I know this is a guitar thread

[Friedl]

But I can’t leave just one Ric in here

Looked like this a while back when I first got it.

[Mossman]

That's cool... Bass threads are welcome here. This is my home forum, but I consider bass to be my primary instrument (been playing it twice as long as guitar).

Nice work on that Ric! I owned a 4003 a few years back and really wanted to love it, but just couldn't... However, I've often wished to come across a basket case like that and refinish/rebuild it.

I still like the way they look.

[glasshand]

Nice! I'm jealous because a few years back I had a chance at an AMAZING deal on a 4003, and at the very last minute - I was literally already on the subway to the guy's house with the cash in my pocket - the seller backed out. There's also (what appears to be) a stripped 4003 hanging on the wall of a local bar, and I've thought about making them an offer for it, but I also suspect it's a knockoff and not the real thing.

[Mossman]

Nice! I'm jealous because a few years back I had a chance at an AMAZING deal on a 4003, and at the very last minute - I was literally already on the subway to the guy's house with the cash in my pocket - the seller backed out. There's also (what appears to be) a stripped 4003 hanging on the wall of a local bar, and I've thought about making them an offer for it, but I also suspect it's a knockoff and not the real thing.

Here's a few ways to tell if it's legit:

Ric basses are neck-through, so if it has a set neck, it's a fake. If it has a bolt-on neck, it's REALLY a fake.

If it doesn't have a double truss rod, it's a fake.

Look at the binding at the bottom of the bass. On a real Ric, the binding stops where the "wings" end, and there's a gap in the middle across the span of the center block. Most fakes are bound all the way around the body and don't have that gap, because most fakes are not neck-through.

Rickenbacker calls the wood they use for their fretboards "Rosewood", but it's actually Bubinga (which is in the Rosewood family). On all the fakes I've seen, they just use regular Rosewood, which is darker. Bubinga has more of a reddish-orangey hue to it. [edit] Rickenbacker fretboards are lacquered, too. Most fakes don't have any finish on the fretboard.

The 4001/4003 have two outputs. One for regular mono, and the other for "Ric-O-Sound" stereo. Most fakes will only have one output. If it has binding and only one output, then it's a fake. If it doesn't have binding and only one output, then it could be a 4001S (the "student" model that Chris Squire played throughout his entire career ). I don't know if they made a 4003S.

[edit] Actually, I think the 'S' probably stood for "Studio".

Ric basses are made of Maple. I've never seen a fake that was made of Maple, other than the neck.

Rics have a 3-piece neck with "wings" glued on the sides of the headstock. If it has a trans finish, or is stripped, and you don't see a 3-piece neck, then it's a fake.

That's all the obvious tells I can think of off the top of my head. Most fakes won't be deficient in one point of detail, they'll be deficient on several points, if not all of them.

Now, having said all that, it could still be worth having even if it is a fake... Ibanez, for one, made a killer copy of the 4001 back in the day. When I was a teenager, I had a neighbor who owned one. It didn't sound like a Rickenbacker, but it sounded good, and it played great (I think it was bolt-on too). If I came across one for a reasonable price, I'd probably be tempted to buy it, but they're like unicorns now. At any rate, I don't think you'd have any trouble distinguishing a "lawsuit" copy from a current-century Chinese knock-off. The quality difference would be night and day. Just look at the hardware (if it has hardware). If the bridge looks cheap and flimsy, or just not quite right in some way, you're probably looking at an Ali Express special. Build quality will be markedly better on a lawsuit copy too.