Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Brothers from different mothers, Rickenbacker's "other" bass line started with the introduction of the 3001 and its short-scale twin, the 3000. According to the Smith book, a prototype bolt-on short-scale was developed in 1971, but it appears the first marketing of these two similar basses was in 1975, extending to 1984 when it was replaced by the 2030 and 2050 basses. But we'll deal with those later. This week, let's post pix and discuss the 3000/3001 family.

I love the band called "Primal Scream" and I realized a few months ago that the bass player's main bass is rickenbacker 3000. Very cool bass I wish I had one 3000 or 3001.

Okay, here we go. A 3000 (1976) and 3001 (1978) in Mapleglo with black guards.

They make a cute couple, no?

Interesting to see the differences:

- No skunk stripe on the 3000
- Darker fretboard on the 3000
- Much smaller body on the 3000.

Poor ignorant me - I'd always thought the 3001 was just a 3000 with a long neck....

Ron, those are great shots of the under-documented 3000/3001 basses! Can I come to you for high-res photos for my book someday?

bassduke49 wrote:Ron, those are great shots of the under-documented 3000/3001 basses! Can I come to you for high-res photos for my book someday?

Funny how I knew you would say something like this as I was looking at the pics before I scrolled down to your post! Why not plan a trip to Cleveland and we could all get together?

antipodean wrote:Interesting to see the differences:

- No skunk stripe on the 3000
- Darker fretboard on the 3000
- Much smaller body on the 3000.

Poor ignorant me - I'd always thought the 3001 was just a 3000 with a long neck....

Another difference is that the 3000 has a "slab" style body; the body edges of the 3001 are generally rounded:

bassduke49 wrote:Ron, those are great shots of the under-documented 3000/3001 basses! Can I come to you for high-res photos for my book someday?

Absolutely, Paul. I would be happy to contribute in whatever way I can.

And let's not overlook one of the coolest things about the 3000 -- the logo on its case!

So is the 3000 a short scale bass?
Great pics, again!

Hi guys,

I used to have three basses of the 3000-family. My first one was an all black 3001. Longscale. In UV light the body's blue! It was a very nice bass, but I sold it cos I don't like all black basses and the sound was very nice but nothing special. At the same time I bought a Mapleglo 3000. I only noticed the difference of bodysize when I photographed them together. It's a nice thing to do and the proportions of both basses are nice. Not long after that I bought a second 3000 in cream. I liked the looks of that one better than my Mapleglo 3000, but the last one really became my bass. I sold the cream one when I needed the money. No I've got the Mapleglo left. All three were from my year of birth: 1976. The black one is for sale in Belgium now.

There are more differences between the 3000 and 3001; some of them are obvious and some of them are already mentioned above, but I put them all together:
3001: Long scale
3000: Short scale

3001: Bigger slab body
3000: Smaller body

3001: Skunk stripe
3000: No stripe

3001: Three controls: High, low volume
300: two controls: tone, volume

3001: side jack input
3000: Pickguard jack input

3001: S/N on jack input plate
3000: S/N on neck plate

I think the darker fretboard is just coincidentally. Wood's always different.

I always get compliments about the sound of the 3000. A nice warm sounding bass. A bit P, a bit Rickenbacker, a bit shortscale, but just warm and sweet. I'll try to find some pics.

My other (better) pics are too big. Got to make 'm smaller first...

While you're waiting on more pics, here's a Mani thread:

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=383212

With his slightly older and bigger brother the 4005, cat Booker T. (Curtis is on my avatar) and my sold Orange. I'm all Hiwatt now. A Bass 100 + Custom 200 + 4x10.



And one of my all time favourite live pics:

echoing steve's question,the 3000 short-scale is what, 30 inch or 32? good to see ya here,chris, i did think your most recent bass was a 3001,rather than the 3000,it just doesn't look all THAT small.....

The 3000 is shortscale so 30" I have a '64 Burns Vista Sonic Bass which is 32" and they call that medium scale. Also for strings.

The 3000 is quite small and I'm quite tall: 1.90m. The bass looks quite small on me in my opinion, but I'm used to my enormous 4005 and Thunderbird:) I think the 3000 has roughly the same size as a Gibson EB3 or EB0.