You can educate them though: Whenever people see my bass collection in the office, the braver ones among them hesitantly ask: "But since they are electric, don't they all sound the same?" I then proceed to plug in my EB-1 - "Listen for yourself!" - and then something like a Victory - "Hear a difference?" - and they all go: "Oh, that DOES SOUND DIFFERENT!".
It probably comes from my Purple penchant, but I will forever consider fireglo as
the Ric color. When I think of a Ric 4001 or 4003, I think of a red one.
But I feel with you: Being a Ricster means coming to terms with the fact of liking one type of bass with one shape for half a century, no comparison to the - albeit failure-bred - wealth of variations in the Gibson kingdom!