Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I seem to remember this being discussed before but I looked and couldn't find it. This Walnut 480 with black plastic recently sold on eBay, and on the back of the headstock there's a stamp in the finish that says 'SECOND'.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 5GES0%253D

From everything I've ever heard, it didn't come from the RIC factory that way...

. . . It didn't and even if it had, we certainly would have found a better way to mark them!

I'm guessing that was just someone's way of distinguishing between similar instruments.

Sorta like this, only a bit more subtle:

Hardly any major does seconds anymore...damn!

Tony

johnhall wrote:. . . It didn't and even if it had, we certainly would have found a better way to mark them!

Apologies in advance for resurecting an old thread.

I just noticed that on my 1972 4001S, there is a "2" indented in the body, near the pickguard. The indentation is pretty sharp and was obviously done mechanically. As this bass has a very narrow neck at the nut along with some flaws in the woodworking, I just wonder if it is possible there was ever factory 2nd instruments.

Not that I am complaining... This 1972 is such a joy to play! It has been my "favorite of the moment" ever since I purchased it a couple of months ago.

Even if we did do seconds, as I said above, we'd certainly find a better way to mark an instrument than this. Not sure why anyone would do this to their bass though.

Maybe it was the previous owner's #2 bass?

johnhall wrote:Even if we did do seconds, as I said above, we'd certainly find a better way to mark an instrument than this. Not sure why anyone would do this to their bass though.

Not sure why anyone would do this indeed.

The 2 is very orderly stamped near the pickguard, the job is neat and you need to look hard to find (it does not sticks out like a sore thumb). Something I would expect from a factory marking.

I will post pictures later.

IMO, it could be simply an identifying mark that a previous owner put on it. Of course, putting it under the pick guard would have been better ...

Interesting. Several years ago I bought a vintage Licia camera from a person at work that thought it a good idea to scratch his divers license number on it. Obvious what that did to the value.

tvr1979 wrote:Interesting. Several years ago I bought a vintage Licia camera from a person at work that thought it a good idea to scratch his divers license number on it. Obvious what that did to the value.

Given it was a Licia and not a Leica, no loss.

Funny thing- a few decades back the local police forces (there are -or were at the time- 5 forces on the lower Island) spent a lot of their PR budgets on a "mark your items" campaign. They suggested that you bring your valuables in to the station to be marked with your SIN or DLN by an officer wielding an engraver. The mission was to guard against theft. They even handed out 1" sq stickers saying "This item has been marked for identification by the ******** Police". To be fair, the engravings were usually hard to see and in inconspicuous places. Not always so carefully-placed were the stickers, however.

At the time, Dad was impressed enough by the concept to buy an engraver himself and mark up all his power tools, my three bikes, several of his cameras, the lawmower, and a bunch of other stuff. He obtained a batch of 100 or so stickers from the police dept, and for years, the little white stickers were on just about everything in our house except the vacuum cleaner (and my guitars, of course). At the time, few if any gave a thought to the potential problems down the road. More recently, when I went to sell some of those potentially vaulable cameras as part of Dad's estate, it came home to roost when a Brownie Model One went from an asking price of $250 to an offer of $15 because of the scratched-on SIN which kinda ruined it's collectibility as it ran right through the original serial #!

bvstudios wrote:... it came home to roost when a Brownie Model One went from an asking price of $250 to an offer of $15 because of the scratched-on SIN which kinda ruined it's collectibility as it ran right through the original serial #!

So with markings, it's also "location, location, location" ...

OK - as far as I understand previous discussion on this topic, we have been told that 'Seconds' and 'B Stock' should not exist and are certainly not approved by the factory.

So, please explain, why is one of the UK's main retailers openly advertising 'B stock' Ric cases on eBay- apparently supplied by the UK distributor, Rosetti?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rickenbacker- ... 338372bb30

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rickenbacker- ... 2ec8ec2765

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rickenbacker- ... 338372bbf3

Hardly a good advertisement for the Rickenbacker brand and the quality of modern Rickenbacker cases- and, IMHO, hugely overpriced! I have bought perfectly sound Ric cases in the US and imported them to the UK for less than these asking prices.