A shortscale Rickenbacker 4001 - yes, it exists

[BassAgent]

So I was recording an episode of my podcast with Dutch bass legend Rinus Gerritsen of Golden Earring, and I'd heard about him having a shortscale Rickenbacker 4001, of which many people *know* doesn't exist. So I asked him about it, he smiled and said "oh yeah that thing. I was in Chicago and a guy came up to me and said 'hey, you play those cheapo Danelectro basses, shouldn't you play a Rickenbacker?' I didn't really like Rics so I said 'nah the Danelectros are great, and by the way, who are you?' The guy said 'I'm a Ric representative'. So to be sure to get rid of the guy I said 'sorry man I'm a shortscale guy'. The Ric rep said 'oh but we have a shortscale, actually we have two! One was built for this country music guy, so if you tell me at which hotel you're staying I'll have it delivered to you'. So the next day there was a guy with a guitar case and there it was. One of two shortscale Rickenbacker 4001 basses ever built."

And here it is. Mapleglo, walnut headstock wings, and it feels...weird. It feels like Ric but...different. Shorter, of course, but also...special. It is of course absolutely unique. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I'm not a big Rickenbacker guy but this is quite something.

[BCH]

14 minutes ago, BassAgent said:

So I was recording an episode of my podcast with Dutch bass legend Rinus Gerritsen of Golden Earring, and I'd heard about him having a shortscale Rickenbacker 4001, of which many people *know* doesn't exist. So I asked him about it, he smiled and said "oh yeah that thing. I was in Chicago and a guy came up to me and said 'hey, you play those cheapo Danelectro basses, shouldn't you play a Rickenbacker?' I didn't really like Rics so I said 'nah the Danelectros are great, and by the way, who are you?' The guy said 'I'm a Ric representative'. So to be sure to get rid of the guy I said 'sorry man I'm a shortscale guy'. The Ric rep said 'oh but we have a shortscale, actually we have two! One was built for this country music guy, so if you tell me at which hotel you're staying I'll have it delivered to you'. So the next day there was a guy with a guitar case and there it was. One of two shortscale Rickenbacker 4001 basses ever built."

And here it is. Mapleglo, walnut headstock wings, and it feels...weird. It feels like Ric but...different. Shorter, of course, but also...special. It is of course absolutely unique. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I'm not a big Rickenbacker guy but this is quite something.

Now that is interesting and when is it for sale???????

[BassAgent]

My guess is: never. 

[JohnDaBass]

47 minutes ago, BassAgent said:

My guess is: never. 

So why doesn't Rickenbacker wake up to the opportunity of brand extension into a desirable 30ins or 32ins 4001.

[scrumpymike]

3 hours ago, BassAgent said:

And here it is. Mapleglo, walnut headstock wings, and it feels...weird. It feels like Ric but...different. Shorter, of course, but also...special. It is of course absolutely unique. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I'm not a big Rickenbacker guy but this is quite something.

 

Unless there's something under the case that's lifting it up off the floor, all the other components of the s-s seem to be bigger than on the standard - which really would be weird!

[BassAgent]

My guess is that it's based on the 480/481 guitars, which would make sense if you look at the body. I think a few parts might be a bit bigger? Their age is about 5 to 6 years apart so that might also be part of the "problem".

[ezbass]

3 hours ago, JohnDaBass said:

So why doesn't Rickenbacker wake up to the opportunity of brand extension into a desirable 30ins or 32ins 4001.

Because they’re Rickenbacker and they do it their way and ‘damn the torpedoes’. Their attitude to innovation and change, or rather their intransigence, seems to be detrimental IMO.

[Waddo Soqable]

4 hours ago, JohnDaBass said:

So why doesn't Rickenbacker wake up to the opportunity of brand extension into a desirable 30ins or 32ins 4001.

I don't think Rickenbacker really want any more business than they already have, has been my impression. They presumably are tooled up and staffed to produce X amount of instruments per year, and I guess are happy to tick over at that rate without feeling the need to "grow".

What I would do, if I was put in charge, would be to immediately go into production of a "Squier" type range of Rick basses, manufactured obviously in the far east.

That would be a goldmine IMHO.

[BassAgent]

Of course but that would also open the discussion about Rickenbacker "selling out". Same thing happens all the time when a brand launches an affordable range of instruments (like Sadowsky recently). And that's something Rickenbacker wants to avoid at all costs.

 

Still, an affordable Rick would be freakin' amazing.

[4000]

I nearly bought one once. It was for sale in a shop somewhere in the UK(I forget exactly where) well before the Internet, in the ads in the back of one of the guitar mags of the time. Unfortunately they weren’t set up to take credit cards over the phone, I didn’t have the cash and it was the other end of the country so it didn’t happen. I did wonder later whether it was actually a 21 fretter (one of which I later did get and which has the bridge further forward) and they just assumed it was short scale, but maybe not. 
 

I think Ric are about as keen to do a cheaper line as Wal are. 😉

[Lfalex v1.1]

23 hours ago, JohnDaBass said:

So why doesn't Rickenbacker wake up to the opportunity of brand extension into a desirable 30ins or 32ins 4001.

Because: Rickenbacker, unfortunately. 

Edited August 30, 2021 by Lfalex v1.1
I see ezbass beat me to it..

[BassAgent]

19 hours ago, 4000 said:

I nearly bought one once. It was for sale in a shop somewhere in the UK(I forget exactly where) well before the Internet, in the ads in the back of one of the guitar mags of the time. Unfortunately they weren’t set up to take credit cards over the phone, I didn’t have the cash and it was the other end of the country so it didn’t happen. I did wonder later whether it was actually a 21 fretter (one of which I later did get and which has the bridge further forward) and they just assumed it was short scale, but maybe not. 

Considering the fact there are only two in existence and one was in Rinus' possession and the other one was built for an American country bass player, that seems unlikely (but not impossible of course).

[4000]

2 hours ago, BassAgent said:

Considering the fact there are only two in existence and one was in Rinus' possession and the other one was built for an American country bass player, that seems unlikely (but not impossible of course).

Well there aren’t exactly hundreds of 21 fretters either but I’ve had one of those. 😉 

 

It may have been, it may not. Who knows? They insisted it was, that’s all I can go on. And Ric have built far more oddities than they have decent records for….however tbh having seen the picture (there wasn’t one in the ad) I wouldn’t want one anyway. All the proportions are waaaaay off. Not good. 😂

[Bassassin]

A couple of years ago RIC made 3x 30.5" scale basses for the bassist from Death From Above 1979:

 

 

I seem to remember they teased the idea it might become a production model, but clearly that never happened.

 

These are nothing like as cool as Rinus Gerritsen's shorty 4001 though.

Edited August 31, 2021 by Bassassin
A pic seemed helpful!

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

On 29/08/2021 at 14:15, BassAgent said:

It is of course absolutely unique.

Can it be, if there are two of them?

[BassAgent]

7 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Can it be, if there are two of them?

I consider myself "touché'd".

[Misdee]

22 hours ago, Bassassin said:

A couple of years ago RIC made 3x 30.5" scale basses for the bassist from Death From Above 1979:

 

 

I seem to remember they teased the idea it might become a production model, but clearly that never happened.

 

These are nothing like as cool as Rinus Gerritsen's shorty 4001 though.

I remember seeing these on Facebook or somewhere like that and getting excited for two reasons.Firstly it's a short scale Ric, secondly and much more importantly, it's styled  sort of after a Rickenbacker 4002! Those pickup covers ! I was full of anticipation at the thought of a 33 1/4 inch scale scale reissue of that rare beast. I imagined myself playing the short scale bass whilst I was waiting for my custom order 4002 to turn up.I am still waiting for either to materialize. ☹️

 

If Rickenbacker did bring out a short scale bass they would get snapped up pretty quickly I expect, bearing in mind how trendy short scale basses are nowadays. Short scale Ric with flats would be a very hipster-friendly combination.

 

I also seem to remember Steve Harris from Iron Maiden citing the bass player from Golden Earring as one of his formative influences when he was a young player. Good to know Rinus Gerritsen  is still out there playing.🙂

Edited September 1, 2021 by Misdee

[prowla]

I didn't like the bridge stranded half-way up the body...

[unterninja]

Late to this party, but:

 

I believe they actually built more than two, over time (but not many more, probably less than ten or even five). Here is one that was for sale on Reverb a little while ago. It is probably a legitimate 70's shortscale Rickenbacker 4001 (short discussion here, at the Rickresource forum)