Your first Rick tales

[vax2002]

Your First Rickenbacker bass
What did you do to get it ? what did you sell, did it haunt you in your dreams until you surrendered ?
You just knew you had to have it, whats your tale ?

[jps]

It was a dark and stormy night, back in the (I can't remember which century it was, hmm.........) It does involve a late '60s Jazz Bass and a certain Feb. '67 4005WB, though..................

[woodyng]

I bought my first Ric,a JG neck through 4000 modded with a black pg,an added neck toaster and pup selector switch,from an up and coming bassist,Andy Tanas,in Memphis,when i was In my early 20's. (I'm pushing 60 now) About 6 monthes later,he landed the job as BOA's bass player,and begged me to sell it back to him,which i,being the nice guy i am,reluctantly did,and it went out on tour and in the recording studios,so it was used and loved. I was hugely into Yes and Chris Squire's sound,and it would be a few more years til i got my 2nd Ric (a battered early 70's MG 4001 w/ FWI's and CB),which i let my friend spray-can refinish the front of in a royal blue. I still love the 4000 series basses,have bought and sold a few others over the years,and currently have a 74 4000,an '04 Cii,and a customised '04 Laredo. That's the encapsulated version of my story.

[jps]

...bassist,Andy Tanas...landed the job as BOA's bass player...

Bank of America? They needed a bass player?

[cjj]

...bassist,Andy Tanas...landed the job as BOA's bass player...

Bank of America? They needed a bass player?

Oh yeah, they have bands in all of the branches around here...

[Kopfjaeger]

It was early 1982 and I traded in my Blonde late 70's Fender P bass with rosewood fretboard for a used mid to late 70's non wavey Grover Jetglo 4001. I unknowingly had been chasing the Rickenbacker tone for years and just could not find it with the P bass. Love at first sight. Hooked for life after playing her.

Sepp

[jps]

...bassist,Andy Tanas...landed the job as BOA's bass player...

Bank of America? They needed a bass player?

Oh yeah, they have bands in all of the branches around here...

Well, that's a given.......

[Lefty4003S8]

MY Rick tale???
Well....I went out drinking one night, and when I woke up the next morning,,,,it was in bed next to me.





Lefty4003s8






Do not drink from the toilet when taking Lyrica

[jps]

MY Rick tale???
Well....I went out drinking one night, and when I woke up the next morning,,,,it was in bed next to me.

i think I knew that one, too.

[Colonel Sanders]

I started with two copies of 4001 way back then, a Mann and an Ibanez. I bought my first Rick 4001 in 2000. A 1977 Burgundyglo that was a lemon. After getting rid of it and getting a 4003, I loved it then spoiled myself with many others...

[Ashgray]

Back in 1975, when I was just 18, I was passing a second-hand music store by the name of Modern Exchange (later Musical Exchange) in Birmingham, UK, when I saw a brand-new, Candy Apple Red finish model 4001 hanging in the window. I've never forgotten the serial number - NJ6292. New instruments were rarely found at this store in those days and I was completely transfixed by it, never having seen a Rick "in the flesh" before. I went inside and asked the price - £325 (around $500 at today's rate of exchange). I asked if I could try her out and Chas the store manager, assuming I was just some kid who just wanted to fool around on a great guitar with no intention or means of actually buying at, said "not at that price, sonny". Luckily, I'd recently started my first job and, having just been paid, had some cash with me, so I immediately paid a deposit of £50 and negotiated paying off the balance over the next few months (this particular store had always been renowned for allowing customers to do this). Once I'd concluded negotiations and handed over my deposit, the manager said "Now you can try it out!". I did, for about an hour, and have never forgotten it!

As I recall, it took me over six months to pay off the balance, which probably didn't go down well! I also traded in my first ever bass, an Antoria Precision copy) which raised £25 to help pay off the balance. On finally owning the Rick, I took it home, surrounded by about six of my old school-friends who'd never seen a Rick before either and tried it out through the Traynor amp that I owned at that time. I shall never forgot the sound it produced - not quite Squire, but that was down to my poor technique at the time, not the bass.

Young as I was then, my tastes rapidly changed and I sold the Rick about 5 years later - it had hi-gain pickups but I always hankered after the sound of the original horsie and toaster. I went through a range of instruments in the following few years, including a fretless Fender precision, a John Birch, a Jaydee Supernatural fretless (the first one made, serial number 0001), a Chapman Stick and others of lesser quality. I always regretted my impulsive nature at that time that caused me to sell the Rick and promised myself that I'd eventually get another. Luckily, I've been able to buy four, and I still love them!

As for the store from which I bought that Rick and numerous other instruments, keyboards, effects units, etc, a very good school-friend of mine and great guitarist, Garry Chapman, started working there and eventually bought the place from the owner, developing the business from its roots as a tiny second-hand store to become one of the largest and best music stores in the UK midlands with a great reputation.

Neither my fondness for Ricks nor much of my musical inspiration would likely have developed as they did without the great influence that store and my friend had on me. Thanks Gaz!

Ash

[wmthor]

In early 1970, a good friend of mine needed some cash for a night on the town before shipping off to Vietnam. I gave him $75 and he gave me his 4001. Two and a half years later, while we were practicing for a one-time gig at the local junior college, he asked whatever happen to the bass. He didn't believe that I still had it. I told him it was at my mom's house. He asked how much I how I wanted for it. I told him $75. Within an hour, I had $75 and he had his bass back.

In the time that I had it, I probably took it out of its case a half of dozen times. I could never play right-handed.

[woodyng]

...bassist,Andy Tanas...landed the job as BOA's bass player...

Bank of America? They needed a bass player?

Blue Oyster..Association,perhaps?
Here's a clue. I lived in Memphis,which was smack dab on the state lines of ARKANSAS and Mrs. Sippi.

[cjj]

...bassist,Andy Tanas...landed the job as BOA's bass player...

Bank of America? They needed a bass player?

Blue Oyster..Association,perhaps?
Here's a clue. I lived in Memphis,which was smack dab on the state lines of ARKANSAS and Mrs. Sippi.

Oh, you must mean that Southern rock hillbilly psycho boogie band...

[DriftSpace]

When I was 12 I started a band with three other guys my age. I was the only one who had actually been playing an instrument (drums, since 8-years-old) so the other guys had to pick what they would play; the bassist ended-up being the friend I had known the longest (since 2nd grade) and his father was a lawyer. We'd practice at his house, and for a while it seemed like he had a new bass every few months; his dad always wanted to be a musician growing-up, but his own father was not very supportive of artistry as a career, so I think he was pretty excited about our band, and saw it as an opportunity to live-out some of his fantasy through us. My friend's first bass was a red Fender P-bass featuring a Telecaster-style pick-guard of black pearloid; the next one was an odd (no-name) custom maple bass which he dubbed "Enola Gay" because it had an atom depicted on the white pick-guard. About a year after we had started our band he appeared with a well-loved 1982 Rickenbcker 4003 in JetGlo. We all adored the look and sound of the bass, but since he had been mostly using the Precision (and because he was 13) he complained that the 4003 was hard to play; this particular instrument features a pretty chunky neck, and the finish was not in the best of shape. It lived in its case or on a stand for the next 2 years, and then he was kicked out of the band by the "lead" guitarist for bragging about his drug usage and (the real reason) for being a terrible musician.

Naturally, my oldest friend wanted nothing to do with any of us, so he and I didn't speak for a number of years.

On my 16th birthday, my parents -- after I told them I was frustrated with my band, and wanted to start writing my own songs -- bought me some recording equipment. (Yes, I did not want a car; I wanted to make music! I had a bike and a bus pass, which was good enough.) I started bringing the new gear to practice to record the band, but also spent some time writing some of my own material. I had a 6-string electric, some mics, and drums, but no bass guitar, so I scrounged-up my entire savings ($600) and starting looking for a bass. I had remembered my friend's 4003, but didn't think I could afford one with $600, much less find one in the area; basically nobody carried Rickenbacker instruments, or at least not any of the music shops to which I had access. That JetGlo 4003 was literally the only Rickenbacker I had ever seen in-person. I decided that I should probably just take my savings to the local music shop (Robb's Music on Canyon in Boulder) to see what one of my friends who worked there could do for me, and find what was available in my price range. (I figured I'd end-up with a Mexican Fender.) I went straight to the basement (where they had all the electrics hanging) and checked some things out, but nothing excited me. After poking around the guitar room for a while, I went back upstairs to the counter to talk to my friend Shannon about a solution to my problem. She asked me what sort of basses I liked, so I said: "I really want a Rickenbacker 4003, but I never see them anywhere, and I'm sure they cost more than the $600 I have." She confirmed that nobody in the area stocked them, but that someone had brought one in for consignment just a few days ago; it wasn't out on the floor because it had not been properly tagged or set-up yet. She brought it out of their storage area, and I immediately recognized my old friend's JetGlo 4003; it had the same spot between the 7th & 8th frets where the lacquer was worn-down to the wood, and the same "funny-smelling" compartment cut out of the underside of the removable part of the case foam. Shannon let me have it for $600; she said that was what the seller wanted to get for it, and that she would waive the store's commission for me.

Unfortunately, I never took to the chunky neck, and it just kind of hung-out around my various houses for years, popping-up on odd recordings here-and-there, but never really getting the attention it deserved.

In 2007 -- after years full of many other bands and stories -- I started playing with some new fellows, and the bassist had been playing a Mexican Fender Jazz bass. It had sketchy electronics and didn't stay in-tune very well, so I offered to let him use my 4003. He was pretty excited, as I don't think he had seen one in-person before. He "loaned" it from me for 5 solid years, and I could tell he was really forming a relationship with it, so in 2012 I told him he could buy it. He now plays it exclusively.

Here it is with my 1990 4003 at an NPR recording session, almost 20 years after it was the first RIC I had ever seen in-person:

Every time I hear it (which is usually several times a week) I am grateful for the chain of events which brought it to me, and eventually to my good friend who cherishes it more than anyone had for several decades.