Well..here's my little adventure. I'm left handed. Just try finding decent lefty basses. In 1976, I ordered a couple of lefty basses from Gibson, a 76 T-bird, then, an L9s ripper in Ebony. Only to have them mail me a 'sorry, we're not producing this instrument at this time- even after seeing it was available left handed in their printed catalog, that you MAILED in a request for... Remember those? Well, I've never really wanted to own a Rick, as I'm a Luthier, and have been working on them for a very long time. They are fairly well made instruments, with some serious design flaws many of us have long known about. I still work on many Ricks, although nowhere near as many as I do Fender and even Gibson basses. I've learned a lot of things many Rick enthusiasts are unaware of. The body shapes, for example, are NOT all the same. The scale lengths vary slightly, as well.The 'routing' of the cavities, especially on mid- late seventies 4000 series basses, is really sub-par for a high end production bass. On to the point here. I've seen Greco, and other copies from the 70's and 80's that were actually superior in some ways to the real Ricks. I love the look of the 4005 semi-hollow basses. And yes, it is a 'look' thing for me. They made a few lefty 4005's, and those are late model used car money- IF you can find one an owner will sell you. I saw a direct copy, the pickups in the right locations, and the correct body shape, and ordered one. Well, it surprised me- the finish on it, is at least on a 90's Korean made bass level. Maybe better. The hardware, crap. The neck set, was bad. They set it at the wrong angle.They deliberately set it to back bow to set it up. I was going to steam out the neck and reset it, but I didn't have to. The ridiculously short neck tab/ tongue was so short, the neck took itself out after a month. See photo #1. They wouldn't take the bass back, so, it became a project. The pickups, were bad- the outside strings are lower in amplitude than the center ones. So, I ordered two GFS gold foil pickups, and a Tone Monster SEB3-B preamp, some accurate knobs, and a set of hipshot licensed tuners. I added a new scarf jointed neck tab, deepened the pocket for it, and glued it in, at the correct angle, so I thought. I had to correct it, like as in doing it again.. thank God for hot hide glue. But, in my haste, I cracked the thinner than I thought- back. No problem... I fix things like that, and it IS my bass. See photo of new neck heel.
After it was done, I set it up, and decided to make an aluminum bridge with four saddles, to replace the horrible six saddle guitar one they install. See next photo... It's a really good playing, sounding bass now. But, two things you must know- The Chinese don't give a poop if you have a problem with what you buy from them.
2. Unless you are prepared for the worst, don't buy a Chinese bass from China!
Yes, many arrive here, get some fret and setup work done, and are fairly good.
The current Rickenbacker basses sound great, and are made as well as the best ones I've seen. Save up. Buy a new Rickenbacker.
