Rickenfakers

[ubit]

I realise that  Rickenbacker selling  is banned but I wondered does anyone know of any decent copies? I find them on Youtube but no one says what make they are or where they get them.

I quite fancy one but there is no way I am paying two and a half grand for the privilege.

Are the fakes any good? Most budget guitars these days are so much better than they used to be.

 

To be fair I have only briefly dabbled into research on this subject and maybe there is a wealth of information. I just don't know where to look.

[Grassie]

If you can find one, the Tokai Rockinbetters are supposed to be pretty decent. A friend of mine plays an Ibanez copy and that sounds great. There is a facebook page called Rickenfakers, there's loads of resource on there.

 

[4000]

It really depends. Some of the older, more accurate Japanese copies (Ibanez etc) can be very good indeed. As a dyed-in-the-wool Rick player, all of the recent Chinese (?) “copies” I’ve played I’ve thought were horrible, but YMMV. Indeed you may find you prefer them to the real thing, as they are actually very different instruments and you might not actually like the real thing as they can be a bit marmite. You’d need to play some and make up your own mind. 

[Paul S]

I had early-mid 70s MIJ copy.  It was not possible to narrow it down to a maker, which apparently was a sign of a good one   To my ears it sounded 'exactly' like a Ric.  It looked just like one, too.  Trouble was it weighed approaching 11lbs and, with my back issues, I just couldn't get away from that.  In the end I let it go, but I was sad to do so as it was a damned fine bass.  @silverfoxnik has it now.

[Paddy515]

Mine's a Kasuga, MiJ, and a lovely player and sounder. Checkered binding, set neck.

[Skybone]

3 hours ago, Grassie said:

If you can find one, the Tokai Rockinbetters are supposed to be pretty decent.

 

 

Unfortunately, the Rockinbetter's had no official tie with Tokai, other than they were brought in to the UK by the UK distributors of Tokai, called 'Tokai UK'.

 

They're good, in as much as they are through neck, and the necks are very similar to the Ric's they're modelled on. The downside is that the bodies are slightly larger and wider. Still great basses though. Another to look out for is the Bass Collection Californian, which is basically the same bass with a different TRC.

 

The FB Rickenfaker group is a good place to go for info, though mainly based on recent Chinese fakers, or 70's MIJ fakers.

[4000]

1 hour ago, Paul S said:

I had early-mid 70s MIJ copy.  It was not possible to narrow it down to a maker, which apparently was a sign of a good one   To my ears it sounded 'exactly' like a Ric.  It looked just like one, too.  Trouble was it weighed approaching 11lbs and, with my back issues, I just couldn't get away from that.  In the end I let it go, but I was sad to do so as it was a damned fine bass.  @silverfoxnik has it now.

11lbs? Blimey. My real Rics are under 9! 

[Paul S]

42 minutes ago, 4000 said:

11lbs? Blimey. My real Rics are under 9! 

I know!  Such a shame.  I loved everything else about it.  If I felt I had a use for one I'd be on the prowl for a lightweight real one, having dipped my toe and found them to my liking, but it is an expense I can't justify at the moment.

[4000]

34 minutes ago, Paul S said:

I know!  Such a shame.  I loved everything else about it.  If I felt I had a use for one I'd be on the prowl for a lightweight real one, having dipped my toe and found them to my liking, but it is an expense I can't justify at the moment.

Ah well, best of luck when the time comes.

[Woodinblack]

I had an ibanez ric copy when I first started, loved that bass, but it got nicked.

Had a rockinbetter, actually had two, they are good but the bridges aren't great and you can't replace them with anything else as it would mess the scale up.

[Maude]

Don't rule out the 70s Japanese fakers based on weight. I have an early 70s Aria which, although I haven't weighed, can't be anything like 11lbs. It's about an average Precision kind of weight. It's an early one with a toaster rather than a hi-gain neck pickup and sounds great, you'd be hard pressed to distinguish it from the real thing on tone. 

Although I say it's an Aria, that's only because it left the Matsumoku factory with an Aria trussrod cover, the same bass could be wearing another brand name. It's easier to base your search on the factory rather than the brand with 70s Japanese fakers. 

The 70s Japanese fakers were generally excellent build quality and pretty accurate, the newer Chinese fakers, mainly sold out of DH Gate, Ali Express and the like, are not IMO worth bothering with if you want a Rick type bass. Their looks and sound are in the right ballpark, but not quite there. Their build quality is lacking as well. But they're cheap so serve a purpose. The MIJ fakers have shot up in price lately though, as have genuine Ricks, good if you have one, not if you're looking for one. 

A decently priced 70s MIJ is an excellent way to dip your toe in the water. 

There's also a few excellent luthiers making superb quality copies, if you can nab one of them at the right price it would be well worth it. 

[TheGreek]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334182812477?hash=item4dced90b3d:g:vqoAAOSwvM1hadcz

 

 

There was another on eBay (in poor condition) but I couldn't find it when I just looked.

[prowla]

9 hours ago, Grassie said:

If you can find one, the Tokai Rockinbetters are supposed to be pretty decent. A friend of mine plays an Ibanez copy and that sounds great. There is a facebook page called Rickenfakers, there's loads of resource on there.

 

Beware that the "Tokai" in Rockinbetter is actually Tokai UK (an importer in Sheffield) and not the Japanese Tokai Gakki company, which is known for producing high quality guitars.

(Looks like this caveat was already posted.)

Edited October 16, 2021 by prowla

[prowla]

I've had several fakers.

 

This one is a vintage Japanese one next to a real '78 Ric.

 

This one is UK made; I bought it barebones and put the bits on myself..

 

This is a selection of fakers I had at some point in time (the black and blue ones are gone).

The "Red Baron" is a Retrovibe Renegade (update: it's now gone too), the "Rickenberger" is a confused tribute to Rush and/or Darren Redick (he had a fur-covered Spirit); the cream/brass and burgundy 5-string are works in progress.

Edited April 2, 2022 by prowla
status update

[Bassassin]

As has been said, the 70s Japanese copies (also Brazilian Gianninis & Italian Ghersons) are the closest to 'replica' standard. None of the more recent basses do much more than copy the overall look - scale length, neck proportions, hardware & pickups are all quite different to the real thing.

 

The BC Rick ban also extends to Fakers (they're the reason why there's a ban!) so posting Ebay links here is probably a bad idea. The best place to look for Fakers - or to comission a build from a specialist luthier - is the FB Fakers group.

 

Here are some to be going on with.

 

[4000]

Although understandable, it’s a bit of a bugger it only being on Facebook because I’m not…..

[prowla]

2 hours ago, 4000 said:

Although understandable, it’s a bit of a bugger it only being on Facebook because I’m not…..

I'm only there for the guitar/bass stuff.

[Steve Browning]

Bruce Foxton started out with an Ibanez.

[SteveXFR]

For something which is similar but different, there's the Retrovibe Telenbacker.

I think these look awesome and they sound pretty good as well. 

[Maude]

53 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

Bruce Foxton started out with an Ibanez.

And Peter Hook with a Shaftsbury. 

With it being such a 'punk bass', along with the Precision, I bet quite a few fakers were doing the circuit back then. 

[Woodinblack]

Take the ugliness of the ric controls and graft them on to the ugly body of a telecaster, and you are really onto a winner!

 

[SteveXFR]

11 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Take the ugliness of the ric controls and graft them on to the ugly body of a telecaster, and you are really onto a winner!

 

 

I think it looks quite nice but then beauty is in the eye of the beerholder

[4000]

1 hour ago, SteveXFR said:

 

I think it looks quite nice but then beauty is in the eye of the beerholder

And the more beer, the more beautiful……😉

[Bassassin]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

Take the ugliness of the ric controls and graft them on to the ugly body of a telecaster, and you are really onto a winner!

 Couldn't have put it better! On the other hand, I'd quite like to see a Thinline Tele batwing scratchplate (designed by Roger Rosmeisl) on a Rick or Faker - that might right the decades-long wrong of that hideous afterthought Rick scratchplate 'design'.

 

1 hour ago, Maude said:

And Peter Hook with a Shaftsbury. 

With it being such a 'punk bass', along with the Precision, I bet quite a few fakers were doing the circuit back then. 

It was much, much worse than that - Hooky started with a cheap Korean plywood Hondo. If he'd had a Shafty (one of the best Fakers) he'd probably still be playing it!

[Maude]

D'oh, of course it was a Hondo. 

His first bass, the one Barney sent him to buy when Hooky didn't know what a bass was, was some plywood SG I remember, probably a Kay or something. 

At least I learnt my lesson after my first bass also being a ply SG, I bought a Yamaha next, bypassing another plywood monstrosity, unlike my hapless hero. 😁