Bassassin

They do look loads better - the bridge pickup & the vast crater it sits in ain't designed to be seen. Alternatively, there's [url="http://www.pickguardian.com/pickguardian/RICBridgePUPlate.html"]Pickguardian[/url]. J.

Excellent spot, Nick, never seen those before. That would be a great replacement for a neck unit, it won't be a direct swap for the bridge, although could easily be adapted to fit using the old bridge unit base plate. It's worth bearing in mind that Rickenbacker have always used the exact same 6-pole "toaster" unit on basses and guitars - I think on recent reissues the only difference is the size of the mounting holes. J.

Sadly not quite as easy as that - you need to remove the strings, then unscrew the pickup surround from the bass & remove the pickup from that. The cover is assembled from underneath the surround & the screws & springs hold the lot together. Fortunately for those not brought up on Meccano & building go-karts from old prams & rusty tin cans, Rickenbacker have a handy-dandy diagram on their website: [url="http://www.rickenbacker.com/pdfs/bpickups.pdf"]http://www.rickenbacker.com/pdfs/bpickups.pdf[/url] Hope this makes more sense than my garbled explanation. Jon.

[quote name='hookys6stringbass' post='360611' date='Dec 21 2008, 11:43 PM']Can anyone suggest replacement pick ups, pots and 3 way switch for a Hondo II rick copy??? thankss[/quote] Pots & switch should be no problem, these are standard parts, the pot rating will be on the back (either 250 or 500, can't remember off the top of my head) and anywhere that sells bits & bobs will do you OK - I usually use [url="http://www.axesrus.com"]http://www.axesrus.com[/url] - good prices, very quick delivery, free postage. However - before you bin the old 'uns, get down your local Maplin & pick up a can of switch cleaner spray - if the pots & switch are just crackly this should sort it for a lot less money & soldering! Rick copy pups are quite hard to come by - as are real Rick parts, and those are cripplingly expensive, if you can find them. Old copy parts do come up on Ebay from time to time so that's the best place to look. There aren't very many aftermarket Rickenbacker components manufactured, due mostly to Rickenbacker's litigious enforcement of their design trademarks. However, there are compatible sets from Seymour Duncan & Bartolini available, these are pretty expensive - and both are humbuckers so will likely sound less Rick-ish than you'd probably want. Dangerboy on here had an SD bridge unit I nearly bought from him (for a good price, if I remember) for my Matsumoku restoration, but I managed to snag a cheap but ruined 4001 copy for the parts, so ended up not going for it. He might still have it available. Probably an idea to stick a post in the "Items Wanted" board, someone might have something. Jon.

[quote name='steve-soar' post='360410' date='Dec 21 2008, 07:05 PM']My cousin bought one of these in the 80's and the fingerboard fell off. [/quote] Just like a real 4001, then. They get tail-lift too... J.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='360159' date='Dec 21 2008, 12:16 PM']I thought the general idea was that the strings went over the pole-pieces ...[/quote] It would be useful if they were over the frets, up the dusty end! Then again that "Ibenez" wasn't born with that bridge... J.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='360362' date='Dec 21 2008, 05:52 PM']Is '6' your lucky number? [/quote] Well - plainly not! J.

[quote name='andre' post='360387' date='Dec 21 2008, 06:28 PM']If you have never tried a Streamline then you don't know what you're missing !!![/quote] I'd very much like to know what I'm missing! However, in the 2-ish years these have been around, I've only ever seen the couple of pics that have been posted on here. I'm actually still awaiting any empirical evidence that they actually exist. I rather like a funny-looking bass, me, and this is stunning, and I want one. However like the similarly incredible looking Lace Helix, I'm not entirely convinced it isn't just an internet hoax! Jon.

[quote name='budget bassist' post='360197' date='Dec 21 2008, 01:10 PM']Aren't these plywood?[/quote] Indeed they are. And Korean, not Japanese. And not even from a particularly good Korean factory. More on this in the Rickenfakers thread - although my comments are rendered a bit obsolete by the fact he's added some pics now. Jon.

Well, I'm outbid already, doubt if I'll seriously pursue it any further. But at least now he can't change the title. J.

I like that - very nicely carved for the most part, & I'd happily play a P or J modded like that. In fact if I ever come across a suitably ratty no-namer body I might have a go... I suppose it's a shame it's a 60s P it's been done to - but that would have meant arse-all to whoever did it in 1970-whatever. Jon.

[quote name='Geddys nose' post='359967' date='Dec 20 2008, 11:10 PM'][url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-Elmayer-4001-electric-bass-made-in-Japan_W0QQitemZ190275371858QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item190275371858&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A10%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-Elmayer-4001...A1%7C240%3A1318[/url] Looks a real nice bass I'd imagine if it gets to the end without getting pulled it will go for a fair wedge with Christmas money around and a 10 day auction .[/quote] "Elmayer". That's been preserved, at least until it gets tugged off... J.

Fair point Luke, our guitarist lives in Leith - 'nuff said! J.

Why do you ask? My band played a gig with them (and the very excellent & demented Runt Hornet) at The Brickyard in Carlisle, about 3 years ago. Musically I suppose they were OK in a generic juvenile rock sort of way, but my lasting impression was of a bunch of boys pretending to be rockstars in front of their mates & girlfriends. Admittedly this was a few years ago, bands can come a long way in that sort of time frame. Are you their bassist? Sorry if this isn't what you wanted to hear but you asked and I'm drunk. Jon.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='359169' date='Dec 19 2008, 09:08 PM']I've never understood why people consider headstocks to be so important.[/quote] It's to do with aesthetic integrity. I have no idea what that horrid stumpy pointy thing the SX head's been "redesigned" into would look right with - but it's not a traditional P or J shape. Although on reflection we accept the Fender shape because we're familiar with it - it's neither particularly attractive or well-matched to Fender body shapes when taken in isolation. And it's not particularly original either - go & Google "Bigsby Merle Travis" if you don't already know what Uncle Leo thieved it from. J.

Apart from the fact I hold a massive personal grudge against the seller (Rikki's "Music Shop", Leith Walk, Edinburgh - never, ever give them a penny of your money - cynical, dishonest, cheating w@nkers ) - it does seem reasonably priced. Jon.

Really hard to tell what that is, I think it's a Tele g*it*r body + a kilo of Polyfilla under all that blue crap. Either that or someone's taken a hacksaw to the top horn. I do quite like the neck - the middle strip & zero fret puts me in mind of some of the 80s Eko electrics, possibly even the 70s Shaftesbury rebrands. Jon.

That's foul. Bye-bye, any interest in SX basses then. I suspect it's something to do with this + some lawyers: Jon.

Bloody hell - that's the most expensive bit of Korean plywood I've ever seen! "Semi-set neck". Means the neck's glued in as well as being bolted on. You see this quite a lot on bolt-neck Rickenbuggers, because the neck/body joint is inevitably weak because of the thin body, lack of inset where the neck meets body - and an absolutely [b]huge[/b] route for the neck pup right on the joint. So they break there, and have to be glued back together. So it's Korean, plywood, broken & glued back together, if the action's 2cm off the board there's f@ck-all you can do about it because you can't shim it, there are no pics & he's not offering to send any. All for £600. Wow. J.

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='356965' date='Dec 17 2008, 02:12 PM']Here ye go![/quote] Thankee-Sai! Knowledge +10 points. J.

[quote name='Musky' post='356856' date='Dec 17 2008, 12:29 PM']FWIW I think the neck is probably genuine albeit butchered - the binding seems to have gone AWOL, probably at the same time as the defret. I don't remember any copies with a bullet truss rod, though Jon would be the person to talk to about that. The body though could be anything. It doesn't seem to have holes for a bridge cover (which on the face of it rules out the 70's Fenders), but it could easily be a later Fender body. There's just no way of knowing on the basis of those photos.[/quote] Really hard to get much of a handle on this because it's such a mash-up, there's a mix of old & new (ish) parts which kind of makes me wonder if it hasn't been cobbled together just for Ebay... I don't think the neck's JapCrap - I don't remember seeing bullet adjusters on any basses from that era. They were used on some 80s Koreans, but by then the blocks were gone. Scratching my head over the neck, though, & the bullet in particular. I'm no Fender expert but I had a quick flick through my copy of [i]The Fender Bass[/i] (every home should have one ) and couldn't find a single picture of a rosewood board bass with one, although they're fairly common on 70s & reissue maple necks. Maybe something to do with these being one-piece & r/wood boards being separate? Can anyone with The Knowledge confirm that these appeared on rosewood board basses? A few people have said the inlays look wrong - they do but I think this is because of the defret - it simply looks odd without the visible divisions & binding. The body's probably not JapCrap unless it's from a replica-standard bass - Tokai, Fernandes, Greco etc. Most burst finish Jap bodies have overspraying on the contours to disguise the fact they're either ply or butcher-block/sandwich with decorative front & back veneers. Jon.

[quote name='Sarah5string' post='355732' date='Dec 16 2008, 10:39 AM']I suddenly feel very young.. [/quote] Looking at that, so do I... ...and trust me, I'm really not. Jon.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='354990' date='Dec 15 2008, 01:26 PM']Hideous beyond belief. BUT. It's a bolt-on neck. Assuming everything else is original and un-butchered, all you need is a Grabber body salvaged from somewhere and I suppose you could do quite nicely out of this. They must come up occasionally. Probably.[/quote] Unfortunately it's had the inevitable prise-'em-out-with-a-cold-chisel defret too. There's no point, just burn it. Preferably with the f*ckwit that did this tied to it. Jon.

[quote name='sgt-pluck' post='354108' date='Dec 14 2008, 11:00 AM']I'm amazed ( and annoyed, was hoping to pick it up cheap!) at how much [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=370124642362"]this[/url] fetched, as a non-'name' piece of japcrap - especially as prices seem to be coming down a bit just now. It's probably worth it though, I have Westbury g****r and it's excellent by any standards. Pluck[/quote] I was watching that too, funnily enough... Westburys are pretty sought-after among JapCrap enthusiasts - in fact it was finding a rather lovely Westy Standard g*it*r in a charidee shop a few years back which reawakened my interest in all things Jappy & crappy. Paid £60 (was looking for a new g*it*r & remembered the name from yonks ago), was blown away by the quality, checked it out online to find the Fleabay price at the time was about £120 - £150. I then put 2+2 together & discovered most of my favourite basses & guitars past & present were from the same era & mostly the same origin. I've always fancied a Track series bass to go with the Westy Standard, would prefer a Track IV - set neck & 2x P pups - but I'd settle for a Track 2. For £60... J.