Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Yeesh.

I can't tell how you guys can tell, would you educate me in the ways of forgery spotting?

Hmm .. colour's off for one thing, the Fireglo doesn't look right, nor does it's application round the edges of the body.

In the full length shot you can see a little strip of different colour wood on the headstock, this stripe should continue all the way through the neck and body, however if you look at the other picture there's no stripe running through the body.

I'd put that seller in jail, period.


Hey, David, I might e-mail you some pics of fake 4001 basses to help you spot them. Is that okay with you?

Funny he didn't show the four bolt neckplate on the back.

Yeah, but the hotdog-with-mustard FG sorta makes that move extrasuperfluous...

Oh yeah, sure Sergio, I'd appreciate it. Sorry I didn't answer right away, I missed the sentence under the pictures until David responded to it.

Due to some particularly nasty counterfeiting currently going on in this seller's part of the world, we've referred this to the DC in charge at Trading Standards in South Yorkshire, as well a marking it for deletion from eBay.

He might just be clueless, in which case the police may be able to help him out. On the other hand . . .

Just a hunch, but I question the motives of the sellers who seem to be dumping all these fakers with the hopes of catching some well meaning gift givers during the holiday rush.

I can't remember seeing SO many fakers being for sale at one time on Ebay.

I agree.
David C. and David D., I'll be sending some pics of fake 4001s your way in a few hours. Stay tuned.

Faker spotting is quite the sport around here. Sergio is a sharpshooter of the highest order. He has a remarkable eye for very small details.

For me the FG ones are easy to spot because it looke so cheap - like Jim described.

Go get 'em, John!

Not at all. I just love Rickenbacker instruments and hate fakes.

One "tell" is the tiny dots on the pickguard for indexing the volume and tone control knobs. Factory Ricks don't have these dots.

The stripe in the headstock and not in the body is usually, but not always, a clue. However, with deluxe features that this has (shark-fin position markers, bound body) the stripe should run all the way through the body. This was a feature on Rick basses from around 1971/2 through about 1980. "S" models with set necks from that period would have the stripe in the neck and not the separate body, but they would not have the deluxe features.

On top of that, the color as mentioned above, all point accusing fingers.