You know what would be awesome?

[syrinxpriest 2112]

Man, how cool would it be if they made a Geddy Lee signature Rickenbacker? I know i'd buy it.

[Cowtothesky]

QUOTE (syrinxpriest 2112 @ Aug 16 2007, 08:02 PM)

Man, how cool would it be if they made a Geddy Lee signature Rickenbacker? I know i'd buy it.

[MakeHaste]

Gah... I wish.

 

But I wouldn't even be able to buy it.

[PW_Guitarist]

It would be cool, but knowing Rickenbacker's limited production runs, it would be expensive (think of the Chris Squire model...) and in this case, maybe not worth it because Jetglo 4001's are fairly common and the one Geddy used was close to stock.

 

The Fender Geddy Lee Signature was a great idea because so few of that specific configuration of Jazz Bass (black with maple fretboard and black block inlays) were ever made. Apparently only about 500 were produced in a single run in the early 70's, and that's it.

 

However, the Ric Geddy used was fairly stock, with the exception of the Badass bridge, so any 70's-era Jetglo 4001 would do. If Rickenbacker really wanted to go all-out authentic with a signature model, they would have to go back to the 4001 truss rod design, which might not be a good idea.

 

(The original 4001 truss rod design was such that any adjustment in neck tension had to be made by manually pushing or pulling the neck, then making the adjustment - the rod itself was not designed to be able to pull the massive maple neck in place. When high-tension Rotosound strings became popular in the 70s, many people put them on and had to re-ajust the truss rod. Some of those who did not follow proper procedure ended up cracking the neck/fretboard joint near the nut. Ric changed the design in the early 80's and called it the 4003.)

 

 

[dtrice]

They'd probably use the same template as the Chris Squire 4001 or the C64 model 4001. For example take A CS 4001 make it black instead of white. Sharktooth shaped inlay and a Leo Quann Badass bridge. That's about it to make it a Geddy Lee. It should be mentioned that Rickenbacker has sold a lot of Black Rick basses due people seeing/hearing Geddy in the first place. All he had done to "customize" his 4001 was to put the Leo Quann on it. If everyone who had a black 4001 and changed the bridge would have a GL model. And it doesn't have to just be a 4001, use a 4003 and put a Badass on it and there you go. That would be better, due to the more stable neck. Also the new 4003s have the vintage tone selector to emulate the 4001's capacitor for the horseshoe pickup. So that's how to make your own GL.

[dtrice]

BUT if you want to go further, you could hope that Rickenbacker would reintroduce the 4080/6 or /12. In jetglo or white (or any color ). Take that and put gibson pickups in the guitar side and put a Badass on the bass side and you've got for all intents and purposes a more specific GL model Rick and then you can perform Xanadu and A Passage to Bangkok live in a more authentic way. That would be a better idea for a GL model. You could even make a 4080 with the bass neck on bottom and put a semi-hollow 12-string on top (JetGlo) and you'd have a Mike Rutherford model. Rickenbacker needs to pay me for my ideas or something.

[LerxstFerret]

At first when I saw the topic title I thought the answer was me.

 

I have not come to a different conclusion.

[PW_Guitarist]

QUOTE (dtrice @ Aug 23 2007, 01:57 PM)

BUT if you want to go further, you could hope that Rickenbacker would reintroduce the 4080/6 or /12. In jetglo or white (or any color ). Take that and put gibson pickups in the guitar side and put a Badass on the bass side and you've got for all intents and purposes a more specific GL model Rick and then you can perform Xanadu and A Passage to Bangkok live in a more authentic way. That would be a better idea for a GL model. You could even make a 4080 with the bass neck on bottom and put a semi-hollow 12-string on top (JetGlo) and you'd have a Mike Rutherford model. Rickenbacker needs to pay me for my ideas or something.

Some years back I was looking into the possibility of having a 4080 custom made from scratch, which whould have cost about the same as buying one off EBay anyway ($4000 and up) and exposed the luthier to a litigation risk. Later I saw a cheap bolt-on copy of a 4001 in a used music store (the 4080 was bolt-on), and I thought "MMMmmm, if I could find a cheap bolt-on copy of a 480, all I would need is a good luthier with a SkilSaw and I'd be all set. Of course, there are no copies of the 480, it was never one of Ric's popular models . As I was inquiring about this, someone sent an email to John Hall, CEO of Rickenbacker (they are still a fairly small company with a relatively low production, and the CEO will usually answer all queries personally) about re-issuing the 4080, and the response was that it was highly unlikely because of the limited sales potential and cost of re-tooling for a limited run. Ric can barely meet the demand as it is, but at least they have not lowered their standards to increase production.