Friday, March 25, 2011

Fakenbacker


A funny thing happened to last Saturday... I stopped into a local "Antique" shop that sells collectibles and, well... higher priced junk. In their basement section, I spotted this:



 I scrambled over, thinking that I may have hit the deal of the century...

Unfortunately, this was not a bona-fide Ric. Despite my disappointment, I was pleased to see that is was a Matsumoku produced Ric 4001 copy with the ASPEN brand name on the headstock. There was no pricetag, so I brought it to the front desk and asked. The Lady who owns the place says to me: "I have been looking online, and Aspens go for about $150". I then proceded my song and dance about this being a cheap Japanese COPY of a gen-u-ine American Guitar. Also, it was banged up, very, very dirty, missing the bridge cover, had 4 mismatched strings, and had a home made, ill fitting ric-ish truss rod cover. Then, I went in for the kill: I had her sight down the neck at the considerable bow. I told her, only someone experienced in guitar repair could fix the neck. Then I offered $100, and she took it with no hesitation.




So, after explaining to my patient Wife why I came home with ANOTHER guitar, I plugged it in: no sound from the neck pickup. Yikes! I tramped down the basement and completely disassembeled every bit of the bass. It was really dirty, so I cleaned every inch inside and out. Then I polished then waxed the body. Only then did I set at the electronics. Both pickups ohmed out at about 5K, so I knew the pickup was OK. Whew! Careful checking showed me that the bridge pickup volume pot was bad. Out came the soldering iron, and in went a new pot. Then I assembled everything, put on a new set of steel strings, and plugged her in...



I was very relieved that the neck pickup worked. I quickly tuned up, and played a few minutes. The bass has a great trebly tone, and is a fair copy of a real Ric. All in all, it was a good day...







1 comment:

  1. That's a great score, even if it does say Aspen.
    Did you get the neck straightened out?

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