Price for repaired Rickenbacker 4001

[incubass]

Hey there, folks!


I came across with an opportunity to buy a '76 Rickenbacker, but I'm having second thoughts, since, as the owner says it has been "carefully rebuilt w/100% originals. Chrome hardware redone in Italy, new tuners and PU's checked by a rickenbacker professional tech."

So everything is original besides the tuners. How much do you think is a fair value for this bass?

Let me show you some pics. The price he's asking is 1375€, around 1100gbp.











Thanks a lot for the help!

[rogerstodge]

Not a Ric expert but thats gotta be worth £1100

[incubass]

I'm gonna give it a try this saturday, it sure looks awesome!

Come on, rickenbacker guys, I'm desperately needing some help

[incubass]

Someone?

[Dad3353]

No expert (I'm a drummer..!), but the bridge looks to be out of alignment in the photo, despite being face-on.
I would also need to ask why any rework needed doing. It was surely original in the first place, no..? What circumstances provoked the 'make-over'..?

[Stacker]

Bridge alignment, to me, looks ok but I'd be askign what the seller means by 'carefully rebuilt'. It looks a very clean guitar for a '76 model. Have you dated it? You might also ask to see the control cavity and the front pup cavity and cable rout. Plus, if it is a 4001, you must ask to see the truss-rod ends: if there are two (as there should be) and they're bending downwards, the truss-rods are probably buggered.

[Stag]

+1 for looking under the TRC.

The tuners look like Ric replacement ones from a 4003 - in '76 i dont believe "Rickenbacker" was stamped on them, they were either unbranded open faced keys or closed Grovers... So thats interesting.

The light isnt helping as in one pic the board looks dark and in another it looks fine. I would ask the seller exactly what is original and what is not, parts wise. If the only things changed are the tuners (and they appear to be Ric reissues) then £1100 is a good price IMO. Athough im interested to see what this "redone bridge" actually is... Perhaps a non-Ric rep part?

[Stacker]

So, how did the viewing go?

[Musky]

[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1350307139' post='1837031']
The strings look to be aligned off to the G side slightly. This is a problem with a through-neck instrument. For £1100 I would look elsewhere.

The whole thing is actually shady. Carefully rebuilt or not it could be a cut 'n' shut, a tarted up faker or anything else.
[/quote]
Ricks with misaligned strings are quite common, and the reason why you see so many with a second groove cut in the saddles. No idea if current models can still exhibit this problem, but I certainly saw new basses in shop windows with this problem in the mid 2000's.

[incubass]

So, I actually tried the bass and it sounds awesome. Took it home right away The only thing not originally from 76 are the tuners, which didn't work anymore. The replacements are Rickenbacker's tuners.

Yes, I could notice that problem with the G string... is there any way that can be fixed? Today I put it next to a not repaired Rickenbacker 4001 and they look exactly the same, so I'm not worried anymore of it being a fake. I can't say the refinish is 100% awesome, but you really can't notice any difference 1 meter away, and it sounds so awesome! For me that's the most important thing, it didn't lose any of its Rick sound and vibe.

Right now I'm trying to figure the best tone for playing some McCartney bass lines, it seems to start "growling" very easily, which I like, but I wonder that McCartney did to control this. I wonder if it's simply a difference between roundwound and flatwound strings...

[KevB]

To deaden the sound you can also wind up the foam string mutes so they are touching the strings to dampen them, gives a more 'thuddy' Macca sound.