The Last Bass Outpost
Gear Discussion Forums => Rickenbacker Basses => Topic started by: ilan on May 23, 2008, 11:12:43 AM
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A really nice one on eBay... Bob Atherton's '73 Fireglo 4000. We all love the 4001 deluxe features, checkerboard binding, crushed pearl inlays etc., but the elegant simplicity of the 4000... I can't take my eyes off these auction pics.
http://cgi.ebay.com/RICKENBACKER-4000-BASS-FIREGLO-1973-VERY-RARE_W0QQitemZ120264366209QQihZ002QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
(http://i17.ebayimg.com/06/i/000/f2/3d/471e_12.JPG)
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Mine:
(http://400x.nl/4000/4000-body-01.jpg)(http://400x.nl/4000/4000-full-01.jpg)
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Elegant simplicity...that's an apt description.
I'm pretty sure this one will end up well beyond my reach but I could go for a 4000 reissue.
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I used to hate the idea of a single-pickup Rick - I thought it was just the stupidest thing possible - but I've since come around. I think the video of Stanley Clarke playing one in Bill Connors-era Return to Forever helped.
Fortunately I'm not a huge fan of fireglo so I'm immune to the one on eBay!
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I couldnt be happier with my first Rick than with any other bass I will ever get. My first Rick. I could hardly pay for it at the time but finally I had a real Rick! But somehow I always had the feeling I missed a neck pickup. Once I had a Rick with a neck pickup I knew for sure.
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I prefer the look of Rics without binding - or with binding just on the back (like the 360). I love the look of the 4000, 4001S, v63, etc..
There's been a slightly battered jetglo 4000 up recently too. I don't think it sold yet:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-1979-Rickenbacker-Model-4000-Electric-Bass-JTGO_W0QQitemZ290229819815QQihZ019QQcategoryZ2384QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
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There's been a slightly battered jetglo 4000 up recently too. I don't think it sold yet:
The overly-optimistic $2,200 BIN price and the 97.2% feedback didn't help selling it... and either the TRC or the pickguard aren't original. But a 4000 does looks killer in Jetglo.
And Dave, a 4000 reissue could be great, especially if they make it with an active circuit with bass boost (4000A?)
I also like the ES125-T and the ES125-TD behind it:
(http://i2.ebayimg.com/08/i/000/e7/1e/77aa_12.JPG)
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I think it looks like a 4001 with a stolen neck pup - weird!
(ducking ...)
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Unfortunately I didn't speak to the guy, but I shared a stage with a rock band with a Ricky player. From a distance his bass looked like a 4001 with a mudbucker in neck position. I know Ibanez made some (only bolt-on?) copies with EB2/3 style pick ups (mudbucker ánd mini humbucker). I believe the neck through Ibanezes have Rick-a-like pick ups?
However: After a while I noticed the bass had only two controls, so I think it could be a 4000 with added neck pick up.
I agree with Uwe about the missing-pick-up-looks.
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usually i like plain and simple basses,but with Rics i prefer all the fancy touches.4001 or 4003 for me please.
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I had a 4000 back in the early 80's Rickenbacker dumped a lot of them at the House of Guitars where I worked. I paid peanuts for mine, best Ric I ever had.
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I've always loved the look of the 4000 bass. C.F. Turner used one with BTO. I can't recall which album gatefold had a cool photo of one.
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I remember what turned me on to the single-pickup 4000 - when I played a Jazz Bass almost exclusively, 99.9% of the time I had both pickups on full volume. With my 4001, I either used both together or just the neck pickup. But once I made a recording and someone at the RickResource Forum made some comment that his bass "screams" or or was brighter or something like that. I took that as a challenge and went back and rerecorded the bass part just using the bridge pickup. I boosted the bass frequencies with my preamp, and it sounded amazing! I never would have guessed, because usually going from both or the neck pickup to the bridge pickup always sounds incredibly thin to me.
But if you think about it, the 4000 is kind of like a P-Bass to the Jazz Bass of the 4001/4003.
The other thing that got me wanting a 4000 was this video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lFP-alYNq5I
(And just for fun, though off topic, here's the same song being performed recently:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2r123KZbXUs&feature=related
Looks like Stanley's playing his Spellbinder bass instead of an Alembic - some people at the Alembic Club are going to be bummed...)
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The gorgeous Fireglo sold for £880 ($1,741).
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That's a bit surprising; I figured it might fetch at least £1,000.
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Is the market on Ric's kind of soft at the moment? There was a '96 4001CS up a few weeks ago that I managed to resist with every fiber in my being (as much as I'd love it, there are other basses I want more). It had some minor road rash, I don't think it had the cert, and someone had swapped out the 'guard (which is something I'd probably do anyway, if I had one - not big on sig basses). Seemed the $2200 price reflected any of the negatives and then some.
Not a single bid on it.
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I think Ricks always go through up and down periods, like anything. I suspect the dot-inlay variants are stronger in the two pickup mode than the 4000, which has always been the case. It is just going to be harder to pop over the $2 grand point for that model. It is probably true of the glued in neck variants as well - either way. The odd 4001 with glued neck will be less hot, and the odd 4000 with neck through will be hotter to move.
Now if one of the 30" scale versions would pop up, then we could have some fun!