The Last Bass Outpost

27 frets!

I sent him a correction. He has listed it as a 4001C64S, but it is not the S version (which has rounded-off body horns).

What piqued my interest again was a group of photos taken by a woman at the Louisiana Hayride 55-60 years ago and posted to FB by her son. There was a photo of Bob Luman with James Kirkland playing that Ric 4000 instead of the enormous upright he was usually seen with. I started poking around. Looked at Kirkland's FB page, and there's a pic of him playing the Ric with Ricky Nelson. I had seen James Burton playing a Ric in Ricky's band before (possibly a 381) but not Kirkland.  Also, his page includes a promo pic of Ricky playing a Ric flat top acoustic.

Dave, Nelson's band was equipped with Ricks at one point, probably as promotional gifts. It appears that Kirkland's bass may have been a "two-tone brown," maybe an early version of what became known as "Autumnglo." When Kirkland went over to the Blue Boys, the bass was painted powder blue to match the Ricks the other band members had (also possibly promotional gifts) and there's a oft-published staged shot of Reeves and the Blue Boys with these guitars and even powder-blue-grilled Rickenbacker amps in my book (and many other places). The story of Kirkland and what happened to that old Rick bass is in the book, too. The second edition coming this summer has a recent picture of the bass as it surfaced a couple of years ago at a guitar shop and it was quickly scooped up by a noted collector who specializes in early Rickenbacker basses. It may never be seen again. 

According to John Hall in an interview for the book, he states: " . . . neither African rosewood (bubinga) nor Caribbean rosewood (chechen) are true rosewoods in the Dalbergia family."

I don't know from family or genus when it comes to this stuff, but it doesn't matter. I can't imagine RIC using any wood that is from an endangered source.

Quite possibly the only lefty 4003SPC Tuxedo.

I messaged the seller with suggested corrections. It's a 4001 in yellowed white, not a 4003 Mapleglo. And of course all the pickup stuff is not anywhere near standard. I suggested value of $1200-$1600 and that $6gs was "optimistic."

"Clownglo" appeared mostly on early ought instruments (e.g. 2003). They tend to look worse in photos than in real life. I've heard it said that some digital cameras have a tough time reproducing reds and can't accurately capture subtleties in the red spectrum - like it thinks that something is totally red or it's not; no shades of red. Certainly "clownglo" happened, but mercifully is a thing of the past.