Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

and the Electra!



Details in the Artist section under "The Syn"

da man!!!

long distance roundabout

That second bass is pretty ugly. It looks like a cartoon guitar - the way guitars were drawn in 1970's Hanna Barbera shows.

I thought Chris's bass was wired in stereo with two jacks??

Is that the RM? It looks way too good a finish to be the original.

That is the RM, he uses a stereo jack on the bass, remember, he converted it to stereo so this would be the easiest way to do so. His 4001CS was in the guitar rack, but he never used it. The bass has been refinished, as in the past there was a screw hole near the E string side by the end of the neck from where he reshaped the pickguard, it is now filled in and covered with the finish.

In person the Electra looks better, and it's sound straight out of the Ampeg is awesome. The action on that is fairly low, it seems that the action on the RM is about he same except the E string side is a tad high. The neck on the RM looks thicker than the neck on my 4005WB.

After the show I met him briefly, as they were doing autographs. I had my LP cover of Relayer for Alan White to sign; in '75 I got Squire's, Howe's and Moraz' signature, I am still missing Anderson's but at least finally, 31 years later I now have Alan's on it. I brought the LP cover of Fish Out Of Water for Chris to sign. I also gave him my band, Rare Blend's, new CD Stops Along The Way.

That is so cool! Those pictures are awesome.

I only have Roger Dean's signature on a couple of LPs - Relayer and Tales from Topographic Oceans...

If my hands were that big I would play a 35" 5 string bass ...

Cool Pix! I wonder how many times his RM has been re-built/re-finished. It doesn't look to me like the body of his RM is 2/3 of its original thickness/weight (as reported). But it does look like the neck might be getting some stability from an extra-chunky fretboard.

No, it couldn't be 2/3rds the thickness and still work. The jackplate would no longer fit and the pickup routes would be too shallow to hold the pickups.

Jeffrey, did he use any Mouradian's?

'Ol Chris looks a little rough. Hope he's taking care of himself.

I think the 2/3 thickness is a myth ... the fact that Chris believes it does not make it true ... my 68 was a very light bass ... his bass was shaved but I don't think it lost 1/3 of the wood ... maybe it lost 1/32" or 1/64" ... I believe that the bass lost a little thickness when it was shaved, but that bass was already light when compared to 70s Ric basses so Chris thought that the reason it was lighter is from the shaving ...

My 68 is very light too. Both my 64 basses are slightly heavier. I think Jeff's right, all 60's basses I've held are lighter than examples from the 70's, and that's before they end up like this one!

in the 70s the 4001 body got heavier to balance the heavier neck so there would be no neck dive ...