Advice on '73 Rick requested, please

[Denis]

This afternoon I'm going to look at what's purported to be a '73 Rick 4001. The advertised price is too low to pass up at least a glance at the thing. However, I was burned once on a bass which turned out to be stolen so I want to be careful.

How do I tell for sure this Rick is a real one and not a Japanese copy? He says the neck isn't broken, that it has dings, etc and that all the electronics work.

I'd appreciate any and all input!

[Dave W]

Most Japanese copies are bolt-ons, but not all.

That's all I know, hopefully you'll get some more responses before this afternoon.

[Bert]

read this. There's more info there on copies than I can tell you.

[Denis]

Excellent, thanks! Man, that's a lot of info!

Okay, real quickly, regarding binding. Did Rick ever offer checkerboard binding?

[Bert]

Okay, real quickly, regarding binding. Did Rick ever offer checkerboard binding?

Yep. Until somewhere in '73 it was standard on basses.

[Denis]

From that site it looks like there were a fair number of changes to the 4001 in '73.

[patman]

I had a 73...

Had a 6 pole toaster for the neck pickup...had 2 truss rods.  I've never seen a copy with 2 rods, although they may exist. Had the checkerboard binding.  Had the cap originally.

My favorite bass

[Denis]

I printed out all that information from Joey's Bass Notes and will take it with me when I go meet the guy.
What I have gleaned from the information is that if it's a real 4001 it will have:
1. Two output jacks with serial number
2. Binding on the body and neck
3. Triangle fingerboard markers
4. "Model 4001" and "Made in the USA" on the TRC (if it's a real Ric TRC)
5. "Grover" name on the tuners
6. Twin truss rods
7. No binding under the tail piece
8. Neck through construction with thin skunk stripe.
That cover it?

[Hornisse]

The truss rod cover should be plexiglass with the Rickenbacker part silk screened under the actual cover.  So it should be flat on top.  Checkerboard binding went up until the middle of the year.  Also the triangle markers went full width up until early '73.  The neck pickup should be closer to the neck than the current 4003 basses.  Good luck with it!

[hieronymous]

That list looks pretty good, but as other people are noting, this was a transitional year, so slight variations are possible. I don't think that all '70s 4001's have Grovers, those changed around too, but that early maybe so? The skunk stripe is a good sign unless it's jetglo! 

[godofthunder]

Good luck Denis ! A full report when you get back, hope you bring it home !

[ilan]

Most copies have a single truss rod but there were fakers with dual rods. I have seen at least one.

Can you take some pics and post them? If possible - under the pickguard and nameplate.

[Bert]

From that site it looks like there were a fair number of changes to the 4001 in '73.

Correct. '73 was a transitional year in which a lot of features dissapeared. (CB,FWMOP,Wavey Grovers, .....) I have an early January '73.

[Denis]

Okay, so I went to look at the Rick, totally armed with serial number decoders, 13 pages of pics and essays identifying fake Ricks, and it turns out it was a '76 4001, so lots of those transitional issues I didn't have to worry about after all. The serial number is PG 5249 (July 1976) so it's a bicentennial Rick!
The owner was a really nice guy and obviously sad that he had to sell it. He's owned it for at least the past 10 years and he kept looking at it and wanted to play with it one more time. He showed me the list of around 20 people who'd called and offered him a lot more money than he was originally asking, which was $750. He must have liked me because he sold it to me for $700. It's been played a lot and has quite a few dings and serious buckle rash but I don't care. It's way cool.
Here are some pics. Whatcha think?

[Dave W]

$750 would have been an average price 6 or 7 years ago for one in that condition with no neck/truss rod issues. It's an excellent price today. Looks good, looks like you did well. But you haven't said anything about how it sounds and plays!