Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

anyone have pics of or own any fretless 4000/4001 basses ? pretty please with sugar on top ?

If there are any, I'd sure love to see them!

rickenbrother wrote:If there are any, I'd sure love to see them!

You & me too!

The earliest 4001FL in the registry is a '72.

Isn't there a 4000FL from the 1960s? I feel like I've seen it somewhere.

I guess the pre-50s EUB could also count.......

if it's not a 4000/4001 then, pre '50 wouldn't count. i've never seen pre-'70 fretless basses and would like to study some , if they exist ! would also like to see if there are any 4001s fretless basses pre'70.

The prototype 4001 fretless bears the serial number HF1198.

It was one of the instruments we 'found' in storage at the RIC factory in late 1988.

As with all instruments from that collection, the serial number does not represent the exact month of production, but the nearest guess by those still at the factory from the 1960s. We were fortunate enough to find, catalogue, and complete these instruments while some of those involved in their production were still with the company. This is no longer the case.

I sold HF1198 to Darryl Jones in 1990. I may have a photo of it in the archives, and will post it to this thread should I find one.

route66guitars wrote: It was one of the instruments we 'found' in storage at the RIC factory in late 1988.

As with all instruments from that collection, the serial number does not represent the exact month of production, but the nearest guess by those still at the factory from the 1960s. We were fortunate enough to find, catalogue, and complete these instruments while some of those involved in their production were still with the company.

Scott, perhaps you've addressed this previously, but do you plan to publish or otherwise make available the results of your cataloging of the instruments in storage that you 'found' at the RIC factory?

Just curious.

libratune wrote:

route66guitars wrote: It was one of the instruments we 'found' in storage at the RIC factory in late 1988.

As with all instruments from that collection, the serial number does not represent the exact month of production, but the nearest guess by those still at the factory from the 1960s. We were fortunate enough to find, catalogue, and complete these instruments while some of those involved in their production were still with the company.

Scott, perhaps you've addressed this previously, but do you plan to publish or otherwise make available the results of your cataloging of the instruments in storage that you 'found' at the RIC factory?

Just curious.

I do have records of all of the instruments and amplifiers I received from John Hall, including serial numbers, and images of most of them.

I did attempt to add a few of them to the registry here, but was getting repeated error messages. I also received conflicting messages from admins regarding posting the serial numbers of instruments owned by celebrities, which many of them now are. So for now I'm just mentioning them as they come up in a thread.

Great piece of info there Scott regarding the FL proto. I'd love to see a photo of that one.

Those of us with long memories will remember that debate on James G's bass that had a bound headstock and it's twin that Chris Brubeck has, from new, both probably being late '69 basses.

wints wrote:Great piece of info there Scott regarding the FL proto. I'd love to see a photo of that one.

Those of us with long memories will remember that debate on James G's bass that had a bound headstock and it's twin that Chris Brubeck has, from new, both probably being late '69 basses.

How you doing Andy? Very late to this thread but I for some reason seem to remember someone saying that Brubeck's was a 71?

Chris Brubeck posted the age of his bass on the RIC corporate forum a few weeks ago, I don't remember what he said now however... thought it was late 60s.

Here you go:

Chris Brubeck wrote:I bought my bass in NYC on 48th Street where all the music stores are about 1969 or 1970.

Would link to it, but it's against forum rules.

but you could post individual pics, yes ? come on , you ! cough them up ! or ask him if he could post them here and serial # !

There are good photos and vids of Chris on Google for those curious. His bass looks early 70s to me but I don't really know anything about what a late 60s bass would look like, so it could be that too perhaps. EDIT: Register photos make me think his bass is a 1972.

Chris is probably not going to do any more posting unless he gets the itch, because the only thing that brought him the corporate forum was a Google alert about his name being posted there. But I'd perfectly glad if he wanted to share even more details... he is after all one of my favorite players. I was floored when I saw the original post.