Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

This post is just by way of celebration, so please forgive some enthusiasm here! I was kinda worried the last week or so that I had three guitars all coming via UPS.

Why? Well, after 21 years of flawless package delivery, UPS failed to deliver a BG in December. According to their own investigation, now conpleted, they delivered it to an incorrect address and then lost it, never to be found or forwarded to me. It does not help that UPS has now declared it officially their fault, I had no insurance on it Only the seller had insurance on it.

Then UPS delivered a package earlier this month in which the seller had packed the wrong guitar (safely enough, although at first I thought it had been tampered with but it turned out that it was only Customs opening and (crudely) resealing it, therefore it was not tampered with after all) and now the seller can't find where they mislaid the correct Rick that should have been in the package, instead of this cheap Fender they shipped. Makes you wonder about some sellers...

But now, woohoo! Problems with UPS seem to be over UPS came through today with THREE vintage undamaged Rickenbacker 4001 basses on one day

In the delivery were (1) the 1968 4001 FG from Germany, and from a brief peek in the case through the clear bubble-wrap, it is gorgeous. Clear unchecked original finish, looks much better than the eBay listing (2) the April 1971 4001 MG from NY, also in clear bubble-wrap and also gorgeous, and (3) the July 1973 4001 JG from Ohio. Not in bubble-wrap, and evidently this one was a heavy smoker's guitar from the reek, but also in excellent shape with its real leather-ended OHSC too. Woohoo! And now I must let them sit for eight hours before I can even open the cases all the way

Photos to follow later, after they all equalize in temperature and humidity on this cold day and I can get my digital camera out and take photos

Elys,
In the first case of UPS loosing the Ric, you should contact the seller, have them file a claim, and then refund you your purchase price.

Was the BG the one that Mike Gutierrez sold on Ebay a while back?

Good advice, Glen! The seller did just that, and he tells me he is still waiting on UPS to finish the claims process. At least UPS investigated and admitted they lost it. That should enable him to eventually get his claim honored.

I don't know Mike's BG, Ted, but this one was Jon's BG that some say was the inspiration to get their own basses refinished in eggplant BG too. I am glad that he took great pictures of it, and thus even more sad that I never got to see it in-person. Almost as sorry as I am getting shipped the wrong guitar from England and never seeing in-person the one that I actually won. That ripoff is gonna hurt the pocketbook, since it is a total loss at present to what may well now turn out to be a shady eBay seller. Maybe my credit card company will ride to the rescue on that one.

I dunno, after seeing this April 1971 MG, and the nice figuring in the maple, I am now not so keen on refinishing her in BG. Maybe I will do the July 1973 JG instead, since it was opaque to start with. It would not have gotten the best maple selected for it, most likely, and it would make a better eggplant BG.

Three in one day..wow! The best I can do is two in one week. I got my 4004MID Tuesday,(what a bitchin' bass)and tomorrow I get a candy apple red MusicMan Bongo 5 string from Texas for a killer price.

Wow Elys, that's some day! Is the bass from England the '72 like mine? If that's lost, that's a disaster! (although I hope it finds its way to me ) I didn't know you were getting the '71 and '73 too though. Nice!

If the shop is the one I think it is, I don't think it's a shady seller, just usual guitar shop incompetence.

Thanks, Shaun! That part of me that naively trusts in everyone being scrupulously honest like me initially assumed that this was the case, just as you said. I wrote them and told them I was sure that they did not intend to ship the wrong bass, and that someone else somewhere was excitedly unpacking his or her newly-arrived Fender only to be disappointed to find an old Rickenbacker instead. I asked them to have UPS do a call-tag and pick up the Fender, go collect my Rick from whomever they blunderingly mis-shipped to, and forward it to me. All works out in the end, no problem. That did not happen. They refused to ship me the correct bass, claimed they shipped the right one, and so here we are. I have lots of photos showing the bass before, during, and after unpacking, and my partner and I met the UPS guy inside our commercial building and he put the package directly into our hands so I know it could not have been tampered with. The way it was packed, except for having been obviously opened and loosely retaped by Customs coming into the country, in that special form-fit and unusually taped packing of the shipper, could only have fit that Fender, not a Rick

I really do want to think they are not shady, and if that is the case then the owner needs to sack an incompetent floor clerk or two

Yes, the 73 was another eBay purchase. It has the best finish of them all, perfectly thick and shiny black, but it has belt-rash that took off the finish but did not scratch the wood at all.

The 71 was one that I initially bid on back in December, and there is a thread here somewhere on that one. But the dealer in Ohio that listed it withdrew the listing after he got a submarine sale offer from a guy in NY, and the guy in NY heard about my search for a bass as close in month and year as possible to my long-lost and beloved March 1871 BG. So he contacted me and we made a private sale between two parties, and here she is now! Just one month away in manufacture date from my original bass! WooHoo and Yippee!!!

Congratulations Dane!! You must be one happy camper. That 4004MID is an awesomely gorgeous bass

Elys, if that's the case that's awful. Surely there must be something you can do?

That it is. And the maple fingerboard is so unusual and cool for a RIC bass. I'm wiring it in stereo with concentric pots and changing out the truss rod cover for a vintage plexi one though.

I have never played one with a maple fingerboard Be sure to keep all the original harness intact and safely stored away. I agree that you should turn it into a player for now, with cool upgrades to suit you personally, but use totally all new wire (except for the pickup leads) and new pots, jacks, etc. Better that and leave the old harness intact, than to change up and resolder the original harness.

Someday years down the road, when it is skyrocketing in collector value, you might want to be able to restore it back to bone-stock easily

The original harness is definitely coming out in one piece. With so much of the original electronics being changed, it's ridiculous to try and reuse six inches of wire and an .047 cap. As much as I like and appreciate the vintage collectable basses, They aren't exactly what I would use the way they are and they're worth so much that I would just sell them and buy more usable stuff.

Dane, if you want to sell the black TRC from my, uh, I mean your Laredo, I may be interested. Drop me a line.

PS - I knew that you would love it. Congrats once again.

Elys, once and only once, I was lucky enough to buy three Rickenbackers in one day. However, only two of them were local purchases, with the third being an overseas deal.

I can just imagine the adrenaline rush you are currently experiencing! You must be like a kid in a candy store. Given the bad experiences you have had in the past, it's now time for the karma to be restored in your favor. Good luck to ya!

I came close this week. A 330 with case and a separate 350v63 case arrived on Monday, followed by a Gretsch on Tuesday.

Congratulations, Elys...... a red letter day indeed!!!