My Rickenbacker 4001 bass guitar will be 25 years old in March, 2006. I bought it in 1985 (That reminds me: I gave my old, crappy bass to Liam Lynch aka Bill Niederst). I love this bass guitar even though my bass playing skills are not worthy of this instrument.
Let me tell you something very odd about this instrument. The hardware is gold plated. I’ve asked Rickenbacker about this and John Hall told me that Rickenbacker never made such a beast, yet here it is. It’s not like someone went through the trouble of plating it after it was manufactured: the jacks have labels on TOP of the plating. The pickup cover is missing and the knobs are domed Brassworks knobs, not stock; I don’t know when or why. I had a long e-mail conversation with Mark Arnquist (who worked at Rickenbacker in the mid-1970s) about four years ago and his knowledge of the inner-workings of Rickenbacker is truly amazing. For example, I asked him to help me decode a name, in cursive, written in the control cavity under the pickguard and he told me this:
“The name is Cecilia, she worked in the scraping / wetsanding area and she also put paste wood filler on the fretboards when Maria was doing something else or needed a break.”
Mark believes that this bass was manufactured when Bill Meyers was in charge of the Rickenbacker plant and all sorts of non-normal things were done. John Hall wasn’t around at that time, so who else would know anything about this instrument? I think it’s unique and I probably need more insurance.