Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Tell me what you know about it. Does anyone know the year and month it was born in particular.

Cole

it was 71-75 range ... it was jetglo ... he put a bad *** bridge on it ... and he sure sounded a lot better when he played that bass ...

Indeed.
He really lost me in the Steinberger/Wal era. He seems to have gotten a bit nostalgic & picked up his Jazz Bass again...how many happy Rush fans (& Rick forum members) would there be if he brought the ol' Jetglo Girl out, eh?

It sure wasn't pre-73!

some pics ...

http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/mccorp/rush.html

and more pics

http://www.rusharchive.com/default.aspx?c=1&s=3

it sorta looks like a '74 or '75 ... he had a few of those ...

I have heard it is a '74. Geddy said in a GP interview back around '80 or '81 that touring was taking it's toll on his Ricks. I suspect the switch to Steinbergers and Wals was an effort to secure a durable bass that sounded good. He did not stay with the Steinberger very long though. I seem to recall him saying that he was not totally happy with them. Wals where seen in the hands of some major players for a short while then poof they just disappeared. I still don't know what happened with them. A guitar shop owner told me that Wal's were prone to catastrophic neck failures but I have never seen one that has failed.

There is a picture in the Rickenbacker book of him with a jetglo 4001 with Grovers and 1/2" spacing for the neck PU. I can't see the pickup itself though, a mic stand is in the way. No checkerboard that I can see either and it's got a standard Ric tailpiece on it with no slot, I think the TRC is silkscreened. This is probably the same bass before he had the other tailpiece put on it. I would think it's either a late 73 or an early 74, although I owned a 4001 that fit this desription exactly except that it was fireglo, and it was a 75.

It's gotta be a late '73 or '74. Look at the headstock, it's either a long one or medium one, not a shorty. My understanding is that the short ones didn't start till late 70's.

Cole

I forgot how handsome Geddy was.


jason

Geddy had an older Jetglo 4001 with CP inlay, checkerboard binding and fingergrip etc...circa 1972-73. No Badass on this bass either.

Any of you that have the "All the Worlds a Stage" live album will see him playing the bass in the pics provided inside. I dunno what the story is on this 4001, it is the only pic I have ever seen of Geddy with the bass on stage or anywhere else.

Ted wrote: ".... A guitar shop owner told me that Wal's were prone to catastrophic neck failures but I have never seen one that has failed...."

Well, I own a Wal bass (24-fret) and IMO thay have some of the stoutest necks in the buisness. As far as Geddy's Wals, I welcomed their arrival---a great turn around from the Steinbergers, which IMO are JUNK. Geddy Lee(and Squire to a lesser extent) was the reason I bought my Rickenbacker 4001 in the late 70's AND the Wal many years later.....VERY hard to find a left-handed Wal, took me 15 years...but I did.

Don't you know? That's why all of us here play Rickenbacker basses...the instruments are so beautiful you don't really pay attention to the "never gonna be mistaken for Brad Pitt" guy playing it!

Uh, but then again I'm speaking strictly for myself of course.
I've seen the "Pictures Of You Playing You Rickenbacker Bass" thread, & all of you fellow forum members are all potential male models, rest assured.

If you go through the links to the pictures that I posted you can clearly see some show a 1/2" space and some show a 1" space for the neck pickup ... so he either changed the pickguard or he had more than one 4001 jetglo bass ... in addition to his white 4001 and his 3001 and his 4002 and his 2 4080's ...

listen to "The Trees" the recordings with the Ric and the ones without the Ric ...

He definately had more than one JG 4001. The old concert programs I have, each list 2 black 4001's as part of his touring gear.