Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

According to the register here there are a handful of these, but everything I've read seems to indicate they were discontinued from 1970-1980. I bought my 1973 (MJ 4952) 4001 in England in '86. It's white with no binding but has triangle pearlite inlays and the two inputs.

As an aside it also has a cavity in the back for a 9v battery. The guy I bought it from said the previous owner had converted it to active pickups, though everything looks original and the battery cavity looks like it was done at the factory (sorry, I don't know much about this stuff and the bass has sat around for years).

It may have been refinished over the body binding.
The 4001s (and 4003s) have a nice radius where the deluxe model has a sharper edge on the front of the body.
and yes the 4001s was made all the way through the 70s..

emac.

Hi Steve, and welcome to the Forum. I'm one of the 4001S owners in the Register. Here's my 1975 4001S WHT WT with a later 4003 WHT WT/White Binding in the foreground:

Thanks for the responses and welcome! emac I think you're right. Upon closer inspection it looks like it indeed may have been refinished over the original binding to give it the 4001s look. If so it was obviously professionally done, and quite a while ago. I'll see if I can post some pics.

Yes...rickenbacker did make some 4001-s basses, and I have a pic of one from a guitar store catalogue page from NYC circa 1983. It's identified as a '72 Rick 4001,mono. natural finish very early model with no binding on neck or body. Mono output, dot inlays.

In the pic, which is very small, the bass has a toaster in the neck, and neck thru construction w/stripe. Solid cast tailpiece and three dots after the twelfth fret. Dark walnut headstock wings. It has a finger rest on pickguard and Grover machines.

hmm....I'd sure take the $1200 Ric 362 Doubleneck or the $550 Gretsch Country Gent listed there!

I don't recall seeing any neck-through 4001S (or 4000) models listed after Feb. '69.

From what I've seen, They don't list a lot of things, but they were available mysteriously. I save thast page as it was interesting but I can't say it was legit as no serial # was given. But it is neck thru and has a dot fretboard to say the least.

I like the fact that the 8-string basses are marked in the photo!

Hey, look at the headstock carefully (in the photo) and it looks to be like a 4005 one with walnut sides.
Now that could be a rareity!

Unless it is in fact a set neck Greco faker with a Rickenbacker nameplate.....

Eden.

greco only made stereo models and bound, even some with checker. a friend of mine has one. could be a one-off. who knows. i'm sure mr. hall could find out...pretty please ????

the 8-strings were circled cause i wanted one...mr. hall didn't have any more...sniff, sniff. i wanted a potato head, not the apostrophe head !

BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS wrote:greco only made stereo models and bound, even some with checker. a friend of mine has one. could be a one-off. who knows. i'm sure mr. hall could find out...pretty please ????

Never say never...

Eden.

Does that actually say "GRECO MAKES IT" on the truss rod cover?!!!

It actually looks like it's supposed to be a Paul McCartney model. I am ashamed to admit I had a Fernandes one, the one in this catalog pic:

hieronymous wrote: I am ashamed to admit I had a Fernandes one, the one in this catalog pic:

Probably a bit of a guilty pleasure.....

Eden.

if i am to eat crow, i'm thinking of the basses made in the '70's or '80's. is that natural one a recent issue due to the resurgeance of the rick re-issues or an old unit ? the japanese companies go with the flow of popularity to capitalize on demand. it looks newer as the hardware doesn't look as cheaply made as the '70's-'80's models. the pickguards with the tell-tale red dots for the vol./tone. positions.

btw...the greco at least, is not a neck thru as the '72 rick pic i posted.