Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I know that Lemmy has been using his 4004's for a while now (wonder if he ever uses anything else?)

Question is - when he was a 4001/03 player, did he have them modified? I'm sure that I read somewhere once about mods carried out for whatever reason?

The tone he got was magnificent - in all fairness, the raw sound I get from my 4004cii sounds similar to his old tone 'on record' - deep, bassy, classic Ric tone.

Then again, I am a little biased - Lem's probably the main reason I picked up a Ric in the first place, I've always loved his sound whether is a 01/03 or 04!

One of his Rics wasn't a Ric at all. Some Japanese knockoff. I believe it is the "out to lunch" one. He did modify them all.

I know....
only mono output
and maple fingerboard on "out to lunch"

this is mine:
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuse ... =438023824

spongebob wrote:I know that Lemmy has been using his 4004's for a while now (wonder if he ever uses anything else?)

Question is - when he was a 4001/03 player, did he have them modified? I'm sure that I read somewhere once about mods carried out for whatever reason?

Some of the mods Lemmy did on his Rics was to put a Gibson Thunderbird Humbucker in the neck position...one of his Basses a mapleglo 4001s whit a Thunderbird humbucker in the neck position..was in fact a Ric 4000...(the one Pickup version of the 4001)..that had a Gibson pickup installed later in the neck position....I think he even used this Bass in his Hawkwind days.
Another bass was the white 4001 whit black name plate and black binding etc.,,,I´ve read Lemmy saying that besides Rickenbackers he loves Gibson Thunderbirds...but he allways had a problem whit the neckdive on these Basses...Besides playing Rickenbackers I also play a Gibson SG bass...I can Imagine that If you putted a Gibson Humbucker In the neck position on a Ric you would get so much low end that your balls would start swinging...
Best Dan.

yes, I read something about the Thunderbird pickups.

Another mod is the strap lock position,
he put it back to the neck.

Don't know too much about Lemmy, but didn't he install different knobs on his basses? Like big oven knobs or something like that?

And he had a 1999, I believe - it's the one around 3:00 of this excellent video.

I've always wanted to know what this is, or was:

http://www.maya29.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ ... kthing.jpg

I think the pic's from the early 80s, there used to be a short series featuring this bass but this is the only one I can find now.

Jon.

Jon, that one looks like a '72 or '73 (checker binding with skunk stripe) and obviously heavily modified. Even the binding on the body under the arm is sanded away. Bad *** bridge, who knows what for the pickups and all those switches. Custom inlays in a bubinga fretboard, too. Nifty!

An early 70s 4001 going by the CB and the skunk strip with an after market finger board. Well thats my best guess.

edit
Thats what I get for having a coffee mid-post.

badeggs wrote:Don't know too much about Lemmy, but didn't he install different knobs on his basses? Like big oven knobs or something like that?

And he had a 1999, I believe - it's the one around 3:00 of this excellent video.

That's his original bass (as John states); it's not a 1999, Lemmy states it was originally a single pickup bass and it actually has the smaller headstock; I believe it's about a '70 or thereabouts. That is the bass that taught me how to play, and the bass I'd love most in the entire world. I always wondered what happened to that. It was the one with the TBird pickup and is on the Ace of Spades video; it was also the one he used in Hawkwind. In chronological order that was the first, I believe the 2nd was his original maple-necked bass (bought with no frets and "about 100 holes in the headstock"), the 3rd was the white BT, and then he started to diversify somewhat. He originally put a DiMarzio Model 1 in the white bass, then had some ThBird copy pickups made (I suspect by Peter Cook) for both that and the maple necked one, and then replaced them with Barts. When Peter Cook got the original in for some work he said it was wired all wrong and the output was very low (out of phase?). Last thing you'd imagine! I thought the original had been smashed......I hope it gets fixed up.

Cool, nice info Shaun! So it's a '70 4000? The neck looks about 1/2" thick...

henry5 wrote:That's his original bass (as John states); it's not a 1999, Lemmy states it was originally a single pickup bass and it actually has the smaller headstock; I believe it's about a '70 or thereabouts. That is the bass that taught me how to play, and the bass I'd love most in the entire world. I always wondered what happened to that. It was the one with the TBird pickup and is on the Ace of Spades video; it was also the one he used in Hawkwind. In chronological order that was the first, I believe the 2nd was his original maple-necked bass (bought with no frets and "about 100 holes in the headstock"), the 3rd was the white BT, and then he started to diversify somewhat. He originally put a DiMarzio Model 1 in the white bass, then had some ThBird copy pickups made (I suspect by Peter Cook) for both that and the maple necked one, and then replaced them with Barts. When Peter Cook got the original in for some work he said it was wired all wrong and the output was very low (out of phase?). Last thing you'd imagine! I thought the original had been smashed......I hope it gets fixed up.

That's an interesting one...

Nice birdseye on the body, it does appear to have the short headstock, and the 19th fret dot inlay, so, you would think somewhere @70- early 72. Then there's that headstock volute which appears every now and then on a UK bass...

badeggs wrote:Cool, nice info Shaun! So it's a '70 4000? The neck looks about 1/2" thick...

'70 is a guess, partly based on the period he started using it. I definitely think it's pre '72 because it wasn't new when he got it (salmon pink apparently, which he hated!) and he was using it in '72. I have a feeling I read somewhere it was a '69, but I'm not sure they had the shorter headstocks then. Someone else more knowledgeable may be able to verify.

BTW, thanks for posting the footage, I thought that bass was gone forever!