Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

As promised, here are some pictures. The back was described as "refinished" but no pictures were available - turns out that the refin doesn't look bad on the back, although it was sort of done incompletely, as you can see some edges to the refin on the sides where the original finish was also removed.

But, the biggest issues are:

1. Clear evidence of an improper truss rod adjustment that resulted in two neck cracks - these appear to have been repaired some time ago quite well.

2. Someone with telepathic powers and no fingers must have owned this bass at some point, as the action is ridiculously low; thanks in large part to an over-aggressive filing job on the delrin nut. The G string in particular not only buzzed, it was pratically damped by the fingerboard.

I've already cleaned up some of these issues and I will say that the electronics are clean, the toaster sounds great and overall, I am still very happy with this bass despite what I feel were glaring omissions by the seller (pictures would not really give away what I found on inspection). But no harm no foul at this point, so here we go:
A few more to follow.

Wow, lovely! I bet you're going to enjoy this bass once you get it set up to your liking. Aren't you a high action kind of guy?

FretlessOnly wrote:I am still very happy with this bass despite what I feel were glaring omissions by the seller (pictures would not really give away what I found on inspection). But no harm no foul at this point...

The seller of my 1976 4001FL left out a few details about finish nicks etc. and I really let him have it... which meant that I got some of the $1000 I paid for it back. You should try the same. Glaring omission = seller's responsibility. You shouldn't have to take the hit!

Yes, I am a high action sort. But, in the interest of having my bases perform different functions and maximizing possible tone variations, I may leave this one with pretty low action. Maybe I'll get more of a fretboard growl out of this one as opposed to my other basses where the growl comes mainly from brute force.

I'll send the seller an e-mail.

Golly Gee Whiz! That's a pretty bass. Thanks for sharing pics. Glad it fell into the right hands. I know you'll take care of her.

Peace.

Great score John! If those cracks where repaired well, that 4001FL should play and sound fine with no worries about it's integrity.
Especially with the treble pickup soloed, you should get lots of growl from that bass.
Congrats and enjoy it!

I love the fingerboard dot marks that RIC used in the 70's on the FL's.

My concern about the cracks, although they seem to be very well repaired, is that the nut slots were over-filed, so the nut really needs to be replaced. However, the nut is right adjacent to the area where the cracks were, so I'm conecrned that something usually fairly simple like a nut replacement might cause problems in the crack area. Especially if the nut was superglued in place, or something like that.

Right now I have a set of old Labella flats on it and it sounds great, but I'll be putting the set of Rick Electro tapewounds I got from Daniel W. on it soon. I'd prefer to get the nut issue worked out first.

Stunning!

Maybe you should take this to a luthier and have them clean up the issues and bill the seller for those that were undisclosed... if you can get eBay to back you. Seems like this bass has loads and loads of potential.

cassius987 wrote:Seems like this bass has loads and loads of potential.

+1

I've been using this a fair bit over the past year - here's what she looks like now:
A fresh set of Fender CLs sound great and look great too:

I really like the new aesthetics John!

Oh, I like it much better in the updated pics!

VERY NICE JOHN, VERY NICE!

Thanks - I don't know how this thread ended up over here, though. I originally posted it in the RIC Fretless section and it's still over there too.

+1,love the black pg and plexi on the ambered maple. Did you replace the old nut?