Note: 'Rickenbacker' is the sole property and a Tradmark of Rickenbacker International Corporation and I am in no way affilliated with RIC
This page was last updated: June 11, 2011
Well, three of them are now completed and I couldn't be happier with the results. These basses are something that I always wished that Rickenbacker made, but they never did, so I just built three of them, exclusively for myself. I call them the '4025' model, and they have semi-hollow, hard white maple bodies with a quartersawn maple necks, walnut headstock 'wings' and dot/bound bubinga fingerboards. I used a single dual action trussrod with two graphite reinforcement rods to keep the neck lightweight, very stiff, and minimize dead spots. The mapleglo one weighs 8lbs11.1oz and the black weighs 8lbs 14.8oz. (since it has the additional middle pickup) Their action is like butter and they sound huge. Anyway, there are a few pics of them on this page, and I also created two pages that show the step-by-step progress of building the first one HERE.
Both basses have have Hipshot's aluminum retrofit RIC type bridges, genuine Rickenbacker vintage 'toaster' bass pickups, Rickenbacker knobs, electronics and tuning keys. They have dual tiered, white (semi transparent) plexiglass pickguards, and have Corian nuts. I'm currently running ECB80 D'addario "chromes' stainless steel flatwound strings on both of them. Their finish is nitrocellulose lacquer. Both basses have a push/pull switch/pot on the treble pickup's tone control to switch from a 'modern' ( down position ) to a 'vintage' Rickenbacker tone (up position)when both pickups are on. The black one's middle pickup is accessed by a push pull pot on the neck pickup's tone control, that switches between the neck and middle pickup when pulled up.
The natural 'mapleglo bass has a total of 5 distinct pickup settings/tones: (1)neck, (2)bridge, (3)both, (4)both with vintage capacitor setting and (5) bridge pickup with capacitor. The black one has all 5 of the maple one's settings, plus 3 more: middle pickup, middle and bridge pickup, and middle and bridge pickup with vintage capacitor mode. And the coolest thing is, every setting sounds great.
Basses # 2 and # 3. (Number #2 has since been refitted with a third toaster and 5 knob control system)
Diagram showing how the control system works
Basses number 1 and number 3 (with 'shark fin' f-hole)
