I have had a badly worn rick 4000 jet glo bass in my possession for a long time now. I love the feel of it! But there is a catch.Someone routed through the tenon to install a second pickup....But, wait folks! There's more! It has been converted to two dimarzio jazz bass pickups, a bad ass bridge, and some where through the course of this things life, the jackplate with the serial number on it has been lost. It has three of it's original grover bass keys left. The G string one has been replaced with one from an Epiphone Rivoli.Truly, it has been defiled.
Now, I am a luthier.I have about fifteen years experience with making acoustic flattops and archtops. Plus, I'm a gold level tech for the F***** company. Anyway, I'm fairly new to Ricks.I've done some study on them and feel confident I can make all the repairs to stabilize the tenon, and refurbish the instrument I just have a few questions that I hope the experts here can help with.
1. Approximate age: It has a glued in neck, maple, the ears are walnut, as are the center laminations.dot inlays, and of course the double truss rod.Black plastic nut,and no binding.

2. Which pickup? Based on the year this was made, which is the correct pickup to reinstall in my bass, also what value pots and capacitor?

3. Which bridge belongs on this bass? There are only three scrw holes present in the bridge area and they do line up with the ones in the Badass bridge, However, all the Rick bidges I've seen (with a string damper) have five mounting screws. I was wondering if this possible had the old style bridge (As in the oriiginal style that looked like a guy made it in shop class)It does not appear to have any plugged holes and all paint seems to be original to the bass.Also, which pickguard should this one have?

4. Where can I find a keywind to match the others?

I shall try to post pics later, (If this is allowed) I really love the feel of this bass and how it balances. I just really want to do this one right.
Thanks,
Ed Miller

I would continue with the conversion to two pickups as you'll have a better sounding bass. The parts are available under the "Boutique" tab above. Post this topic in the Restoration Forum for more help.

Use 250k volume pots,500k tone pots, .047 caps on tone pots.Get a replacement toaster neck pickup,and maybe a horseshoe bridge pickup. If RIC doesn't have them, Maybe music 123 will. You might be able to purchase a pre wired switch,and pots direct from RIC.