Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

To kick things off, here's a fake 4001 handrest & p.u. mounting ring being passed off as the real thing. It's on Ebay. The additional pics there show the fake part in greater detail and the pickup, which appears to be genuine though.

hows that fake?

it kinda looks like a 70's surround to me ... except the top part is shaped a little different ... is that a little pit hole on the left?

It looks legit to me. Those things had differences depending on the date of manufacture. What makes you think it's fake, Sérgio?

I don't know something looks funny to me too, but I can't put my finger on it. Something about the surround doesn't look right. The part that curves up where the cover goes looks too short to me.

I just checked out the other photos, that is not a hole, it is just a reflection, and it looks more real to me in the other photos, there are a few members here with metal cover Rics. What do you think? I think if it's real it's about a 73.

Well, pull out your 4001s and 4003s and find out for yourselves the differences between the above fake and the genuine article.

Here's a 4001 copy sporting a treble pickup surround just like the one at issue.

The top half of the surround should be quite a bit shorter than the bottom half, shouldn't it?

If by 'top half' you mean the neck side flange of the surround and by 'bottom half' you mean the bridge side flange, you are correct.
But there are a couple of further details that give the above handrest/surround assembly away as a (poor) copy.

A fake 4001 bridge/tailpiece assembly. It is being auctioned by the same seller, by the way.

It seems like the parts of the cover that curve down into the surround are too shallow, their radius are larger that the real deal, am I correct? Also, the flat plate that rests against the body should not extend beyond the vertical sides of the surround.

As to the bridge, the holes that the strings pass through in the back of the bridge should be oval not round and the two mounting screw holes are too far back. In addition, the shape of the panel the pass-through holes are on is wrong.

Jeffrey:
Bingo on all fronts!

Here's another one. The seller is not trying to pass this one off as a Rick-made part, though. Notice the screws, too.

There are more and more fakes of Rickenbacker nowadays. Maybe I'd suggest Peter to open a specific thread for fakes. This could maybe help discourage swindlers.

Cheers,
JL