prowla

There are a couple of easy tells, more obvious than a Fender (there are so many variations in Fenders, "upbranded" Squiers, fake decals); I don't think there are any factory fakers which are an exact copy. The current Chickenbackers are an easy spot - they are a different scale and the bridge is wrong. There was a site, joeysbassnotes.com, which spelled it out, but it appears to have gone off the air. Here's some of mine: A Hondo II and a CMI(?) Japanese I'm currently working on: Both have single truss-rods, the Hondo's treble pickup is in the wrong place (ignore its bridge, that's a Hipshot), the CMI's machines are standard Japanese (the Hondo's machines are replacements), the Hondo has a bolt-on neck, the jack sockets, the strap button position, the split-shaft pots and push-on on knobs. These are the typical Japanese machines. A nice Shaftesbury I sold. The Shaftesbury is one of the best ones, with a thru-neck. Note the same machines. This one has a real Rickenbacker bridge/tailpiece. From a distance it looks right, but up close it's like Joanna Lumley wearing makeup. The weight and general feel are wrong. Only 1 truss rod. The back of a bolt-on neck CMI with wavy non-Grover machines which I sold. No 4001/4003s have bolt-on necks and those machines are unbranded. The skunk stripe is too wide. The strap button is usually in the wrong place. Some have shonky treble pickups, like this Diamond (Aria) branded one; this was my 1st faker, which I sold on. The finished Diamond. Replacement machines' posts too wide, strap button wrong, wide skunk stripe, bolt-on neck (notice the stripe isn't full-length), jack socket says "Stereo Sound" not "Rick-o-Sound". And here's the above CMI (4001 copy) alongside a Rickenbacker 4003. Skunk stripe, machines, pickguard, strap button, bolt-on, position dots for control knobs. (The neck pickup position is OK - that's a 4001/4003 difference.) Just like with any copy, they look fine from a distance, but a little bit of sleuthing and you can pick out the details.

They hadn't registered the designs as trademarks back then. I sort of respect the fact that they still just run from that same factory and haven't offshored. As for the Chickenbackers, they do have them seized when they can.

It is very easy to tell a faker from a genuine Ric (I have 4 real ones and 3 fakers currently and 3 others previously) - way easier than other brands. However, some fakers also infringe Rickenbacker IP and the company is committed to protecting its brand by legal means.

A Ric sounds like a Ric when it's not plugged in. Now, if you were to put a neck pickup on a Precision or Jazz and also a series capacitor on the mid-way pickup it might get some of the characteristics of the amplified sound.

It probably sounds like that after a few glasses of Port.

It was originally that cream colour, but the previous owner stripped it, varnished it, and then abandoned the project. I had been thinking of black, but a surf green would suit it, wouldn't it?

The gold hand-painted Fender logo was a bit of a stretch, I have to say! 🙂 I'm stripping off the overpainting, but it's taking off the finish too (red leaning towards orange), so I'll have to redo that; it's not exactly the finest instrument every produced, so I'll be having a think about how far to take it.

Well, you can add a sub not to the synth sound...

I seem to amass parts, on the basis I'll find something to go with them; if I see something I'll buy it. The Status neck going with the budget Frankenstein body is ridiculous. The Mighty Mite neck was from a work colleague a couple of years ago; I had it on an orange P-bass body for a while, but then I got a Mex maple neck and decided to swap that on. Then the white Jazz body came up here so I nabbed that. This is the Vox; it was over-painted by a teenager, so I'm in the process of stripping it back. Here's a Strat project. A Tokai Strat.

Pump It! is a great album.

Cheers for that - feel free to fire off questions. As far as progress goes, I seem to be on a go-slow at the moment and I've got some other projects on the go too (two Rickenfakers, a vintage Vox bass, a Strat, another Strat, an Ovation , and another Strat too!) (I really need to stop letting things catch my eye) so they could take a while... That said, pretty much all I've got to do on on these two is find time to get my soldering iron out to get their electrics sorted and then put on strings and do their setup.

] The white J is a roughly painted Squier body which needs re-doing, a very nice Mighty Mite fretless neck, Wilco machines & pickups and a nondescript bridge. The Frankenstein P is a Status Graphite neck on a rather cheap but cool body (the pickguard overlays with the same picture), with Sperzel locking machines, a decent bridge, and probably a pair of Fender pickups I have in my parts box.

Not an up-market model.

Cool - I guess you just learn the chord shapes.

How do you play one?

Back to playing a synth from a bass, the Markbass SuperSynth is really good. But it's not practical if you want synth sounds to complement your bass line.

The Yamaha JV-1010 has a load of sounds.

"unique rustic"!

It would be good to get Neil Murray in - he was at the recent guitar fair in Thame, though (apart from a momentary look when he saw I recognised him) I didn't intrude on his time.

Saying it's a good buy?

Looks like a good buy for a 5-banger chickenbacker. Good on the previous owner for sanding off the counterfeit Rickenbacker logo. (If you want to put a Rickenbacker logo on your own, then it's yours to do that; some people like vanity plates on cars and fake boobs & botox.)

This is a sound from my Markbass SS which I posted in another thread.

It's not a 70s one - wrong bridge and lots of other things. I bought some Havaianas yesterday; they need a bit of wearing in.