McCartney's fretless Rick??

bassduke49 · Post by **bassduke49** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 1:43 pm

Either I'm going mad (likely) or wasn't there some discussion of sightings of a fretless Rickenbacker in the Let It Be movie? I can never seem to get the search function to work for me here. Anyone got something?

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 2:34 pm

It was post-Beatles, maybe Ram sessions?

bosco64 · Post by **bosco64** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 2:38 pm

I thought I saw a pic of Macca with the fretless behind him during the Back to the Egg sessions, so that would be around 1979 or so...can't seem to find it either...

rickenbrother · Post by **rickenbrother** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 3:04 pm

Hard to tell from this small pic, but could this be it behind him on the right side of the pic?

: Possible 4001FLLH behind McCartney

bosco64 · Post by **bosco64** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 3:09 pm

That's the one!

bassduke49 · Post by **bassduke49** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 3:13 pm

Yes, I think that is the shot I was thinking about. So it's definitely a '70s lefty and appears to be fretless. No way to tell if it actually was "his" of course, but at least it was in the same room!

rickenbrother · Post by **rickenbrother** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 3:30 pm

Is a lefthanded 4001/3FL model a 4001/3FLLH or is it 4001/3LHFL? Not being left handed and not seeing many, I never thought to pay attention to that.

leftybass · Post by **leftybass** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 5:05 pm

Joey, I'd call it a 4001FLLH. I think.....

Actually I think the pic may be from an earlier time, say 'Band On The Run' period. I seem to remember some discussion to that effect. So that bass could be ca. 1973-'74......

wints · Post by **wints** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 8:26 pm

bassduke49 wrote:Yes, I think that is the shot I was thinking about. So it's definitely a '70s lefty and appears to be fretless. No way to tell if it actually was "his" of course, but at least it was in the same room!

It does appear to be fretless, but could the compression hide the fact there may be frets there?

rickendelic · Post by **rickendelic** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 8:32 pm

Is it me or do both look like they have reversed headstocks?

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 8:34 pm

I am not totally convinced its fretless. I swear I can vaguely see frets...

rickenbrother · Post by **rickenbrother** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 9:21 pm

sloop_john_b wrote:I am not totally convinced its fretless.

I agree, that why I said "Possible". It's too unclear from that size pic. I think I see neck binding, but just could be the lighting. Too bad the pic isn't bigger. I think I might see frets, but it could be lack of clarity in the pic.

bassduke49 · Post by **bassduke49** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 10:31 pm

rickendelic wrote:Is it me or do both look like they have reversed headstocks?

All the lefties before the mid-1980s had "reversed" headstocks. Basically, all the neck/headstocks were the same back then, and it was just a matter of adding lefty body wings and a special TRC to make it a lefty. Oh, and the nut and bridge saddles had to be switched around.

rickendelic · Post by **rickendelic** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 12:07 am

That's awesome, I had no idea.

looks as though I'm gonna need to pick up a copy of that book of yours.

bobbolux · Post by **bobbolux** » Mon Aug 20, 2012 5:02 pm

it has dot markers - so if it does have frets, would that make it a custom job, or an "S" model?

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McCartney's fretless Rick??

McCartney's fretless Rick??

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