1973 Rickenbacker 4000 conversion to 4001, mojo city £1450 - *WITHDRAWN* £1700 London

[karlfer]

55 minutes ago, Clarky said:

Thanks Karl, I am cognizant of the fact there would be a lot to do to restore this - replacement wavy tuners (very spendy and hard to get hold of), new scratchplate, replacement 70s style bridge pickup etc. Hopefully at this price, this makes allowance for a possible resto job. The accompanying box of replacement pickups and parts (Retrovibe etc) could also be sold off piecemeal to help defray the outlay a little. 

 

Alternatively, it sounds pretty damn good to my ears and I think looks v cool, as is!

At that price it's a bargain restoration job! Just wish I had the skills.

[ead]

1 hour ago, karlfer said:

I have an amazing HW built to 1974, 4000 specs.

 

What's one of these?

[tegs07]

I would be very interested in this as a project but don’t trust couriers to deliver and am unlikely to have time to get to London in the short to medium term. GLWTS.

[Clarky]

15 minutes ago, ead said:

 

What's one of these?

I believe they are high quality lookalikes and have a FaceBook page. Not something we would of course buy or sell on BassChat, given the history which we don't need to go into

[Clarky]

Sale pending

[Clarky]

Sale fell through, so back up FS for £1450 including rough-and-ready gig bag. Add £25 on top for delivery. 

 

Note: I have had a guitar shop look over the intermittent electronics in the past several weeks. One failing pot was replaced, the soldering was tidied and the copper shielding was removed (as it was causing shorting issues) at a cost of £80 to me. All sorted now.

[prowla]

On 20/03/2024 at 12:37, Clarky said:

Thanks Karl, I am cognizant of the fact there would be a lot to do to restore this - replacement wavy tuners (very spendy and hard to get hold of), new scratchplate, replacement 70s style bridge pickup etc. Hopefully at this price, this makes allowance for a possible resto job. The accompanying box of replacement pickups and parts (Retrovibe etc) could also be sold off piecemeal to help defray the outlay a little. 

 

Alternatively, it sounds pretty damn good to my ears and I think looks v cool, as is!

Well, that's a bit of fun, isn't it; looking at the instrument the options are to either: (a) view it as the fun mongrel it is, or (b) take it on as a project which needs work and money spending on it to do a restoration.

But restoring would be non-trivial.

Unfortunately (though I do have a set), putting wavy Grovers back on is not a simple job, as the peg holes have been widened to fit the Schallers; reverting would require filling the holes and re-drilling original-sized ones, after which the repair would be visible.

Many 4000's left the factory with the Bass (neck) pickup routing already there, so the 4000-4001 conversion was a simple job; unfortunately this one wasn't one of those and its extra pickup is in the wrong place.

There's been a lot of wood taken out of the body and at the end of the set-neck and that's weakened the structure; Rics are prone to neck-lift (where the pull of the strings starts to lift the neck forwards); thought I'm not sure about how the set-neck models are affected, this one needs the routing filled in with the correct wood (maple) to put it right.

There's the tail-lift issue which isn't too difficult to resolve: just replace the tailpiece or go for @briansbrew's excellent fix!

It's a shame about the butchered pickguard; replacement 4000 ones aren't so common.

I'd be looking to do the restore, but it could be a money-pit and the end result would still be a not so great one.

Of the 8 Rics I have, only one was more than this one's asking price and my most recent one was an '88 4001 project which was missing some parts but not needing any structural work (coincidentally, one of its pickups was acquired from @briansbrew some years ago).

There's a 4000-sized gap in my Ric collection, but making the numbers add up for a restoration on this one would require @Clarky taking too much of a hit.

Edited Sunday at 09:14 by prowla

[Clarky]

Thanks for the fulsome reply @prowla. I had no intention of not keeping it at option (a) "fun mongrel" but it could be restored to (b) albeit with the considerations you detailed. As far as scratchplate goes, Rickysounds makes a 4000 repro one in white, based on a 1973 4000, for £49.99. However, as said, I think option (a) is preferable and what I would have stuck with. As it happens, I just acquired a 1974 4000 (all original, pictured below)  in jetglo as I like the simplicity and the sub-9 pound weight.

 

PS, I am trying to cut my bass collection by one and also to defray the costs of my jetglo 4000. If my B/B/M Jazz sells first, I will be keeping this.

Edited Sunday at 09:08 by Clarky

[prowla]

12 minutes ago, Clarky said:

Thanks for the fulsome reply @prowla. I had no intention of not keeping it at option (a) "fun mongrel" but it could be restored to (b) albeit with the considerations you detailed. As far as scratchplate goes, Rickysounds makes a 4000 repro one in white, based on a 1973 4000, for £49.99. However, as said, I think option (a) is preferable and what I would have stuck with. As it happens, I just acquired a 1974 4000 (all original, pictured below)  in jetglo as I like the simplicity and the sub-9 pound weight.

 

PS, I am trying to cut my bass collection by one and also to defray the costs of my jetglo 4000. If my B/B/M Jazz sells first, I will be keeping this.

Cheers!
That's a nice 4000!

(Have you peeped under the pickguard to see if it's routed for a Bass pickup?)

[Clarky]

1 hour ago, prowla said:

Cheers!
That's a nice 4000!

(Have you peeped under the pickguard to see if it's routed for a Bass pickup?)

I just peeped. No rout. Also, the neck is chunkier than my mongrel (more of a P feel than the closer-to-J feel of the 4000-to-4001)

[Clarky]

PS,to address one of @prowla comments about the neck, my 4000-to-4001 plays nicely with TI Jazz flats or low tension nickel rounds (40-100). It cannot cope so well with higher tension strings. So any potential buyer would have to be happy with low tension strings on this bass.

[prowla]

1 hour ago, Clarky said:

PS,to address one of @prowla comments about the neck, my 4000-to-4001 plays nicely with TI Jazz flats or low tension nickel rounds (40-100). It cannot cope so well with higher tension strings. So any potential buyer would have to be happy with low tension strings on this bass.

No harm in that - 40-100 is my preferred gauge. 

[Studio GC]

Someone just buy it and play it for what it is. A great playing and great sounding Ric for not a lot of cabbage.

 

I know because it had this bass in the States and then gigged with it for years in my 60s cover band. 

 

The neck is rock solid on this one.

 

[Clarky]

 This comment is spot on and - having used it at band practice for our upcoming gig this weekend - I have decided to to keep it. It will make a nice pair with my jeglo 4000 and give me options. Withdrawing.

On 12/05/2024 at 22:29, Studio GC said:

Someone just buy it and play it for what it is. A great playing and great sounding Ric for not a lot of cabbage.