1972 Rickenbacker 4001S Bass

The Rickenbacker Guitar has been quite a famous brand for over 60 years. The Beatles, The Who & The Byrds were all playing their famous guitars & basses early on in their careers for their bright tone & playability. Their most famous basses were clearly the 4000 & 4001 solid body models played by so many famous peeps. This is a very rare & last of its type, a neck thru body 1972 4000S Bass w/its simple carved unbound body design like Ricks 1st basses made since 1957. This is a special example in its glorious Mapleglo finish like Chris Squire & Paul McCartney’s 4001 basses. It is rare as Rick only made a few of these in 1972 w/a 3-piece neck thru body design before changing this to a glued-in set-neck design which changed the whole tone…just to save money on its retail price. For the last few months of this neck-thru era these 4000’s had a Walnut strip in between 2 maple neck halves w/a real cool appearance. These 4000’s come w/only 1 pickup in the lead position. This is a personal piece of mine & was converted (last caretaker) into a 60’s type 4001S w/an added rhythm toaster pickup w/an added original 60’s “Horseshoe” pickup in the lead position. This thing growls like no other. Its now stereo w/2 jack inputs w/a factory blank ID Plate. Its original pair of pots still on board are dated to the 47th week of 1971. The other 2 pots were newer. This is a $30K. bass if it was an all original 4001S & this is a featherweight @ only 9 lbs. 1 oz. !!! She’s figured & fabulous also exceptionally clean & it comes w/a nice period hard case.