Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I found this while cleaning out some old paperwork.
I haggled it down to less than a grand...It was red with black trim, I sold it to Jeff Rath....ahh the good old days.

cheyenne wrote:I found this while cleaning out some old paperwork.

Rick tag.jpg

I haggled it down to less than a grand...It was red with black trim, I sold it to Jeff Rath....ahh the good old days.

Did Jeff turn it into a 4 string bass?

jps wrote:

cheyenne wrote:I found this while cleaning out some old paperwork.

Rick tag.jpg

I haggled it down to less than a grand...It was red with black trim, I sold it to Jeff Rath....ahh the good old days.

Did Jeff turn it into a 4 string bass?

I was worried for awhile there that Jeff Rath was going to turn EVERY Rickenbacker bass into a five stringer, forcing me to learn to play the dang things!

Ah, I remember the good ole days, when a bass had FOUR Strings! And you could buy a late '70s Rick for $5-600 bucks! You kids stay the heck off my lawn, now, you hear? I just finished trimming those Begonias!

squirebass wrote:...Ah, I remember the good ole days, when a bass had FOUR Strings! And you could buy a late '70s Rick for $5-600 bucks! You kids stay the heck off my lawn, now, you hear? I just finished trimming those Begonias!

I remember the days when one could buy a 1967 4005WB for $175.

Just last July,I found a '15 Laredo on ebay (unsold) for $1150. It was local,after looking it over,i offered $1k.
(It had had Several inexpert mods done,plus no hardshell case,but i think that was a bit of a bargain!)

Was that the one I just modded Woody?

aceonbass wrote:Was that the one I just modded Woody?

Yes,the same!
It's turned out to be quite a great-playing awesome sounding instrument,too.

Is that a badass bridge on that bass Woody?

Gene, that is a 4004L Laredo made to look 4001S-ish. I'm pretty sure that's a Schaller tail/bridge.

bassduke49 wrote:Gene, that is a 4004L Laredo made to look 4001S-ish. I'm pretty sure that's a Schaller tail/bridge.

Thanks Paul... Now that I look a little closer I can see what it is, but looking at the picture on my phone, I was fooled into thinking it was an S of some type....

squirebass wrote:

bassduke49 wrote:Gene, that is a 4004L Laredo made to look 4001S-ish. I'm pretty sure that's a Schaller tail/bridge.

Thanks Paul... Now that I look a little closer I can see what it is, but looking at the picture on my phone, I was fooled into thinking it was an S of some type....

Well it kind of IS a sort-of S.
What i got is a Laredo,with the original Schaller bridge,and tuners,a half-inch spaced Rick neck sw toaster,CA bridge pickup in Rick surround,a v63 type pg,and new wiring with appropriate SC components. I like to think of it as an evolved version of my old modded 2-pickup JG 4000 i had back in the 70's. (My first Rick bass,in fact.)

woodyng wrote:What i got is a Laredo,with the original Schaller bridge,and tuners,a half-inch spaced Rick neck sw toaster,CA bridge pickup in Rick surround,a v63 type pg,and new wiring with appropriate SC components. I like to think of it as an evolved version of my old modded 2-pickup JG 4000 i had back in the 70's. (My first Rick bass,in fact.)

When I read that the first thought to come to mind were a bridge pickup made of super glue and this:

It's funny, they were "the good old days" in terms of price, but I also remember "the bad old days" when you were practically at the mercy of your local shop to maybe get a used one in... and even then, you better be there that day or the next, or someone else would get it! I think Mike Parks and Chris Clayton don't get enough credit for revolutionizing the availability of Rickenbackers. Their businesses changed my whole world, really, guitar-wise.

jdogric12 wrote:It's funny, they were "the good old days" in terms of price, but I also remember "the bad old days" when you were practically at the mercy of your local shop to maybe get a used one in... and even then, you better be there that day or the next, or someone else would get it! I think Mike Parks and Chris Clayton don't get enough credit for revolutionizing the availability of Rickenbackers. Their businesses changed my whole world, really, guitar-wise.

That is a very good point, Jason! Even though I'd first gotten really enamoured with 4001 basses in 1972-73, there were a lot of things I didn't know about them until I found Mike Parks site, which was a welcome refuge from all of the alien autopsy and OJ conspiracy websites in the early to mid'90s! Suddenly here was Mike Parks, selling v63s like IHOP sells pancakes! It definitely reawakened my interest in Ricks!