Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

so i was looking up the color of my 4001 and i always thought that it was called autumglo or whatever. but i read somewhere that they stopped that color in the mid 70s or something. mine is a 1980. it looks exactly like David McDonald's 1976 4001. did ric have this as a custom color? the guy i bought it from said that it wasnt a refin.

I think they made a similar color called Walnut, was less glossy maybe?

walnut

autumnglo

oooo ok i guess i have a walnut then thanks everybody

Walnut and Autumnglo are the same color. Walnut is glossy and Autumnglo is matte. These two examples have totally different applications of the color.

Autumnglo


Walnut

The 4001 in the above picture is a 1980 and the 4002 is a 1979. I believe the color was discontinued not long after these basses were made. This brown was apparently never a favorite of John Hall's. He has since done it up right with the creation of Montezuma Brown. I never liked the look of my Autumglo but my walnut 4002 was always beautiful to me. The difference is in the application.

I like the autumnglo a lot except I don't like the abrupt change from brown to natural in the middle.

Ted, I think both of those basses are some of the nicest Rics I've ever seen. If you want to sell that AG send me an email.

I bought them from the same Rickenbacker dealer within a few months of each other back in '80 -'81. Nobody wanted either of them at the time. I paid $550 for the 4002 and under $300 for the 4001. The AG was my backup bass and was rarely played, which is why it looks so good today. I favored my JG 4001's and my '72 jazz bass back then. The AG has a few blemishes from it's original owner who installed a Gizmotron, gold Grovers, and a gold Badass I before dumping it in favor of another bass.

Gosh, that Walnut is just gorgeous!

I've never seen either in person.

A few questions about Autumnglo, If I may:

The idea of a matte finish seems to be a rather anomalous one for Rickenbacker. Anyone know of a particular reason Autumnglo was done this way?

How "matte" is it? More of a satin or "eggshell" kind of thing, or is it really flat?

How similar are Autumnglo and Montezuma Brown?

One more question: if it was matte, why the "-glo"?

There are only a few places to see the original lustre these days. The back of the neck is polished to a gloss that is nearly the same as the standard finish. Under the guard, TRC and tailpiece the finish is still relatively prisine. The texture is very similar to that of matte scotch tape. It is slightly bumpy to the touch but silky feeling. It is not rough like a flat finish.