Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I've been enjoying a thread on another forum where people talk about bass... look for "Incoming Road Warrior 70s Rickenbacker 4001S."

Pictures of a very well-worn 4001S. Not a coffee table bass or a case queen, it must play well to have been played enough to pick up that wear!

I love the look of that bass. Wouldn't mind owning it...

Saw that - looks incredible!!

The bass has been used and probably played hundreds of gigs. As it should be.

That's what I want my 4003FL to look like in a few decades!

If mojo is real, that bass has been infused with a metric ton of it...

I played that bass all afternoon, and almost bought it last year at the Santa Monica Vintage Guitar show. no joke - best playing and feeling 4001 I've ever laid hands on. bummed I didn't pull the trigger, that was the one.

I really love the way it looks. My bass has the yellow discoloring,and its fair share of chips and dings,but otherwise is in pretty fair shape. The bass being discussed has distress cracks all over,worn off sections of finish,and a really strange looking fretboard (water damage? Or possibly extreme sweat). But i would not refinish it- its just way cool as is.
Its a rick version of Sting's 54 p-bass,except Sting's bass had 20 more years to get to that condition....

I always appreciate instruments that are "authentic," like this one: decades of honest gigging to get there. Not abuse, just honestly paid dues. When I purchase a used instrument, I look for such: proper wear in the right places to let me know it was played, not just thrashed about. I used to have a 1930 sousaphone like that: the silver plating was worn in exactly the right spots where a player's hands would be, and the usual expected dings from transport to many, many football games and concerts. It just got to heavy for me.

It's a mistake to look for "pristine" used instruments. When I see one that is in too good condition for its age, the first thing I wonder is what's wrong with it that it didn't get played more.

I don't have to wonder about this bass. Rock on!

That is a thing of beauty....

smem wrote:That is a thing of beauty....

Yes it is... I may as well share the pics for history's sake and so that so that more folks on the RRF can chime in...
So lets begin the debate here... Is it a 4000 that someone has added a pickup and swapped out the TRC for? Or is it a real 4001s?

No Sn But I would guess 1975/76/77 for year of manufacture...

Since the set-neck 4000 and 4001S of the '70s shared a common chassis, the debate about which one this originally was would be inconclusive. The chassis could be finished off with either pickup arrangement to fulfill an order.

Except that if it started as 4000 without the factory neck PUP routing (my '78 is not routed), the later mod to a 4001s would have routing through the original finish.

it is a cool bass and I would play the daylights out of it. Probably the S model but who cares? I told him on "that other thread site" that I would leave like it is and play it until it came apart...

jaymi wrote:it is a cool bass and I would play the daylights out of it. Probably the S model but who cares? I told him on "that other thread site" that I would leave like it is and play it until it came apart...

True

I like the fact that if you play it long enough and hard enough, the wear brings it back to a nice white finish again.