McCartney's 4001

[Ric5]

Paul McCartney got a fireglo 4001s from Rickenbacker in the mid 60s. About the time of Magical Mystery Tour it got a hippie paint job.

Then in the 70s it got sanded down and it got a new bridge pickup from Rickenbacker.

I have heard many stories about how rough the sanding job was on the Rickenbacker.

Well here is a photo captured from a 1984 video of Paul playing the 4001 in a music video. Look at how rough the fretboard is. I looks like a cave man took of the finish.

 

[chef wong]

He's the king of bass tone.

 

[Immigrant]

The first picture just became my iPad wallpaper.

The fretboard photo. How could that happen? Must've been sanded during a sugar cube get together.

 

[Ric5]

Ya I hear the whole bass was sanded down that way ... The sanding strokes were in all directions without reguard to the direction of the wood grain.

 

[Coolhandjjl]

There's a couple of stories about the psychedelic paint job, some say he and George got together and painted their axes up under the influence, others say it was done by a professional group of cutting edge Dutch designers called "The Fool".

 

[TDSLaBassiste]

Any good shots of this crazy paint job he did? I'm curious.

 

[Floyd Eye]

Paul painted it himself. He also sanded it down himself, deforming the upper horn in the process. Rickenbacker replaced his horseshoe ( which was dead and unused for years), fixed some electrical issues and cleaned it for him. They were given specific instructions not to touch the action, which was very high. I got this information from 2 of the people working at Ric who were involved with the repair.

 

[Drone]

interesting

 

[FrednBass]

Paul painted the Rickenbacker during the Sgt. Pepper's sessions.
He didn't sanded it on his own, he asked a luthier to do it. The luthier first sanded just the paint. Later on he asked for some modifications on his bass: add a 0-fret to correct intonation problems, replacement of the horseshoe pickup and get the horns and the upper side of the body sanded down for a more ergonomic feel.

Paul during the Sgt. Pepper's session:
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Here you can see that the paint was off, but the horns and the pickups are still there and no 0-fret:
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The bass, now with all the modifications (posted only the link because the picture is too big):
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...rtney_with_Jimmy_McCulloch_-_Wings_-_1976.jpg

 

[Ric5]

Here's a shot of his 4001 with the fireglo finish gone but not all rounded

Here's another shot of the hippie paint job.

 

[Floyd Eye]

Where did you get the information that a luthier did the sanding?

 

[Floyd Eye]

http://www.thecanteen.com/arnquist.html

 

[FrednBass]

I read somewhere a long time ago, but aparently he really did the first strip-off on his own.
Thank you for the correction.

 

[Jaco Taco]

Man, he should have kept the psychedelic paint job! It was cool.

 

[FrednBass]

Not long after he got the bass, he already broke the pickguard:
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[FrednBass]

Another look on the Ric before any mod:

 

[king_biscuit]

Here's a shot of his 4001 with the fireglo finish gone but not all rounded

Here's another shot of the hippie paint job.

So much prettier before all of the unnecessary refins...

 

[RobJ]

From http://www.macca-central.com/macca-archives/bassplayer.htm

"Around the time that the group recorded Magical Mystery Tour (April-December 1967), Paul's Rickenbacker got a psychedelic paint job take a close look in the film and you'll see the hippy-dippy colors. "Yep, I got out the old aerosols, Paul confirms. "We were all doing that: George did his guitar, and we did the cars. If you did the cars, you might as well do your guitars. It looked great. It was just 'cause we were tripping that what it was, man. Look at your guitar and you trip even more."

Arnquist is a friend, he's in Seattle and I'm north of. He's got great stories about his years at Rickenbacker; it was cool to hear first hand his recollections of working on Paul's 4001S, along with many other tales. Mark's a great guy and incredibly talented luthier. People from all around the world send their Rick's to him for repairs and mods. Mark has worked on a couple of my Rick basses.

 

[SirMjac28]

Rob that's some cool info I would love to talk to Mark I'm back and forth about pulling the trigger on a Ric I know it's a bass I will eventually own

 

[Floyd Eye]

Mark is a hell of a nice guy and has a lot of great stories. He built the original 2 string bass for Chris from POTUSA incidentally. He also has some cool stories about Cobain, Jerry Cantrell and other notable Seattle guys. He is also very willing to give valuable information regarding set-ups and other stuff. Just an all around nice guy.