Did Cliff Burton have a blonde Rickenbacker?

[Bass Growler]

Did Cliff Burton have a blonde Rickenbacker as well as the obvious red one? That's the question here. In the top picture I first thought it might have been the light. However, in the 2nd picture you can the same bass behind Kirk. Clearly without Eb0 neck pickup, which was added during the recording of Kill 'em all. At which point Cliff and Kirk hadn't shared a stage together. What are your thoughts? Is it an unknown spare? Or simply the red one under strange light conditions?

 

[Craig4003]

They're obviously blonde (Mapleglo). Red (Fireglo) wouldn't look like that under any light I can think of. There's probably a way to fake it with severe overexposure, but those photos aren't overexposed. The first photo was obviously shot with a flash, but that wouldn't make a red bass look blonde.

I don't know, though, how you can be sure the bass in the second photo is the same one as in the first photo. You can't see the grain or any other specific identifying features in the second photo. They're both Mapleglo Rics; they might be the same one, or might not be. I can tell that they both have triangle fretboard inlays.

Mapleglo is where it's at.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Apparently, he had more than one. Or perhaps, this bass, subsequently got modded into the one he's was most know for.

 

[Spectrum]

I'm horribly distracted by Lars' horrible mustache.

Must think only of Rickenbackers...

 

[Bass Growler]

Exhibit C:

 

[keyboardguy]

Did Cliff Burton have a blonde Rickenbacker as well as the obvious red one? That's the question here. In the top picture I first thought it might have been the light. However, in the 2nd picture you can the same bass behind Kirk. Clearly without Eb0 neck pickup, which was added during the recording of Kill 'em all. At which point Cliff and Kirk hadn't shared a stage together. What are your thoughts? Is it an unknown spare? Or simply the red one under strange light conditions? View attachment 3661522 View attachment 3661523

Yeah, here she is:

 

[Hamlet7768]

Looks like it was a secondary! That's interesting. I always thought he only had the one.

One minor point: Cliff's red bass was burgundy, not Fireglo, as you can see here:

Apologies for Cliff's blinding white chest and tummy. Contrasts well with the bass though.

 

[Marc61]

Looks like it was a secondary! That's interesting. I always thought he only had the one.

One minor point: Cliff's red bass was burgundy, not Fireglo, as you can see here:

View attachment 3773929

Apologies for Cliff's blinding white chest and tummy. Contrasts well with the bass though.

Any idea what year his Burgundyglo was?

 

[ERIC31]

I was just rocking out to the Master Of Puppets CD earlier. Cliff was awesome!

 

[Hamlet7768]

Any idea what year his Burgundyglo was?

No idea—I just perused Joel McIver's biography and it doesn't seem terribly specific even about when he got it, but doing the math I'm guessing he got it in '76 or so? So it could've been from that year, or not long before. But the book never mentioned a second bass that I recall, just the burgundy one with all the pickup mods.