Here's the full story about the only 4001FL I have ever seen:
It was three years ago and I saw a 1976 4001FL in mapleglo hanging in the bass area of my local GC. I asked them to unlock it so I can play it. It was the best fretless bass I have ever played (so far)! I couldn't put this bass down! I really wanted to buy it, but they wanted $3,300. So I talked to the manager and told him that I had a 1972 Fender Jazz Bass that I would like to trade for the 4001FL. He said come in tomorrow with your bass and we'll have a look at it.
The next day, I went back to the store with my bass. They took it apart, took pictures of it, asked me some questions, and appraised it for me. They told me that it had a poorly done clear coat (which was done by a previous owner - I have no experience with refinishing basses) and basically that it was a player's grade instrument. They appraised it at $1,400 - typical lowball GC offer! In my mind, that meant it was worth at least double that. They would have taken my bass plus an extra $1,900 if I wanted to buy the fretless 4001. I did not have $1,900 to give them, so I had to walk away. A week or so later, the 4001FL was gone.
A month later, I was able to trade my 1972 Jazz Bass straight up for one of my current Rickenbacker 4003s. I got really lucky with this trade because my then-new 4003 is also a very rare bass. It's in a Satin Autumnglo finish and fewer than 50 were made in 2022 and 2023. The previous owner of my bass wanted a vintage Jazz Bass for its tone and mojo and he didn't care about the condition. He reached out to me on Reverb and I accepted. It was an offer that I couldn't refuse. Satin Autumnglo 4003s like mine rarely come up for sale because there are very few of them. There's one in the TB Classifieds and another on the
Sweetwater Gear Exchange. That's all. Mine is not for sale if anyone is wondering!
The moral of the story is that when one door closes, another one opens. Walk through the open door if you can.
