Ibanez Rickenbacker 4001 Copy

October 1977 (J77) Ibanex copy of a Rick 4001. The only thing not original is the 1/4 " input. Had to change that several years ago. (It wore out).
Picked it up as a replacement for a 1978 Fender P-bass that was stolen at a military installation gig.
Lost the P on a Fri nite; the lead guitar player had this Ibanez in a closet and brought it for the Sat gig.

The sound is so versitile I can't imagine anything that could replace it.
It has done any thing I've asked of it and will continue to do so.
(At a much slower pace now that I've finally gotten over the " I need to perform every night" stage.
When I got it the action was terrible, but after a little experimentation and more than a little frustration I finally wound up with a bass that plays as well (and better) than any thing I have ever touched. And in 35 years I've touched several!!!

As I said I got it used and the setup was awful. As with ANY instrument it needed to be adjusted to my individual needs.
Some of the hardware is starting to show it's age and there are some digs in tie body. Nothing serious for the life it has led.
I haven't babied it, I've PLAYED it. If I had wanted a show piece I'd have put it away and forgotten about it..

Tough as nails. As I've stated I Play it. I own an upright that I use for blue grass, an acoustic that was built for me by a local luthier. (Towsley Guitars) I use the acoustic for small, quiet jams that don't require a lot of equipment but for the last 25 years the Ibanez has been my one and only.

Rickenbacker refuses to admit this copy exists ( unless you try to sell one in a public auction and they promptly see to it that the ad is pulled because it infringes on thear copyright.)
There is very limited information from Ibanez.
The only places that offer anything are these public forums.
It's a shame that the company hasn't made info available about their (now vintage) instruments.

It's just a part of me that I would never willingly give up. Kinda like family!!

I estimate my Ibanez Rickenbacker 4001 copy was made around 1976. It came into my posession early 1979. I own a black version with Schaller tuners. It essentially has the typical 4001 features so no repeating anything here that's been said below.

Before I came to playing my "Rick" copy I fought with a Fender Precision. I must admit I still don't know how anyone can come to terms with those. I was all ready to quit playing bass when a fortunate turn of events provided me with Rush's "All the world's a Stage" and the option of buying this instrument from another bass player who was getting married and needed the money (I paid a freaking $150). It changed my life.

The sound of my copy-backer by Ibanez is simply amazing. It sounds like one. I have had the opportunity to play several real Rickenbackers ever since, and this Ibanez instrument more that survives a comparisson. In the area of sustain it simply exceeds the original. I play progressive rock mainly, and with rotosound roundwounds this guitar has a full and treble-rich sound that is so versatile when carefully selecting pick ups and feeding it through my effects line-up.

Whenever I do recording I use this bass because it simply allows me to bring one instrument and still move soundwise between almost a Fender Jazz all the way to real Rickenbacker. The past three years I basically always play it through a line-6 basspod.

For many years I have used this instrument on stage as well. Something which sets it apart from the other instruments I own is that after 45 minutes into a gig it only starts sounding better and playing smoother.

The used instrument I bought needed a little brushing up, but nothing beyond the optical. Even now, after well over 20 years of playing it, with a couple of very intense on-stage years, I still have the original pick ups in it. It's tuning still is spectacularly constant making retuning basically unneccesary even after a full evening. The cover for the bridge-pickups I dismantled early on and it never re-appeared again. As far as I am concerned they could just as well have left it off to start with.

This bass is heavy, especially when compared to the original. But after 20 years I still haven't figured out whether I consider this an advantage or a drawback. Personally the weight only irritates me when I hang the bass to low, but then I don't like it that way anyway. The neck could be a bit faster and the strings could be a bit closer to the neck. However the neck does get faster when you play it long enough.

If an instrument survives over 20 years of intense playing and transportation from one gig to the next, who's to say it's not durable or reliable. I have seen similar and higher budget models from the competition (and in fact from Ibanez themselves) fall apart under far less strain. My Rickcopy doesn't even have a scratch in the finnish. The strap buttons tore through several straps in a few years though, which is partially due to the rather high weight. Whenever this instrument punches into another (in the back of your van) it's no hard guess where to look for damage. In many respects it is sort of an SUV among bass guitars.

What customer support?

If I would lose this bass guitar I'ld cry my eyes out. They have become rather hard to get by these days. I surely suspect that if you would want to buy one of these now (in a good state) it is going to be costly (and it should!)

Not sure about the year, think I remembered a decal covering the ser.# before I refinned it.
Originally it only had 20 or 21 frets. I've had to rebuild the neck twice: once from a snapped truss rod (irretrievable I thought at the time)and again due to my overzealous glue job that seeped into the threads of the new rod I'd bought. I wised up and farmed it out to a shop for $250 plus the Stew-Mac parts I supplied. Now it has 22 jumbo frets
I'd have to say the body was composite, bunch of scraps of maple glued together. Originally it was a clear coat but I thought anything resembling such a classic axe should have had a solid color over something like that, so I shot it black & spent much time sanding, buffing, and sanding again and buffing again...
I ended up losing the stock Maxon off-the-wall size pickups. 1 because it quit, the other due to aesthetics. IT now rocks a set of Carvin guitar pickups: twin blade Duncan Hot Rails type thing in the bridge slot, and a mid-90s single blade single coil, resting in a new pickguard I cut to tuck it all in.
The stock bridge had its limitations and became lost halfway on purpose and is subjugated by a Schecter 5-string bridge with a saddle amputated to preserve spacing, since a generic Fender style is too wide & the people selling the OEM style ones are on crack.
The tuners are the stock open gear "elephant" style:those & the wood are the only original things left!
The narrow-ness of the neck and the string spacing are more narrow than a Jazz bass, lending a further degree of comfort & playability to frustrated guitarists.
Look back at the pages of rock history dealing with guitarists-cum-bassists,from McCartney, to Chris Squire,to Geezer Butler, to Geddy Lee, to Lemmy and take note of how made-for-each-other it becomes clear

with the straight neck pickup I can cop Jazz bass tones, a convincing rockabilly doghouse, or a Longhorn Danelectro tic-tac, depending on which right-hand technique I prefer to use

middle position is the famous Rick growl all the way, or a subtle tone knob adjustment gets into P-bass land

Bridge spot is good for funk, thrash, punk, or wherever else loud rules. Tone is very Ernie-Ball ish.

I haven't played it out enough to say much, but on tape it replaces about 3 or 4 different basses

This bass is a true back-from-the-dead. I got it as a younger dude for the look, tried to "improve" it like most kids do, it sat for 5 years in limbo, then I got into a position to do something about it and woke it up. I literally could not bear to get rid of it. Since I put back the TLC into it, I now have a thunder-belching testimony to all of us who do dumb kid things and usually regret them

I've played since 1990/ way too much to list here. Everything else I think I'v ementioned already

Look you know the story,my 1977 4001 copy rocks! It's as good or better than my 1962 Fender Jazz Bass. i bought the copy thinking it was a real rick, my friends think it's a ric and ask to borrow it. I bought this 17 years ago with the nameplate missing. I had no problem replacing the nameplate at a well established music store,they took one look at it and gave me a rickenbacker nameplate, it fooled them too. Anyway,it just sounds awesome and great fast action. Will i sell it, NO WAY! A+ to the FUGIANS that made it! with some mahoganey veneer, and some maple, you can make it look like a 4003! Just a thought,check it out!

Got mine in a trade for my (newer) Ibanez EDA and a Squier P Bass....well worth the trade! Luckily it was still in pretty good shape, except for some yellowing of the binding to a nice cream color and some small knicks out of the lacquer... "players marks." Active electronics with a volume and tone for each pickup, then a 3-way selector switch. I'd say it has meduim sized frets, but i'd probably replace them for jumbo sized ones.Nicely lacquered fretboard with pearl(y) triangle markers.

The best part of the bass.....I was blown away at the variety of sounds i could get out of this, even with dead strings. This mass is incredibly microphonic, it picks up every sound. You almost need to learn the tendencies of this bass to play it without making too much noise on it.Using the bridge pickup with new strings and the tone cut all the way back gives an incredible sound: punchy but deep and plenty of growl. The neck pickup has just about as much treble response as the bridge one, but it's less "tight". Everything from mellow warm tones to Rick-ish tones without even adjusting the amp's settings at all.

To me it seems like this "fireglo" is slightly different than the real Rick colors: a beautiful transparent red/orange on the edges, and a much lighter, almost natural, color in the center. The bass needed only minor action adjustment, and I actually got it pretty low. Took off the pickup cover because it was just getting in the way anyways. Had to repair the neck pickup (coil was sliding over the magnet and making a thumping noise occasionally) and now it makes a beyond-excellent place to anchor my thumb. The tuners are really solid, but butter-smooth to use. As far as i can tell, I like how everything is set up.

I'd have to say that bass is one of the sturdiest I've played. VERY LITTLE neck-bend to it, which helps make the tone great and lessens the need for re-adjusting the action every time the temperature changes. The one thing that irks me and might really anger some others is that the neck/headstock has a tendency to dip down, probably since the body is so light.

N/A...

I really don't regret anything about buying this bass whatsoever. The main thing I can say is that this bass has class...tons of it! A lot of other basses have a really nice sound to them (Warwicks, Fenders, Spectors...etc) especially higher-end models, but that is what those basses sound like...predictable and easy to get good tone from. This bass sounds like what YOU want it to, and it almost takes awhile to learn how to "tame" it to get the best sound out. Highly worth checking out if not buying. I would replace it ASAP if ever lost or stolen.

This Ibanez Rickenbacker 4001 copy is from January 1976 (A76) It
has great looks. Fireglo!! Differs a little from a real Ric. Tuners are precision-like. The bridge pickup assembly is smaller than the original. It used to have a precision bass-like pickup chrome cover. The neck is bolt on. The pickups are very powerfull. I had them turned down quite a lot to avoid pull string. The neck has triangle fancy inlays and has a thick high glossy see-through finish. Checkerboard binding!!

Sounds great. I own a real Ric 4001 ('77). This is a different bass guitar!!! I think due to the bolt on neck and the high power pickups. But again the sound is great. The bridge pickup growls a bit like a Fender Jazz, the neck pickup is deep and warm. Blended together both pickup sound warm and sweet. I play this bass through Fender Bassman tube amps hooked up on modern speaker configurations. Rock, blues and jazz styles (do a lot of JJ Cale); this bass does the job. It even slaps, but I don't. The neck is more comfortable than the real Rick neck!

This bass shows some odd things. Like the neckplate. It's upside down.
The scews show no signs of wear and the previous first and only owner claims he never took the neckplate off. Something strange about the controls too. The're upside down! The pickup selector down - bridge pickup - top controls (pickup side)/ the selector up - neck pickup - lower controls (edge side). I had to get used to it. Checking the electronics on this bass shows it's impossible to switch it around without desoldering. No signs of mods inside!

This is a 1976 bass. The previous owner had the pickup real high. String wear on the pickup covers!! Some dings. But a beautiful grain under that fireglow finish. Ibanez dit a great job. Took it to some gigs without back up. The sound of this bass pushes through the sound of the band. It's there and it is good.

No need for support. I adjust my own basses. Think won't need no replacement parts.

I have some bass guitars. Like Fender Jazz and Precision. Have a Rick 4001 a Hagstrom Concord. This bass fits in this row. Buying this bass was a sentimental thing. Long time ago at the age of 20, at the time I had no money to spend I saw aIbanez copy bass like this in a local music shop in Emmeloord (Holland)++. Since then the Ibanez Copies have a special place in my heart. They don't come by often these days. So I was glad I found one on the net. By the way I live in The Netherlands - Europe. Love to play bass on aged instruments

Early seventies, japanese Ibanez model 2388B, Rickenbacker 4001 (I think) clone.Two tone, two volume controls. The neck pu is original Ibanez, the bridge pu was replaced for a diMarzio humbucker by the previous owner. two mini switches are put in the body, for reversing the phase and coil-splitting of the humbucker.
Rosewood neck, nice mother-of-pearl triangular position markers.
Firemist (cherry sunburst) finish. The bridge has a adjsutable rubber mute strip.

By combining the two pickups, and reversing humbuckers phase/splitting colis, much different sounds are possible, rangiunng from thunderous lows to nosy chunky-chunky real Ricky-like sounds.

Action is rather high. But one way or the other, I like it this way with this bass...

Its about 30 years now, some 10 years I go I used it evry now and then on gigs. zthis bass will last forever.

N.A.

I play since the early seventies. Currently i own six basses, one electric sixstring ( eighties Squier strat), a small Peavey practice amp, lots of stompboxes.
I love this bass beacause of the seventies vibe, I am just an old fool, who thinks everything was much better back then :o)

It is a Japanese Rick 4001 copy from the mid seventies sometime, you can get the features of the Rickenbacker website I imagine. Differences include particle board body, painted on neck binding and fingerboard inlays apparently made from hardened rubber cement.

It sounds like a Rickenbacker 4001, surprisingly. The output of the pickups is pretty weak though, especially beside my Precision Bass. When I switch over to the Ibanez, I have to turn up the volume on my amp by a couple of notches to get the same level.
When you can hear it, it is surprisingly punchy though, which is nice.

The action was terrible when I got it, albeit departed from the factory these 25 or so years. A simpe trussrod tweak lowered the action a bit, but the neck's got a bit of a bow that no amount of tweaking is going to fix.
The neck pickup is too low beneath the strings which doesn't do anything to alleviate the poor output, and the screws holding it down have thus far resisted my attempts to raise it.
There's about 2 litres of some sort of varnish on the fretboard which is drowning the frets, which makes it feel almost like a fretless. It doesn't seem to affect playability too much towards the nut, but the further up you go, the harder you have to hold the strings down to get a precice pitch.

Well, it seems to have withstood the last quarter century okay, and I see no reason that It'll not do another, but all the same, I think I'm gonna try not to subject the cheemo woods to any rapid and drastic climate changes.
I haven't had it long yet, and it hasn't so far seen a stage, but I'm gonna give her a spin next time and see how she fares.

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Well... the thing I like best about it is that it looks for all the world like a real Rick - hell, even the truss rod cover says it is. Furthermore, it even sounds more or less like a real Rickenbacker bass, but pick it up and the weight of the body gives it away in a second.
The details are there, but don't hold up to close inspection: the inlays, the crappy binding, and most of all, the fact that when you look in the routing for the bridge pickup, you can clearly see that it's certainly not fine Alder down there.
Overall, I have to say that it's not really a serious bass - playing it side by side with my 2001 American P-bass, it is obvious that one is mainly a styling excercise.
If it were stolen, I'd not so much look to replace it so much as consider it justice done to the real Rickenbacker corporation.

Well, actually it says Custom on the headstock but everybody (?) knows that's Ibanez, just like Cimar.... Exact copy of the 4001 bass, maple-glo finish, neck-through-body (!), Rick-O-Sound output. Maple body, maple/mahogany laminated neck, maple fingerboard. Built somewhere around 1977 it still looks like new today.

Sounds like the real one but I think a little weaker. Adjusting the bridge pickup very close to the strings will make you sound a little more like Geddy Lee and Chris Squire. Not noisy at all, surprisingly, since there is no means of shielding inside whatsoever.

Nice action although I can't get the strings as close to the fretboard as I would like but that's just like the original I guess. No flaws.

Very solid.

Never needed them, I think Ibanez let the Custom brand off somewhere around 1979.

See my entry at the guitar reviews at El Degas (Crystal Strat) or Ibanez (AR300 Artist)

oh yeah, I forgot to mention, the bass below has both stereo and mono inputs (Rick'o'Sound, baby!)

This is an early 80s Rickenbacker 4001 copy made in Japan. It's a 4 string with 20 frets, with volume and tone controls for both pickups. I'm not sure what it's made of. Also, I'd like to point out that unlike the guy's bass from underneath this review, mine has a set neck, not a bolt-on, so by looking at it, you can't tell it's a copy, unless you look at the truss rod cover (when the guy at the store got it, it actually had a Rickenbacker truss rod cover, but he changed it). I got a gig bag for half price, too, and got my old hohner headless fixed free of charge. Yay. Otherwise, it's got all the features you need on a bass. Great.

My style is classic rock, and I love the twangy sound you get from Rickenbackers, which is why I got this one. I just recently switched to bass, and I'm poor, so I run it through a Fender Princeton 65 guitar amp, and you know what? The tone's still there, fat and juicy, and uhghg.. yeah... baby.. There's almost no hum, which is a nice change from my other bass, a hohner B2B headless. The sound is nice a bright, piano-like, the way a rick (or a copy) should be. There isn't that much variety, but I don't care, cause right now I'm in love with the twang. If I need a rounder tone, I'll use my hohner.

The guy at the store set it up for me, so the action is good. The body is a bit chipped in some places, but hey, it's 20 years old, what do you expect? The bridge pickup moves a little, and some moron decided to take the pickup cover off, which I really want. Otherwise it's nice and playable.

It's been standing for 20 years, I'm sure it'll be able to take another 20. The hardware's good. The finish, as I said, is a bit chipped, but that doesn't really matter to me. The strap buttons are solid, although I might wanna put in some strap locks in the future. It's dependable, and I'd gig without a backup. But now I do have a backup, the hohner. Hehehehe.

I doubt they'd care about it.

I just recently switched to bass a few months ago, and I also own a hohner headless. If it were stolen I'd go murder the person who stole it. If not, I'd commit suicide, cause I can't live without this bass. I love it for the twangy bright tone I get out of it. I wish it had a pickup cover, but it doesn't. It rocks.

Made sometime in the '70s, in Japan. Ibanez's version of "MapleGlo" finish(Butterscotchy looking Natural), with checkered binding. The same features as a '70s Rickenbacker 4001 - except it doesn't have the Stereo "Rick 'o Sound" jacks, just a regular standard output jack.
It came with a nice form fitting hard case. I don't know for shure what wood it's made of, but judging by the weight, and Acoustic resonense, I'd guess Alder, 3 piece, with a Maple veneer on the front and back. The neck appears to be the same type of wood as on a real rick, but unlike the original, it's bolted rather than glued on. The dimensions are exactly like the Rick, if it had a Rick truss rod cover, it would take an expert to tell the difference from the front.(Of course the bolt on neck plate would give it away from the rear.) It should be noted that the pickups on this one are EXACT Rick copies - I've seen catalog pictures of this model, but it shows it with generic chrome covered pickups, and a psuedo P Bass style cover on the neck pick up, but mine has the same design as the real Ricks.

I gotta hand it to Ibanez - not only did they make this Guitar look like a Rick - they REALLY did their homework on the electronics too.... A friend of mine has a real '76 Rick, and this Ibanez is essentially the same Guitar, the only differences are the bolt on neck, mono output, and the finish(His is FireGlo, with no checkers on the binding.)
I'm shure Rick Purists could give me lots of reasons why the bolt on neck should in theory make this thing sound like crap - but guess what? It DOESN'T! The sound of this Bass is Fantastic, I have it strung with light guage round wounds, and it has that same Beautiful Piano like sound that real Ricks are famous for. It's easy to get a growling Chris Squire type tone out of it, and if you roll back the treble a bit, it gets that Paul McCartney Sgt Pepper ultra deep sound, it's also superb for Funk/slap styles. I play it thru a Fender Bassman 25(A new one)and it sounds incredible, with the eq pots at 12:00, and the volume at 1 1/2, it literally shakes the walls with rich, sumptuous tone. I really love this thing, it's like a Grand Piano that's been "Guitarified".

This Bass is a relic from another century, it's beat up, and missing the top part of the neck pick up ashtray, as well as the truss rod cover, the Pickups are gritty with fosselized dust, and the remaining parts and screws are rusty.... But it plays like Buttah, and looks cool as Hell, with tons of Character - and it's built like a Tank, it feels like you could chop down a Redwood with it. And most importantly, it SOUNDS like a Vintage Guitar SHOULD, Tone Sweet Tone, and LOTS of it!

This Guitar has already been through just about everything that a Guitar can go thru - It's taken a 'lickin, and kept on 'tickin - I don't think there's anything I could do to it that would break it, it's a keeper.

*LOL* If I called Ibanez about this Bass, they'd probably hang up on me, I'm shure they'd prefer to forget about thier Lawsuit days!

I also own a Yamaha RBX 260 Fretless. I use the Yamaha as my "BASS" Bass, I have heavy guage flat wounds on it for that big Dog House Sound - and I use the fake Rick as a cross between a Baritone Guitar, and a Piano, I have light guage round wounds on it. Although I'm using it for a specialised purpose, I should point out that it would be great as "BASS" Bass as well - in fact if I could only own one Bass, it'd be this one. If it were stolen, the Thief would be in BIG trouble, because I would hunt him down and pummel his little Girly Man Buttox.
I wish it still had the truss rod cover, and the ashtray(there seems to be some sort of Law that says Pickup covers on Basses MUST be imediatly removed - I guess that's why Fender doesn't even bother putting them on the standard J, and P Basses anymore.... I think they are Cool though.) Overall, for less than half of what a real Rick of the Same vintage and condition would go for, I think I got a great deal, this Bass has a wonderful vintage tone, Beautiful playability, and without the truss rod cover, it's hard to tell it's a copy.