Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

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?

It was post-Beatles, maybe Ram sessions?

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...

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

That's the one!

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!

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.

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......

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?

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

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

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.

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.

That's awesome, I had no idea.

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

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