Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Have a look at Roger Glover's Model 4001 here

I believe Pete Agnew (bassist with Nazareth) used that very 4001 (or a different one with exactly the same mod) some time in the 70's.

All i know is that on Machinehead he got a great sound from a stock Ric. And I knew it was a Ric on "Love Hurts" by the sound, sounded stock to me with cap intact. When was that bass butch.... I mean modified Sérgio?

The same guy who did that mod is also responsible for these monstrosities:

Bob:
Glover's 4001 probably was modded in the first half of the 70's.
John:
As for the stellar 4001 modifications hereabove (including Glover's 4001), all I can say is 'I think I'm going to be sick!' Unbelievable!

That first one has four pickups and five switches and one BIG volume, haha! The first and third basses would be great if you liked to fool around with other guys wives, Gimme Three Steps.
Where do you get these pictures anyway, Sérgio?

Very sad...If my eyes don,t deceive me and if that is a stock neck, #3 looks like a 21 fretter...

Yup Ugh3 has twenty one frets. Put your arrow near the basses, haha!

did they inlay cheerios in the neck of that one ...

why do people wreck their rics???

Rickenwreckers!!!!

I don't think the bass in the that picture in the link is actually Roger Glovers 4001....or certainly not the one he used on Machine Head.

The Machine Head album was recorded in 1971 I believe, and the 4001 he used was modded with two slanted pickups in the bridge position but it was Jetglo....the one in the link appears to be Fireglo.

There's no denying though that he did indeed have a great sound on that album.

Yeah, Glover's was Jetglo (I guess that one could be another of his, maybe a spare?). If you look at the inside pics on Made in Japan you'll see the bass with the original pickup. However if you look on the back cover of "Deepest Purple" ("the very best of Deep Purple")you can clearly see Glover using the modified bass. I have a video of Purple playing Sweden in 72 when the bass was all original; it sounded fantastic (just like my 72 in fact ). Unfortunately Rog always though his Rick sound had "too much clank". Pretty ironic really! The last time I saw the bass it had Bartolinis in it.

The first 2 Ricks in John's post are the same one (after/before)and belong to Joey DeMaio of Manowar. The third one would also appear to be his judging by the scratchplate,but whether or not its the same bass further modified (including the fingerboard!)or another, I don't know. Last time I saw the bass was around '94. I've spoken to Joey about the mods and he said he didn't like stock Rick pickups (he goes for what most people would consider to be a very distorted sound, and likes/liked LOTS of sound options!). He's actually a scary player (check out the intro to "Guyana -the Cult of the Damned"), and is also a great guy (although I tend to think his thoughts on keeping instruments original if they don't work for you would be unprintable!).Me, I'm happy with 'em just the way they are, as things of great beauty (gimme toasters or gimme death!).

BTW, anybody know what year Glovers bass was? Or Glenn Hughes'? (Glenn's looks like a 73-ish to me).

This is from the Roger Glover Website:

January 16 2003

Q: HI ROGER. IT WAS YOU ,PAUL McCARTNEY AND A FEW OTHERS THAT INFLUENCED ME TO BUYING A RICKENBACKER BASS. I LOVED YOUR SOUND ON MACHINE HEAD. DID YOU RECORD THE WHOLE ALBUM WITH THE RICK AND ALSO WHAT BASS STRINGS WERE YOU USING AT THE TIME? GOOD LUCK AND KEEP PURPLE GOING FOR A LONG TIME TO COME. ALL THE BEST, JOE

RG: Hi Joe,

Thanks for the good words. The Rickenbacker was the only bass I used on
Machine Head, strung with Rotosound strings, I seem to remember. The bass has a bit of a history; I bought it in New York and in an effort to save customs duty, about £25 or so, I had a receipt saying it cost less than it
did, which wasn¹t a lot anyway, $400 or thereabouts. Ian Hansford, our roadie at the time, brought the guitar back through British customs a day ahead of me ­ for some reason I stayed an extra 24 hours in NY. Anyway,
they smelled a rat, arrested and charged Ian and impounded the bass. When Ian called and told me what had happened, I was armed with what seemed like a plausible story when I came through the next day. "Ah, Mr. Glover, would you open all your bags please?" Putting on my best innocent face I waited while they went through everything, even the pages of my address book. At
last I asked if I could help and the officer showed me the false receipt, asking if I recognized it. I replied that it certainly looked like a receipt for a bass, but added that it couldn¹t be mine because the amount
was wrong (for this was my story, that the store had given me a false receipt without my, or Ian's, knowledge). I was ushered into a private room where they grilled me for about two hours. I stuck to the story but my halo was beginning to tarnish as successively tougher people came into the room to work on me. I finally cracked when they bluffed about telephone records (when asked, I had told them that Ian Hansford hadn¹t called me in New York to warn me that the customs had my guitar ­ which of course he
had!). The end came when a senior office came into the room, sat on the desk looking down at me and said, "OK, Glover, what¹s this ********?" When I admitted at last that yes, I was trying to save $25 (even after Fireball I didn¹t have much money ­ all that I earned went to pay back earlier advances) and owned up saying, "it¹s a fair cop guv, I¹ll go quietly," and things like that. Strangely enough, after that they were as nice as pie as they read me my rights and formally charged me with evading customs and
excise duties. The real catch was that they had the guitar and explained that I wouldn¹t be able to get it back until after the court case, if there was one. I told them I couldn¹t wait that long, I was due to go to Switzerland in less than two weeks to make a record and I needed the guitar.
The only option, they said, was to plead guilty, pay the fines for both Ian Hansford and myself, and also pay an enormous sum to get the guitar back. In all, I paid more than double the price for that guitar. It is only fitting then, that soon afterwards I went to Montreux with DP and recorded our biggest selling album ever with that guitar.

RG

Machine Head was recorded with a stock 4001. The bass looks like a 1971 model to me..

WOW! that's a very cool story.