Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hello everybody !
Here is the problem :
I bought a 4001 and I think it is a '73 (grover tuners, checkerboard binding, toaster pickup...) but the jackplate has been replaced by a new one, so I cannot be sure of the year... Can someone tell me how I could exactly know the month ?

if you post a picture of the bass I'm sure somebody around here could tell just by looking at it...I think sergio silva is good at doing that, 70-73 4001's are his favorites I think.

Hi Victor.

Can you post or send me a pic?

Does it have a thumb rest?

Does it have full crushed pearl neck inlays?

Well, one tries...
Victor, remove the pickguard and take a look at the back of the potentiometer casings (assuming they're original to your 4001, that is). What's the seven-digit number on them?

The pot codes sometimes can be confusing-
I have two MF's (stop that laughing NOW!) that have
March pot codes.
73 was such a turbulent year for the 4001 up until July.
Many features overlap.

Original pot codes can never tell you how old a guitar is, they can only tell you how young it is.

Pots are often much older than the guitars they are in, especially if the guitar maker originally bought them in bulk. Original pots only tell you the earliest possible date the guitar left the factory, never the latest. A guitar with original ten-year-old pots, is either younger than, or exactly ten years old. It cannot possibly be any older than than ten years.

Original Rickenbacker serial numbers are also unreliable to the exact month, but usually give a rough idea. I took possession of a brand new 330, whose serial number was still two months into the future. Spooky eh?

*Note: The age of a guitar for the purposes of this discussion, refers to the date it leaves the factory. It may well have been made years earlier, and sat around unfinished, or unsold. The concept that a guitar has a single manufacturing date, when they actually have numerous dates from start to finish is a whole 'nother kettle of fish...