CMI Rickenfaker!

[Soloshchenko]

Bought this beauty of Davidian on here (who's a great bloke to deal with by the way). Paid £400 for it which is probably all I would go to for a Rick copy but I've never seen a 70s one in such great condition. Apart from some very minor dings it doesn't look like it's left the house.

Playability is quite good if a little bit on the high side but I don't mind that. I've noticed there is zero neck relief at the minute and the neck is pretty much straight so I'm considering loosening the truss rod a fraction.

In terms of sound the pickups are lovely (can anyone tell me if they are real by the way?) Very snarling sort of sound from the bridge and a full open lush sound from the neck one. I've looked under the scratchplate and theres a loose wire which I'll check on diagrams and re solder. Doesn't seem to have affected the sound in any way. I don't think I have the energy or time for a full Rick bass re wire and there seems no real need for the moment.

All in all, really happy with it.

[Bassassin]

Very nice example and £400 is a fair price for a neckthrough in this condition.

Unless they've been swapped, pickups won't be real Rick ones, just good copies. The hi-gain style neck pup suggests your bass is a probably 75 - onwards, earlier ones had toasters. If the pups have a big ink-stamped serial/model number underneath, they'll probably be from Nisshin Onpa, who made the Maxon & Super 70s pups that JapCrap nerds wet themselves over.

The loose wire might be for the bridge pup capacitor - just like real Ricks, the 70s MIJ copies had an extra .047 cap in the bridge pup circuit, which cuts a lot of the low-end output from the pup. Lots of people simply disconnect it to liberate the full output of the bridge unit, possibly if your bass all works properly, this is what's been done. Current Ricks have a push-pull tone pot switch to turn the circuit on & off.

Anyway check out [url="http://www.joeysbassnotes.com/default.htm"]Joey's Bass Notes[/url] for everything you want to know about Rick wiring. Be warned though - Joey don't like Rickenfakers!

Don't know if you know but CMI was Cleartone Musical Instruments - a brand used by Marshall Amplification in the 70s to broaden their product range - and to sidestep a dodgy distribution deal that Marshall was tied up in at the time... So no swapping your TRC for a fakey Rick one - CMI's much more interesting!

Jon.

[Soloshchenko]

[quote name='Bassassin' post='787813' date='Mar 27 2010, 01:09 PM']Very nice example and £400 is a fair price for a neckthrough in this condition.

Unless they've been swapped, pickups won't be real Rick ones, just good copies. The hi-gain style neck pup suggests your bass is a probably 75 - onwards, earlier ones had toasters. If the pups have a big ink-stamped serial/model number underneath, they'll probably be from Nisshin Onpa, who made the Maxon & Super 70s pups that JapCrap nerds wet themselves over.

The loose wire might be for the bridge pup capacitor - just like real Ricks, the 70s MIJ copies had an extra .047 cap in the bridge pup circuit, which cuts a lot of the low-end output from the pup. Lots of people simply disconnect it to liberate the full output of the bridge unit, possibly if your bass all works properly, this is what's been done. Current Ricks have a push-pull tone pot switch to turn the circuit on & off.

Anyway check out [url="http://www.joeysbassnotes.com/default.htm"]Joey's Bass Notes[/url] for everything you want to know about Rick wiring. Be warned though - Joey don't like Rickenfakers!

Don't know if you know but CMI was Cleartone Musical Instruments - a brand used by Marshall Amplification in the 70s to broaden their product range - and to sidestep a dodgy distribution deal that Marshall was tied up in at the time... So no swapping your TRC for a fakey Rick one - CMI's much more interesting!

Jon.[/quote]

Cheers for the info Jon. You should write a book about Rikenfakers, seems they have a fascinating underground history of their own.

I had heard bits about the connection between Marshall and CMI. There seems remarkably little history about the company on the web, especially given how well put together this bass feels.