Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Ok, I once owned a January 1971 4001 bass that had 21 frets. It had the checkered binding, Crushed markers, Walnut wings and the bridge was moved about 1/2 inch closer to the neck to compensate for the extra neck length. This was a great sounding bass and I wish I still had it. I recently found a mid 1970's Rotosound ad with Chris Squire playing a similarly finished Mapleglo 4001 with 21 frets! This bass is also pictured in the inside cover of "The Yes Album." My question is how many of these were made? I could never find out any info on mine when I had it. It was well worn and I tried to get Rickenbacker to do a restore job on it but they said they could not so I sold it. Any info on these 21 fret basses would be appreciated.

I have a Jan, 1972 21 fret 4001. It has about 8 anomalies, including walnut wings on the headstock, a bound headstock, & dot inlays -- has ROS, so it's a 4001, not a 4001S I suppose.

Hey James, how about posting a picture of your 4001. I don't think that I've seen a 4001 with a bound headstock before. Cool.

I'm new to this forum and I don't know how to post a jpeg. I don't have a website to link to, or I'd point you there.

The code is \image(Text description)

Be sure to substitute the wavy brackets {} for the standard brackets displayed above. Upon posting, you are prompted for an image file to upload. Images must be either GIF or JPEG format. Images must be saved on your hard disk. Your browser must support form-based file upload (Netscape Navigator 2.0+ and Internet Explorer 4.0+ support this; IE 3.02 will also work provided that you have installed the file upload patch). Please note that the maximum file size allowed has to be under 15k so you may need to compress or reduce the size of your photo. Be advised that although a file may indicate 14k an exact measurement may reveal a size that may only be a tad over but the robots won't allow it.

I want to try

Sorry for the off the subject. I wanted to try posting a picture.

Jon

Jon: Nice work! Just like Carl Wilson.

Please blow the first one away if this looks better

The body, pls forgive the Badass and G&L pup

I don't know about this one, let's here what the Dr. has to say about it.

That's "hear"

From 1968 to 1972 , this was an era of "lets see what we can tweek to come up with a seller" .

There are some very interesting instrument that were made during this time .As the Beatles were no longer seen in public with Ricks , but definately heard with the Bass, the buying public was not seeing that bass on a regular basis .

Sales were down and this bass could be one of those "interesting basses" .

The real answer is this .......Rick had a particular viewpoint concerning the routing out of a bass/guitar....and as NO ONE else did it their way , it is easy to spot real from fake.
Also the truss rods are a dead giveaway , when coupled with the routes.
Dick Burke and his mighty felt pen would have been there , and the LC initials or BEM or any of the other familiar markings ......

My take on this is ......SHOW ME the ROUTES!

The rest of it it this ;
Frets are Not original to the bass , definately a refret using 1970's Gibson wire , possibly Dunlop 6110 wire,
The fretboard dots are not stamped out white binding ....are they real? The white plastic ones are typical on all 4000 basses and the edge is not clean on most of them .The Macca bass had rough edges .
Headstocks with binding are done a particular way that NO ONE else does. Lets see the side of the headstock .
In fact lets see the back of the neck/headstock .
The shaper cut on the heel and the flare into the headstock is a particular identifying shape.Even Ibanez copies do not copy this correctly.

THe 'changes' are of NO significance .

You're making this tough. I still not good at reducing these jpegs. I'm going to assume I can only post one pic per message.

Sorry, no side view available of the headstock. I have a rear shot, but it's flat, so you can't see the shape of the neck to headstock transition.