Real or fake Rickenbacker 4001?

[Picton]

I'll pile on.

Looks legit. My 1979 Azureglo looks the same, as far as hardware is concerned.

 

[rickdog]

That's true, and most of the Japanese lawsuit basses had single trussrods, but you can't tell either way unless you take off the TRC. That's actually a good thing for the OP to ask the seller to photograph, a lot of older basses were ineptly adjusted, and have damaged truss rod ends and nuts because of it. One nice thing is that Ric rods can be pulled out fairly easily for replacement if necessary.

Close-up pictures of the fingerboard-neck joint and back of the neck would also be good. Incorrect adjustment of the truss rods can separate the fingerboard or crack the neck.

As a 4001 owner, my advice is: if it's in good shape, buy it.

 

[Cycleops]

Some provenance will be useful if available. Remember the Chinese can fake anything to a high standard so you need to be careful and only buy if 100% sure. It's the small details that will give it away.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Weirdly, although they are capable of faking it well, they don't seem to. The only marginally convincing Chinese Ric fake I've seen is the Lemmy, all the rest have tells you could drive a truck through, like they reverse engineered based on a blurry photograph. Some of their Gibson fakes are pretty good, I wouldn't be able to spot some of the deviations, but a real Gibson aficionado would in a heartbeat.

 

[Cycleops]

I've seen some very good Les Paul copies which you can only spot due to slightly different lettering on the serial no or some such.
Some have now given up the fight and just choose to mess with the name. I see many of these down here:
https://givson.com/
Have a chuckle at the English.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Dang, I'm sold, they use Toon wood and Shock Preventive materials.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

The Ricresource forum used to have a section called Joey's Bass Notes with a whole section on spotting fakes. Oddly, it's appeared on Pinterest:

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Some of the Joey's Bass Notes links still work on RRF, here's a section on how to set up a 4001. Lots of great Ric info here. Check out the first 4001 setup video, he has trouble with bent truss rod ends, pretty typical of older 4001 truss rods, and something to look for prior to buying one.
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