenbacker. At least according to his website, Mike Parks hasn't received any of the dozen or so that have been ordered through him.

Oh well, at least this will give me more time to decide whether I should keep it "stock", or make it "authentic" by adding a pickup cover to it ...

I'd like to see Rickenbacker expand and add more production capacity ....

Then maybe we could see more Rics in the stores ... maybe more models ...

...and maybe prices would drop... because quality had also...

It's a tricky course to navigate, providing consistent quality and maintaining a price point that is within the reach of those whose interest your product will pique.

I think that over the years, for the most part, Rickenbacker has done an admirable job of pulling this off.

I don't think you will see prices drop on Rics ... unless they can get a cheaper price on the stuff they use to build them ...

Rickenbacker is one of the few musical insrtument companies that takes cost and then adds a profit and then sells it ... they have no volume discounts to ANY dealers ... but they also have no huge markups on desireable instruments ... compare that to Gibson ... have you priced a Les Paul lately????

Ric has a nice little niche market ... they sell stuff faster than they can make it ... it takes at least 9 months to get a new Ric after placing an order ...

I would like to see Rics more mainstream and in more abundance ...

We're working on both points, and in such a way as to maintain, if not increase the overall quality.

For the record, production went up 5% in December and we have another 5% increase coming up shortly. It's all a matter of efficiency and monitoring carefully the quality of the output.

Excuse my ignorance, but I have seen pictures of the Lemmy Signature bass having both two and three pickups. Which is it?

I'd like to see a 50% increase in the manufacture of Rickenbackers myself .... but also I don't want Rickenbacker to over expand like k-mart or Mars Music

I have seen pics of the 2 and 3 pickup version of the Lemmy bass also ... I got the impression that Lemmy's was a 3 pickup model and the re-issue models were 2 pickup ... but I could be wrong

For example ... if Rickenbacker had 100 5 string basses and 25 8 string basses to deliver to various retailers they would be snatched up quickly .... and maybe a 4005 reissue .... and a 5 and 8 string with active electronics ... maybe some new models ...

Personally I'd like to see a 5 string bass with single coil pickups and a 1 3/4" nut and a 1/2" string spacing at the bridge ... this would sound good, it would be slim enough to play fast and clean and it would be wide enough at the bridge to slap or finger or play with a pick ...

Getting back to the original post, I too am waiting for a 4004LK. I'm a patient guy, but it would certainly be nice if RIC at least provided us with an explanation for the delay, especially considering it has been two years since they were available for ordering.

Doug and Steve,
Did you pay the $2799 list price for your orders?

Steve - good to know that someone else is in the same boat (and as curious as I am about the ETA)!

Paul - so far, I've only paid a deposit. I don't remember what the final amount is supposed to be, but it's definitely less than the "list" price. No idea what the MAP on those is.

It's been so long since I put the deposit down I'll have to look at my receipt to see what it's costing me! I think it was in the $1800 range. Hey Doug, what's MAP?

MAP = "Minimum Advertised Price". When you see an ad or catalog that says "call for price" instead of listing the actual price, that means that the dealer in question is selling below MAP. Companies that advertise items for below the manufacturer-specified MAP will usually have their dealership revoked by the manufacturer.

P.S. Steve - did you also order yours from Mike Parks on 1/29/01? I see an "SW" listed on his website.