Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hey, first of all hello, since this is my first post ever on this forum.
Here's what, I nees your help. A friend of mine recently got what's supposed to be a carcass of an old 4001 as a gift from an old hippie guy.
He wants to sell it to me for a cheap price, because it's pretty beat with lots of missing parts.
The problem is, he just sent me some pictures of it and looks kind of weird. The former allegedly butchered it and replaced some parts, but even so, it looks a bit strange.
I'm posting the pictures, so if you guys can have a look and tell me if it's more likely legit or some kind of counterfeit job, I'll be grateful.

Welcome to the forum, Pedro. Looks likde a beat up 4001 to me. The pickguard has obviously been replaced. What makes you say it looks strange?

Looks real to me. Bad photos are hard to figure out though. A close-up under the truss rod cover should tell for sure.

Fret board looks real dark, but it looks like it was probably just stripped, re-fretted and then not sealed/varnished.

beatlefreak wrote:Welcome to the forum, Pedro. Looks likde a beat up 4001 to me.

I dont see neck pickup routing in the last pic. A 4000?

Yep - That's what it looks like.

The board and inlays don't look too genuine to me. Faker?

Hmm. Hard to say.

But then I'm thinking if it was a 4000 in a previous life (no front pickup route suggests this), then the TRC can't be original because it says "Model 4001" on it. Why would you need to replace an original 4000 TRC with one from a 4001, unless it were a faker 4000 onto which a genuine 4001 TRC was slapped in order to make it look like the real deal? I dunno. I'll leave this one to the experts.

Only thing out of place to me is the dark fretboard, but Jeff's explanation may cover that. Looks like a good old beater 4000 with a replacement pickguard.
As the pickguard has been relaced so could the TRC, but why a 4001 cover? The absence of routing seems a clear indication...

FAKE!!!!!

Notice how the fretboard extends into the body about a fret too far.

Besides that, a 4000 would have "dot" inlays and no binding....

The horns don't look quite right either, in the close up. Beware!

cheyenne wrote:Besides that, a 4000 would have "dot" inlays and no binding....

This. And the fretboard is pretty dark. A closeup of the string holes at the bottom of the bridge might help this diagnosis.

The TRC looks like a real one, anyway.

Oh, and see if the binding goes all the way around the bottom of the bass -- if it's continuous, then it's fake.

In the pics, it doesn't look like there is a route for a neck pick up, but it's hard to get a feel for depth with the ****** photos. Since it has the hole in the pick guard for a Jazz bass pickup, I'd assume that there is probably a route under there. Hard to tell how deep it is since we're looking through a pick up hole. I'd guess that this was a late '73 or '74 with wavy Grovers that exploded and were replaced. The early years of the floating inlays looked a little different than the late 70's. The plexi TRC supports my theory.

As others have commented, a 4000 would have no binding and dot inlays.

It was probably a JG that was stripped. Too hard to get the JG out of the treble pick up cavity, but may have been routed deeper for the neck pick up, hence no paint there.

And I don't think the neck extends any farther into the body than my 70's Ricks. I think the effect you're seeing is just a result of the camera angle combined with the cheesy homemade pick guard.

My $.02

What about Scott's comment about the fretboard extending onto the body that far?