Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I know it has been discussed before, but I have forgotten.
Is the 74 4001 the year that had the red position markers, and was it the only year?

Sho'nuff!

Correct

Yeah.There was also some talk about green markers.I think one of our members might be able to shed a little light on that issue.
Bill

And I think it was just early on, correct? Mine is an April baby & has the red dots. I think by October the red was no more?

I received an email from Mark A. on this question.

"As I was one of the persons that installed dots from 1972 to 1976 ... I can tell you , that generally ... red dots were NOT used at the factory in the 1970's . But we did in fact use several colors ... was there a reason for this ?
Sort of ... the hobby shop where Bill Meyers bought the 1/16" round vinyl material would sometimes be out of the 'normal' spool color we were using ... so we would substitute a dark green , brown , dark purple , blue and even red when they were out of black .
In 1976 due to the Bi-centenial celebrations .... we did lots of blue basses with red dots ... and the instruments that were drilled with one dot at the octave , were turned into three dot octave markers ...thsi were then given the center dot of red and the rest blue .
There were some instruments that were red dotted , but rare ..... I hope this helps" .

"As I was one of the persons that installed dots from 1972 to 1976 ... I can tell you , that generally ... red dots were NOT used at the factory in the 1970's . But we did in fact use several colors ... was there a reason for this ?
Sort of ... the hobby shop where Bill Meyers bought the 1/16" round vinyl material would sometimes be out of the 'normal' spool color we were using ... so we would substitute a dark green , brown , dark purple , blue and even red when they were out of black .
In 1976 due to the Bi-centenial celebrations .... we did lots of blue basses with red dots ... and the instruments that were drilled with one dot at the octave , were turned into three dot octave markers ...thsi were then given the center dot of red and the rest blue .
There were some instruments that were red dotted , but rare ..... I hope this helps" .

Hummm.Where are they?The ones with the "odd" markings.I don't doubt the story however something like that would have shown up in a thread sooner or later.What has J.H. to say about this?

I'm glad to hear the response on the varied implementation of these.

I've owned Three 74' 4001's. This is the first time I've heard this one. Never seen it first hand.

Anyone out there have one of these bi-centennial gems?

My '76 4001 has the usual black dots...

AG 4001 basses with red dots in 1976... Interesting.
Both my 1974 (April and June) 4001 basses have them red dots. Rare, are they?

I dunno.I think it would be neat to see some of the other colors on the neck.That alone would be neat to see.
Bill

I saw a 360/12C63 12 string on Ebay that is a brand new one that has red dots. Check it out here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Rickenbacker-360c63-Unplayed-Mint-Brand-New-360-12c63_W0QQitemZ7388061576QQcategoryZ41439QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Boy, it sure does!

OK,but it's not ah bass.
<ducks