Bassassin

That's not a Fender J pickup, or any sort of standard J-type - so unless you did additional routing you couldn't put a different/better pickup in it. With the adjusting screws evidently at the ends, this looks like the sort used on some Aria J copies from the 70s.

[quote name='Roger2611' timestamp='1484585563' post='3216528'] A nice bass? [/quote] Certainly a nicer bass. My first thought was Ibanez SR or SRX - modern ones use the same bridge and the control cover's the right shape, but other things don't match up. So not that, but something related - a different Ibby, or something from the same factory - a Cort, maybe. Edit - pups & bridge would match a Cort GB74.

These are both cool IMO - the Cimar looks to be a Fujigen build, going on the s/n (despite the Ibanez/Hoshino connection I think most of them weren't), and the Takeharu is just a great-looking & unusual bass. This - or one the same - has been on before a few times - can't remember when. I think it might be a little more reasonably priced now, assuming bidding doesn't go mad. I think I've also seen this design with a different brand but not sure.

I sort of like this... I think you should go the whole hog & reverse the scratchplate & controls too - although that'd be easier starting with an unrouted slab body.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1484494104' post='3215857'] AFAIK it's not a Dimarzio (or at least it wasn't in my Thunder 1), but the design is closely based on theirs. [/quote] Correct - definitely not a DiMarzio, although a few MIJ basses from that era did have them as standard. Westone called their pickup a "Magnet-F 600B". Whatever that means. And it really is high time someone posted this: [url="http://www.westone.info/indexthunderbass.html"]http://www.westone.info/indexthunderbass.html[/url]

Sounds like a good, straightforward project. Have you joined the Rickenfakers FB group? Plenty of people there who can help with the likes of replacement pickups & custom trcs. Everything else sounds easy enough though. Shame the original tuners are gone - never seen a set of these turn up. Oh - one rod or two?

Typically these are about £150 on Ebay, a bit less on here, but £150's a realistic price to expect to pay for a nice one. Bolt-neck,3 knobs & 2 switches is a 1A. The good thing about these is that they are very common - they were extremely popular & built like tanks meaning there are still loads around and bargains frequently turn up. At £230 this isn't one!

[quote name='TrevorR' timestamp='1484242769' post='3213938'] Clearly pink is for guitarists only... [/quote] You're [i]so[/i] wrong... [url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Rickenfakers/rv4-01_zps2yzkaxow.jpg.html"][/url]

[quote name='prowla' timestamp='1484208293' post='3213464'] Cheers! (Actually I added in the extra fret in the rather crudely edited picture where I chopped the headstock off...) [/quote] Never spotted that! Guess I could put up with just the 20, at a push...

Your '73 is pretty much my dream Rick - all the vintage bells & whistles (it's even a 21 fretter!) and that age-darkened Fireglo. Gorgeous.

Not the same guy, but last week someone had one of the HB hollowbody Rick-ish things up, crappy fake Rick trc and a bloody great big "D" on the heel. Guess how much? ...£[b]1450[/b]!

Contacting Hall personally would gain you nothing but an earful of abuse and a very nasty taste in your mouth if you mention Fakers. And unless you bought either of your Ricks brand-new through an approved RIC dealer, he'd take a dim view of you depriving him of profit. The whole sale of Ricks & Rick-shaped objects on BC and elsewhere, and Hall's online behaviour is a massive can of worms which the search function might (or not) clarify, if you're patient enough. Suffice to say BC does not allow either genuine or copy Ricks to be sold, or sales linked to, for reasons that veer wildly between sensible, illogical and (presumably) bloody-minded. There's a legal reason for RIC to pursue the sale of copies, old & new, which is to do with US trademark law - in a nutshell if they don't protect their registered designs in this way, they lose the right to claim exclusive ownership of them, much like Fender & Gibson have with the fundamental designs of their best-known instruments. There are many, many reasons why Hall's threats & ranting amount to little more than hot, foetid air, but if I was in the position of BC's management I'd likely do what they've done too. I grew up listening to Geddy & Lemmy & Foxton etc and always hankered after a 4001 as a youngster. Never got one but developed an interest in old MIJ basses & guitars, and obviously that included the various Rick copies from that era. These days they're significantly rare, can cost quite daft money and many are far better quality than their genuine contemporaries. In the 70s Rickenbacker was still using manufacturing techniques from the 50s whereas Japanese factories were using CNC and modern components, adhesives and finishes. I doubt you'll find many early/mid 70s 4001s that have fared as well as the average Fujigen or Kasuga copy, and after the aesthetic "tweaks" around 1973, none of them were (imo) as interesting! The irony is that at the time MIJ copies were regarded as cheap, throwaway beaters, so that's what's happened to most of them, meaning that surviving instruments in original condition are very hard to find. So don't mess with your Matsumoku too much! New Chickenbackers - now that's a different matter.

I've done a few. Most recently I replaced the original white plate on a Yamaha SBV500 with a rather more vulgar pearl red. I don't have any power tools adequate for cutting scratchplate material (I have a scroll saw but it's far too inaccurate to do anything but rough cutting) so this was largely done by hand. I used the original plate as a template - using the screwholes on the original, I attached the old plate & the blank to a suitably-sized piece of wood so everything was clamped tightly together. Then I scored around the outline of the original, removed the old plate then drilled millions of holes around the shape of the new plate, as close to the score lines as possible. That made it quite easy to cut out the rough shape of the new plate using a combination of scroll saw & hand tools. Fortunately scratchplate material is quite soft & easy to work because then it was a matter of filing the rough edges to meet the score line & achieve the correct finished dimensions. I didn't trust myself to accurately shape a 45 degree bevel so I settled for a straight edge with the top rounded off a little. The plastic had a protective layer on it while I worked so most of it stayed intact, but any minor scuffs on the top surface polished out with T-Cut. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out: [url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Yamaha%20SBV500/sbv1200_zpsz09f6km4.jpg.html"][/url] This is the biggest job I've undertaken & it did take a good few hours - previously I've done a half-sized plate & various trcs so have got reasonably confident with the material. Planning a custom-shaped plate for a Rickenfaker project at the moment.

I've actually got a project Faker-ish thing (active Wesley-brand bass with a Rick-shape body & nothing else) that I'd love to make headless - but for the fact there's a massive cavity for the battery exactly where the routing for the tailpiece/tuner assembly needs to go. Gah.

[quote name='Harryburke14' timestamp='1484070134' post='3212437'] Ah right. Anyway, what Rickenfaker would people recommend? Looking for a 4001 copy that looks like (and at least sounds a little bit like) the one that Bruce Foxton used. [/quote] Foxton used an Ibanez 2388B/DX neck-through, like this only black: [sharedmedia=core:attachments:48534] You'll note it has Gibson style pickups - although they're both single-coil units, not humbuckers, so do tend to be quite bright. The same bass was also sold badged Greco, but you won't find too many in the UK. This model probably stopped production around 1974 or 5 - later ones were more accurate but far less cool, IMO. These are hard to find and sellers do tend to want high prices for them when they do turn up - even rough examples are unlikely to be less than £500. However there are plenty of different Fakers out there, and they come up for sale regularly. If you're not already a member, get on to the [url="https://www.facebook.com/groups/78514186083/"]Rickenfakers FB group[/url]. All the basses we can't sell on BC turn up on there, and so far it's a John Hall-free zone. Fingers crossed...

Saw John Wesley supporting Marillion at the end of last year. I'd seen him with Porcupine Tree numerous times & rated him as a fine guitar player but hadn't made the time to seek out any of his own material. He played a proper solo show with no band - just him, guitar, mic and occasional backing tracks. I was mightily impresed by both material & performance & got the chance to chat with him afterwards (seems a thoroughly nice & completely unassuming guy) & get a copy of his most recent album. Haven't really listened to much else since - it's [i]excellent[/i]. [media]http://youtu.be/KLiKRNPl-pc[/media]

Needs a poll - who would we sooner have back on BC - Gwizimon or BigBeefChief? No "none of the above" option.

If he wanted BC's assistance he could come back & ask, couldn't he? Might involve some measure of getting over himself, mind.

I think so, along with Top Twenty & the like. I have pages from a 70s catalogue showing a number of Zentas (including this one) alongside some JHS-branded instruments, so I'd assume they were the importer/distributor.

So - the reviewer returned the bass - and DarkHeart's just bought a B-stock... Hmmm. However - none of these issues exactly sound terminal to me, pretty easy fix if you have a screwdriver and a file.

Right choice - for all my Ibby love! Squier VMJs are great, as (IMO) are Jazzes in general. I have, and have had, dozens of different basses, and much as I like variety I always come back to a J.

Either of them beat "stupid fat c***" by a significant margin.

[quote name='Dave Swift' timestamp='1483728287' post='3209694'] Ouch, tough crowd! stingrayPete1977, maybe I should hire you as my agent! [/quote] No complaints about your contribution, Mr S. Although more vintage Japanese basses would have been nice...

Don't like singlecuts as a rule but that's actually not bad... B-stock one for £314. Just as well it's a no-GAS year.