Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

My mother, who is having health problems, has had to move into a board and care facility, and I've had to start the process of trying to clean her home to hopefully ready it for her eventual return. Her instruments have been in a room which has been inaccessible for probably over ten years now, and which has suffered from flooding, water damage, mould, etc. I had truly feared the worst. But I was finally able to access the room and save a bunch of things from its watery grave, and her 1966 4005 O.S. - which is the bass that I grew up learning to play on, and which she made her living on playing the country bars of Northern California during my formative years - was one of the lucky ones:
The good old silver case managed to keep most of the moisture out (except some pitting on the R tailpiece). The neck is even still straight as an arrow, even after decades of Rotosounds! All the wear that my mom and I put on it over the years is certainly evident (along with the holes from my father's ill-advised decision to add a third pickup), but it still plays just as well as it always used to. (It is missing the screw and washer on the back of the D keywind, but hopefully I can find one somewhere - so far, string tension keeps it on and functioning.)

Now I get to give it a new, moisture-free home - and maybe even play it again! It's been an emotional reunion, that's for sure....

(and nobody ask me if it's for sale - not over my mother's, mine, or my daughter's dead bodies!)

pacealot wrote:(and nobody ask me if it's for sale - not over my mother's, mine, or my daughter's dead bodies!)

How about next to them?

Great story, Paul. You most definitely have to play it.

Shame the strap button got moved over a bit (I did far more to mine! )

My dad did that! He inlayed that little diamond to cover the original strap button hole. Apparently my mom didn't quite like the way it hung with the buttons in the original positions, so he moved them. That and the superfluous pickup!

I have some pics of my folks playing from around '73 that I need to scan; I'll have to post one when I do (my dad alternated between a mid-60s 360 which he put a Bigsby on, and a Sho-Bud S-10 pedal steel....)

A few additional pics are here, for anyone interested:

http://s224.photobucket.com/user/paceal ... 04005%20OS

pacealot wrote:...(my dad alternated between a mid-60s 360 which he put a Bigsby on, and a Sho-Bud S-10 pedal steel....)

Does Floyd Rose maske a 10 string vibrato bridge that can be put on the Sho-Bud?

If he had, my dad probably would've tried it!

This is the same person who, when his later MSA 12-string steel warped from the humidity in eastern Mexico where he now resides, built a whole new body out of native Mexican woods. It looked better than the original body, honestly!

I'm going farther and farther off-topic, but I'll take the chance: related to my dad's 360 (not quite a match for my mom's bass; it was "N.S." - rounded top) is a fascinating story. At some point in the mid- to late-60s, my dad had a regular gig in a club which, as was all the rage at the time, featured an adjacent swimming pool with a window that looked into (behind) the bar. Well, apparently there was some sort of issue between the proprietors of the club and some, er, possibly "extra-legal" financing-type people (ahem), which resulted in a "message" being sent to said proprietors - in the form of having the pool window blown out. My dad's band routinely left their equipment there, as they were the house band, and so his precious Rick 360 was completely flooded, along with all the rest of the band's equipment. Undaunted, he took it completely apart, dried every piece and every component, and refinished it himself in his own approximation of Fireglo. That was the guitar as I knew it all throughout my highly impressionable youth, until he sold it in the late '70s and went down the dark path of playing (I know! I'm so sorry!) Strats....

Some really great stories, and interesting memories of your (and your parents) life. Do you have the itch to modify things like your dad does?

Good save!

bluewhale

jps wrote:Some really great stories, and interesting memories of your (and your parents) life. Do you have the itch to modify things like your dad does?

Given everything I've done to my V63 (I don't think anything but the wood is original to it any longer), I'd say yes! Unfortunately, I didn't actually inherit his actual skills, so I make a mess out of everything. I've gotten relatively lucky on the V63 - other projects have not fared so well (just ask John Allgaier about the bobbin I still owe him which I've never yet been able to successfully complete )....

Thinking more on it, I suppose my drive to modify stuff is more born of a desire to make things more "accurate" by some (arbitrary, to some, perhaps) yardstick or other, as opposed to "messing with" an instrument for its own sake. For instance, I'd never modify (I originally typed "midify", and I wouldn't do that either!) my mom's bass, except possibly to restore it to a more pristine stock-like condition. But to take an (inaccurate!) reissue of an instrument, and spend years (decades really) sourcing parts to make it as close as possible to the instrument it was ostensibly meant to reissue - that's totally within my purview. Crushed pearl inlays in a C63? Absolutely! (Well, if I can pull it off - that's going to take some cojones.) Humbucker on a '66 365? Shoot me first. White plastic and other "Harrison" specs on "Suzi"? Shoot everyone first! (And I'm George's biggest fan - even he'd probably be mortified....)

pacealot wrote:to make it as close as possible to the instrument it was ostensibly meant to reissue - that's totally within my purview. Crushed pearl inlays in a C63? Absolutely!

Not that it wouldn't look great.... But CPI wouldn't be period-correct on a 1963 reissue. The reissue is correct already.


Nice 4005 and great story! Your parents had great taste in Rickenbackers.

Great story, and an even greater save.

Treasure that baby!

Thanks very much for sharing, that is really cool.

That is an amazing find/save from obscurity and damage. Lovely bass! I'm one of many wishing Ric would re-issue the 4005. Based on the response every time one appears, I know they'd sell. I covet a Jetglo!