Richard T

Thanks all, really useful replies. That thread is fascinating Bassassin, first matching headstock I've seen and yet another insight into the uniqueness of the Rick bass. It's been a steep learning curve! Someone has to rescue this thing then, I'd better start thinking about £numbers.....

I'll get a pic of the buttons, they're little black Schaller type 'screw through' jobs. Interesting, so there were some early 4003s with truss adjustment at the body end? Obv the headstock was never routed for the usual big retaining plate and this screamed 'knockoff' at me but maybe not.....either way I'm not stripping it down until the owner's brother is around...

I know, I've never seen a Heath Robinson job quite like that!

Hi all, Any idea what this is, other than a mess? Spec suggests 4003s, jack plate claims 1983, condition says 'grossly abused', heart says worth saving, head says fake. I don't know enough about these to take a view but I find it hard to believe that anyone would treat the real thing this badly. Obvious points (see pics): -Truss rods apparently in place but the retaining plate & hex nuts are not, haven't yet had the scratch plate off so dunno whats happening at that end, if anything; -Bridge/saddle assembly entirely missing, some kind of wood & plastic bodge installed in the mute position, and... -...non-stock tuners missing bushings, so intonation totally goosed. -Bridge p/up covered with some kind of weird black velvet. 2 piece through neck looks about right, chrome a bit bubbly, bridge vol pot crackly but all pots work. Obviously impossible to sort tuning/intonation/action in present state. Belongs to the brother of a friend, latter has no idea of provenance and former is in and out of institutional care and sometimes needs a prompt to remember his own name. Worth acquiring and salvaging?

Hi Pete, thanks for the input P/ups are indeed marked SGC, now had the plate off and it has indeed been (very neatly) routed for the reversed P, so there's a single large-ish rectangular cutout and the (or at least a) plate will be staying. Immaculately cut 3-ply BWB, so if a DIY rather than shop job it was a good one. Hadn't really twigged the fret marker thing but on close exam they do indeed look like a retrofit - again, nicely done in MoP so someone spent a bit of time &/or £ on it at some point . Clean apart from a couple of dings, nice weight, size & neck feel for a guitar player, I think I could get attached to this one! Off soon to give my publican bassman pal a look at it over a pint or two and maybe leave it for him to play with intonation &c, as he will happily do for hours at a stretch. Strictly a MusicMan & G&L player but he does like arcane 80s stuff....

Hi All, New member and pretty much a new bass player - at least since briefly owning a massive Guild semi in my Uni years, longer ago than I care to remember. So I recently decided the bass-shaped gap in my music room needed filling, ideally with something original, interesting and well made, and ideally cheap, assuming I'd end up meeting 3 at best of those criteria. Short version: a bit of lurking here & elsewhere put me on the trail of these creatures and I've just got my hands on a Fleabay 1988 SB301, for well under £200 delivered with a decent hard case. As a guitarist I find it comfortable and playable and much less of a lump than eg Squier J or Sub Stingrays that I've borrowed lately. Need a decent small bass combo before taking a view on the noisemaking side of things but even through a wee Vox practice amp there seems to be a decent tonal range. (Not sure of controls: is it V, mix, hi- and lo-cut?). So a couple of questions: 1) It's got a scratchplate and the P/U is reversed, I assume this is all non-stock? I quite like the look and I'll leave it on for now while I ponder whether or not to take the slightly dinged tobacco burst back to oiled wood (if the state of the body under the guard allows.....) 2) Were active models routed differently for preamp & batt or did they just jam 'em in the same size hole? Not planning an immediate upgrade but handy to know either way. More generally, who actually designed these originally, one of the Bass Centre guys?