Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

A couple of years ago I bought an interesting 4003 from a forum member. It has a number of interesting features, but the one I want to ask about here is the silver lettering on the truss rod cover:



Any ideas what years they were like this? I have a '93 Jetglo with black trim & hardware that has regular white lettering - in fact, here they are side by side:



Are there a bunch of black TRC's out there with the silver lettering or is this really unusual? One of the interesting features of this bass is that it's a 2004, even though black trim was phased out by around 2002. Apparently, this bass was specially made for the Japanese market, though I don't have any hard evidence for that other than a Japanese version of the manual in the case...

I'm not certain, but I believe this may be a TRC from a 650D. The 650 Dakotas had silver lettering, and the Sierras had gold lettering.

That is the standard 4004 Laredo TRC......probably scored from RIC when you were able to exchange for non-identical TRC's. I believe now all you can get is whatever version that you send in for exchange.

Thanks for clarifying that, Brian.

incubus2432 wrote:That is the standard 4004 Laredo TRC......probably scored from RIC when you were able to exchange for non-identical TRC's. I believe now all you can get is whatever version that you send in for exchange.

Thanks - good to know they were on the 4004 - ever seen one stock on a 4003?

I'm still thinking that mine is original to the bass, though of course I can't prove it - yet! On a different forum, someone said they thought they saw it in a Japanese bass magazine from about the same time (2004) but I haven't been able to track it down. My next trip to Japan I might have to scour the used book stores...

The TRC with chrome letters on black plastic was also standard on the 200 (or so) 4003 SPC "Blackstar" basses.

bassduke49 wrote:The TRC with chrome letters on black plastic was also standard on the 200 (or so) 4003 SPC "Blackstar" basses.

Your Blackstar is flippin' gorgeous, Paul!

I traded the white one from my 4003S for a 4004L style black/silver letters one about 9 years ago. I don't think they let you do that anymore.