Why so few Ric bass copies?

[Inflames626]

Hi all,
So I'd like to experiment with a Ric, except, you know, the cost. I've noticed that while ESP, Ibanez, and others have copied Les Pauls and Strats pretty closely, there are relatively few high quality Ric clones.

Now of course you'll have your DHGate/AliExpress sort of visual knockoffs, but I mean Ric copies that change up the design slightly while keeping as much of the sound of the original as possible.

You'd think given the age and popularity of the design it would have been copied much more than it has been.

At this rate, it feels very proprietary--the Apple of bass guitars.

It always struck me as something quintessentially 1950s--like Danelectro, or something from a Fallout game.

If they were more accessible, I think they'd be fun to experiment with.

 

[Mincer]

Ricks are incredibly expensive to reproduce and made in limited quantities, so the cost is high. You can sort of bandsaw a bass into a Rick shape, but no getting around it that the stuff that makes a Rick sound the way it does is expensive.

 

[Inflames626]

I'm not knowledgeable about the various models (4003 seems to be the most popular), but they seem to have a lot of...stuff on them. Like the Billy Sheehan Yamaha basses.

Aside from Lemmy and Cliff, I first became aware of Ricks when Tool's original bassist Paul D'Amour used them in the early 90s and got that distinctive bass sound with Sylvia Massey that they have had ever since. I have always heard it in my head as a very mid heavy bass ever since--almost guitar like.

A Swedish friend of mine from my music school days actually has a fretless Ric, but I've never asked him about it.

 

[beaubrummels]

There are a few cheap Ric-looking copies, but Rickenbacker in general is VERY aggressive in shutting down anyone who tries to make an actual reproduction of any of their instruments.

 

[Securb]

My bass player has two Rics one vintage and a newer one. He also has a Harley Benton Ric copy he plays all the time. The bass plays and sounds amazing. They sell for around $200 brand new

 

[Inflames626]

...and that bridge pickup cover is exactly where I'd want my pick to go.

 

[Chistopher]

For a few dollars more you can buy a screw driver to remove it

 

[Securb]

For a few dollars more you can buy a screw driver to remove it

It is the first thing my bass player did before playing a single note through the bass.

 

[Inflames626]

For a few dollars more you can buy a screw driver to remove it

But the real question is how much did Ric (if this were a Ric and not an HB) charge me for a pickup cover I will just remove?

This being a very technically minded forum at times I'm surprised no one has asked freefrog if the pickup's magnets pull on the cover and thus interact with the strings from two directions, producing some kind of effect that affects the tone and if a different alloy cover would make a difference.

I'd call it "tone tin."

 

[freefrog]

LOL. It's nice to mention me but I've no educated answer to share here... Any metallic element in the vicinity of a pickup can affect the tone but how and how much depend on many factors absent of my archived data in this case.
All I can say of my own experience with metallic surrounds is that pulling 'em off might or should make the PU quieter (less noisy).

This irrelevant reply being done, let's consider the most important: Ricken's are certainly interesting instruments. A 480 solid body that I've repaired 15 or 20 years ago had one of the most stunning 24 frets necks I've ever played, with a super low action and NO fret buzz - even after my son had accidentally projected the guitar on the floor...
I just wish the pickguard was more solid and with a simpler shape : I had found tediously painful to cut a new one in a plastic sheet... <:0)

 

[Inflames626]

LOL. It's nice to mention me but I've no educated answer to share here... Any metallic element in the vicinity of a pickup can affect the tone but how and how much depend on many factors absent of my archived data in this case.
All I can say of my own experience with metallic surrounds is that pulling 'em off might or should make the PU quieter (less noisy).

This irrelevant reply being done, let's consider the most important: Ricken's are certainly interesting instruments. A 480 solid body that I've repaired 15 or 20 years ago had one of the most stunning 24 frets necks I've ever played, with a super low action and NO fret buzz - even after my son had accidentally projected the guitar on the floor...
I just wish the pickguard was more solid and with a simpler shape : I had found tediously painful to cut a new one in a plastic sheet... <:0)

The Mad Scientist of the forums has spoken.

 

[Securb]

You can play with a set of these if you want more metal above the pickup

 

[beaubrummels]

"Real" Rics have the horseshoe bridge pickup, which makes 'that Ric sound' (the mid-driving plucky tone). On a horsehoe pickup, the 'cover' is the magnet.

 

[NegativeEase]

Rics are fundamentally harder to manufacture because they are an older world luthier hold over in many respects... Fenders were designed to be as cheap as possible to make -That was Leo's smarts and priority -so historically Ric knock offs havent been worth the extra effort -especially the dual truss rods, pickup and bridge style, Rickasound wiring, binding etc etc

 

[Mincer]

Yeah, Rick goes after anyone making copies. You might find some companies making a similar shape, but really, nothing sounds like a Rick other than a Rick. Everything from the pickups to the lacquered fretboard to the stereo out goes into making that particular sound.

 

[Inflames626]

Didn't know that about the pickup being a horseshoe. Will need to check footage to see if any of the greats did anything with the cover.

It makes sense if you rest your thumb on it and pluck with fingers in front of the cover but not with a pick.

 

[JOLLY]

Rickenbacker in general is VERY aggressive in shutting down anyone who tries to make an actual reproduction of any of their instruments.

There's your answer right there.

 

[Chistopher]

Well, I guess I'll probably get one at some point, but they are fairly costly

 

[Inflames626]

Well, I guess I'll probably get one at some point, but they are fairly costly

They don't appear to be Alembic or Zon costly.

 

[Mincer]

They don't appear to be Alembic or Zon costly.

They have a very specific sound though, and I haven't heard another bass that had the Rick sound.