Rickenbacker with Maple Fingerboard

[fleamail]

First time I see a Ric with a maple fingerboard!! Have anybody else seen one? Are they rare?

[Musky]

Yeah, they're extremely rare. So rare that it may well be a copy that Lemmy's famous for playing. Rick did offer custom options, but I seem to remember Lemmy saying he bought his on the cheap from some dodgy guy.

Rickenbacker made a Lemmy signature bass a while ago - so rare that I've never even seen one in the flesh.

[fleamail]

I found this one [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rickenbacker-4003-tuxedo-bass-1987-Nudeswirl_W0QQitemZ190120262729QQihZ009QQcategoryZ4713QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItem"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rickenbacker-4003-tu...VQQcmdZViewItem[/url]

But why the heck did he striped down a rare bass like this! With the cream finish and the maple fingerboard it would be my dream come true!!

[joegarcia]

[quote name='fleamail' post='14087' date='Jun 8 2007, 11:25 AM']I found this one [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rickenbacker-4003-tuxedo-bass-1987-Nudeswirl_W0QQitemZ190120262729QQihZ009QQcategoryZ4713QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItem"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rickenbacker-4003-tu...VQQcmdZViewItem[/url]

But why the heck did he striped down a rare bass like this! With the cream finish and the maple fingerboard it would be my dream come true!![/quote]

Good grief that is beautiful!

[Musky]

[quote name='fleamail' post='14087' date='Jun 8 2007, 11:25 AM']I found this one [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rickenbacker-4003-tuxedo-bass-1987-Nudeswirl_W0QQitemZ190120262729QQihZ009QQcategoryZ4713QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItem"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rickenbacker-4003-tu...VQQcmdZViewItem[/url]

But why the heck did he striped down a rare bass like this! With the cream finish and the maple fingerboard it would be my dream come true!![/quote]

I should imagine that he had no idea about its rarity, and just didn't like the finish. He bought it second hand, before the internet had the kind of resources it does now.

I almost butchered an old '68 Rick to make it more to my taste, before I discovered they were actually quite sought after.

[Bassassin]

There's been a lot of speculation about Lemmy's maple board Rick on the RickResource forum - most people reckon it's a copy, but one guy says he read an interview where Lem said he visited the Rick factory & they had this one-off prototype - which he promptly bought.

Doubt he remembers the facts himself!

All of Lemmy's Ricks are wildly customised anyway, so it's really difficult to try & identify from photos. I've never seen a Rick copy like that, though - and I've seen one or two!

There were quite a few Japanese copies with maple boards, though (my Rickenbugger has one) but all the ones I've seen have triangular position markers (sometimes in black) rather than dots.

That there Tuxedo Rick is lovely - probably better with the stripped finish, IMO.


Jon.

[ashevans09]

[quote name='joegarcia' post='14106' date='Jun 8 2007, 12:01 PM']Good grief that is beautiful![/quote]

+1. niiiiiiice!

[Delberthot]

It was me who started the thread on the rickresource!

the overall answer i got was that Lemmy got his bass before the copies started getting made from a dodgy geezer and possibly had a new fretboard put on it