prowla

Russia have occupied some islands they are in dispute with Japan over.

For me, I was never going to make a 4-hour trip each way.

Hey, John - I’ll always defer to your extensive knowledge. 🙂

The bridge is just the little bit with the 4 string saddles on it and the tailpiece is the big block it sits on which is where the strings thread through; the pull of the strings can cause that to lift. The 70's ones were especially prone to that, but the more recent ones had a bit more bracing to them, which made them less susceptible but not immune to tail-lift.

I was never going to go to Manchester or Liverpool. I went to the Northampton Guitar Fair last week and it was alright; bumped into a couple of folks I knew and met up with a couple more; I'd say it was maybe 75% of the previous show and all I bought was a bass case, but it was a good day out nonetheless. Hopefully things will ramp up as the year progresses; fingers crossed for the Kempton Park one. I'll be going to the April Brizzle one next and hopefully tie it in with a day out (maybe see the Great Britain again), and probably the Brum one in May.

Yep - it can be interesting looking at the variations in those instruments coming off the production line. I think the factories had a checklist of options their customers could choose from: One output or two. Wavy waffle tuners or generic. One truss-rod or two. Logo on TRC or gold screen-printed onto headstock. Black, fireglo, or custom colour. Bolt-on or thru-neck. 34" or 33.25" scale. etc. The Matsumoku factory appears to have predominantly produced 34" bolt-on neck versions, which can typically be identified by the "Steel Adjustable Neck" neck plate and dot position markers for the control knobs. There were many brands applied to the fakers, including Aria Pro II, Diamond, Vorg, Westminster, Westone (Matumoku's house brand), CMI, and who knows how many others; they never had the "R" word on them, though. I don't know how big their order requirements were, but I'm guessing they'd do runs of maybe 100. Fast-forwards to today and the Chinese factories seem to be following a similar business model, but their starting point is a rather poor copy (the 2nd generation Rockinbetter when they shifted production to China) and their quality, attention to detail, and craftsmanship is nowhere near the same as those old Japanese factories. They are also producing the instruments with the real brand name on them, making them counterfeits; they first did it with "Gibson", leading them to be dubbed "Chibson"s and that naturally led to the fake Rics being dubbed "Chickenbackers"; in some cases the sellers advertise their wares with pictures of the real thing to con people into buying.

I think if you could get the pair for that there would be wiggle room to get them sorted.

That's a Chickenbacker, more recent than the original Rockinbetter ones - look at the neck heel!

I fink he was referring to the Hipshot unit...

OK - "the company which is now RIC". 🙂 It was worse than that for JH - he retired to Birmingham! 🙂 🙂 As far as being hassled over 70s fakers; I'm still not quite sure how action can be taken against things which were made decades before the trademarks registered, but BC's "sod you then" approach to handling the situation is worthy of a wry smile at least! 🙂 🙂 🙂

I use 40-100. In the past I’ve used lighter gauge.

I’ve had Hipshot, Badass, Schaller on Ric basses and I just prefer the stock unit. I probably will try a v2 sometime too.

Don't use heavy gauge strings. There are a few ways of addressing tail-lift: If it happens, just buy another tailpiece and put that on to start from the beginning again. Don't over-tighten the 3 screws under the bridge. Get a Hipshot replacement bridge (if you like the look of them). Put an extra two screws through the end of the tailpiece to bolt it back down (unsightly, but RIC did it on some). Get a RIC v2 bridge, which eliminates the issue; it does need new holes drilling, though. Come up with a Heath-Robinson fix of your own, for example slotting a bent-steel bracket under there somehow. Get a custom made tailpiece which is stronger (I looked into it, but a local aluminium workshop wasn't interested in doing a short run of them). Put a Badass or Schaller 3D bridge on the bass - it does need the under-bridge bays to be filled in, though. Geddy Lee had a Badass on his and RIC themselves used Schallers on the 4004 and 4003/5 models. (Some folks even put Kahler whammy bridges on their Rics.)

RIC hadn't trademarked the designs in the 70s and the fakers never had the "R" word on them.

The better photos do show they're well used; I think the fireglo's tail-lift is at about the limit. I've seen the binding separate before - they used a softer material than real Rics and it does tend to detach on the concave surfaces. The fireglo does have some signs of wear (or you might call it "mojo"!). The black one's neck pickup's pole pieces are rusty - I've seen that before too. The photo from the jack plate angle of the fireglo shows quite a gap between fretboard and the bottom-E string. All in all, I'd say they are fairly well-used and may need some TLC to get ship-shape. FYI, I sold the CMI one in the above picture for £250 last year; I'd shored up some neck-lift to stabilise it, but it needed doing properly.

@Bassassin My vintage Rics' TRC's lettering is heavier than those. They could possibly be newer plexi reissue ones, though.

FYI, this is one I owned (a CMI), next to a real Ric; the ones you've posted have nicer tuners.

Based on the blurry pictures, I'd be happy owning both of those; however, it really comes down to their condition and the price. You can embed links to pictures on other sites (eg. imgur) to get their full resolution.

FYI, The reason I asked if the black one was a bolt-on is because the body looks rather thick. Also, the Fireglo one is showing tail-lift; that's where the bridge tailpiece starts to bend upwards and pull away from the body. It happens on real Rics too, so it's 100% authentic! One thing to beware of these vintage instruments is the converse of tail-lift, neck-lift, which is where the thru-neck starts to bend upwards at the weak point under the Bass/neck pickup due to the pull of the strings; a symptom if this is a high action even though the truss-rods have the neck straight and the the bridge is bottomed out; it is fixable, but requires woodworking skills. Again the authenticity is there because it happens on real Rics too; Rickenbacker used to stipulate as a warranty condition that you had to use their strings. Though the pictures aren't great, it appears that the action is high-ish.

As for the original brand, it’s pretty much impossible to say, as the same instrument came out of factories with different labels on them. I always think it’s a shame when folks swap the TRC for a vanity RIC one.

Cool. Yes, the jack plate would say Stereo-Sound & Standard. Value is dependent upon thru vs bolt on neck; a good thru neck is north of £500.

It’s quite difficult to tell much from those pictures. They look vintage Japanese; I’m thinking Shaftesbury, but they could be other. The tuners look interesting, but can’t see the backs. Is the black one a bolt-on neck?

That white stripe ain’t great, is it.

It's a no from me...

Is £399 a lot for one of those?