Stacker

Have a gander at this poor thing: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1977-RICKENBACKER-4001-FIREGLO-BASS-FREE-SHIPPING-/220809042281?pt=Guitar&hash=item33693e9969"]FrankenRic[/url] What TF did the modder cut the 'guard with - a Stanley knife?? I notice the shop makes no mention of what's under that awful pickguard and I think they've got a nerve asking a price like that for it. Salvageable? MAybe, but IMO best thing would be to get the routs/holes professionally inserted with maple and sprayed Jetglo. I'd [i]love[/i] a deko at those routs.

It's also cos the higher tension pulled the neck up a bit and players tried to adjust the 4001 rods the usual way. Doing so tightens the rods but doesnt pull the neck straight!! The neck has to be manually moved into place then the rods are tightened. I have only done this twice on two separate 4001s and I loosened the rods first before tightening, although I have heard that you can move the neck[i] without[/i] loosening rods, something I wouldn't do.

[quote name='Shaggy' post='1301372' date='Jul 12 2011, 05:51 PM']'Twas me mate, & still lovin' it! (here's a couple of pics.....) Fabulous basses Re "Top Basschat" - bags I be Stig; got the face for it! [/quote] That's her, mate! Keep on playing her!

[quote name='Clarky' post='1300294' date='Jul 11 2011, 08:58 PM']I can do the 'Hamster' inappropriate-bordering-on-the-sad-longer-hair-on-middle-aged-slightly-chubby-man thing but I no longer have the Ric - does anyone want to lend me a fireglo 4001 checkerboard/toasters bass for an extended period, purely in the interests of televisualosity?[/quote] I sold one on here a couple of years back but can't mind the buyer's name.............

[quote name='hairyhaw' post='1299963' date='Jul 11 2011, 02:58 PM']12SB - was this on the Rick Resource forums? If so, it was exactly the reason I stopped posting there (well, that and I found this place). A lot of the members display an almost bizarre paranoia at any sort of criticism that might result in JH withdrawing his presence there. To me, it began to border on the pathetic.[/quote] Hhmmm... same here. There's an almost mob-like mentality with some people over there and I was personally insulted both on the members forum and by PM. And then there's the borderline apoplexy if anyone bids against the member who has been alotted 'first dibs' by the other members! I did have a bit of fun in a bidding war with one of them on a 21-fret 4001 that popped up on German ebay and revelled in the collective freak-out as they questioned each other about the identity of the other main bidder. Choice! Anyway, the official RIC forum is a much more sane place. But as to the 4000 series: my first two were dogs but that didn't stop me, years later, having another go and buying a whole load of them over a period of a few years.

For all the grief I've had with them, I still love 'em though am down to a '73 4001 and '90 V63 (plus the 660DCM and a 660-12TP). I wouldn't mind getting a hold of the RM 1999 reissue (some for sale in [url="http://www.kurosawagakki.com/tags/keyword/?str=rickenbacker"]Japan[/url]) but at up to £3k before shipping/import duty/VAT, forget it!

And let's not forget tail-lift!! A lot of 4001s exhibit it but so did my 4001CS, which I was appalled at! RIC did bring out a 7-screw bridge in the mid/late '80s with two at the end corners of the bridge to counteract the lift but they sacked them, I believe, cos they supposedly improved the alloy that the bridge unit is made of.

[quote name='spongebob' post='1297428' date='Jul 8 2011, 05:11 PM']I've owned quite a few and they're all gone now. For me, after playing not much else for a period of time, I just found I'd kind of got a bit tired of the sound....just wasn't doing what I wanted anymore. And please don't get me started on the QC - out of 4 different 4003, I've never owned one without a problem yet. The recent ones are supposed to be a lot better - but my 2009 was the worst thing I've ever owned, and the 2010 wasn't too far behind. With a design virtually unchanged in 40 years, how can they still make massive mistakes on what they produce? Hand-crafted......by who???[/quote] After hankering after a Rick for years, I got a 4001 in the mid '80s; it was a dog. That didn't stop me then getting a 4001S/8 that was impossible to tune due to the octave courses going over the same saddle! Then there was the blotchy, nicotine-like marks that appeared all over the body of a brand new Blue Boy after a matter of months and developed a red stain on the base due to being rested on the wrong type of guitar stand, or so I was smugly told on the RIC forum. And no less than John Hall himself informed me that there was nothing wrong with the CV finish on the Blue Boy and that I had been leaving the bass under UV light, in view of sunlight and also in a smokey atmosphere; the bass was subject to none of these. Then there was a 4003S/8 in which both truss rods failed. At my wits' end with trying bodge repairs, I gave up and took the bass to Jimmy Moon and told him to put his own rods in it. I got it back but the love was gone by then and I f****d it off and bought another Jazz. Then theres the finish on my V63FG, which keeps on hazing up. I will clean and polish it but a few weeks later it's hazed up again. That does my nut in! And then there's the 75th Anniv 660DCM with the badly cut nut that was too high and had the low E sliding off the edge of the 'board. I had to buy a black RIC blank and sort it myself. Makes me wonder why I bother. Must be that old toaster sound!

Looks like a Jazz Bass Plus with a modded neck and replacement bridge.

Wonder if JH/RIC are going after stuff like [url="http://www.tradetang.com/for-sale/NEW-bass-Guitar-Free-Shipping-bass-Electric-Guitar/129558-2672698.html"]this[/url] in the Far East?? Hold on, I actually like the loook of that....................... Faker nameplate, too!!!

[quote name='ash' post='1272214' date='Jun 16 2011, 10:59 PM']Once again I'm wondering why they pulled my John Birch Faker and not this? I described it as a UK made bass and there was no reference to the R word, mine got pulled and to cap it all I got barred from selling on Ebay temporarily, I also got a flea in my email from John Hall about how I was breaching intellectual copyright! I wasn't trying to con anybody into believing it was a Rick and if anyone's seen my JB it isn't an overt copy - I'd say 'inspired' by the Rick shape....[/quote] F*** John Hall!! WyTF is he emailing you and not John Birch who, AFAIK, is still in business last time I looked? Those pant-wetters over at RicResource - who take it on board as self-appointed RIC Police - are always on the hunt for fakers, copies, WHY, and are more likely, since JH emailed you, to have been the ones to get your ad taken down. John Hall, IMO, should spend a bit more time on quality control of his instruments instead of firing off nippy emails to people who didn't manufacture the instrument he's moaning about!

[quote name='Rich' post='1270946' date='Jun 16 2011, 06:09 AM'][b][i]If[/i][/b]. This is all hypothetical, of course. But I almost want to see this on the EBMM forum, just to see what happens.[/quote] In the spirit of justifyable mischief, me too. It has gone a bit quiet up here and I need some entertaining.

Looks like Ibby pups but I don't recall Ibanez doing a bolt-on neck. Bassassin is sure the one to analyse this fella.