I'm sure that more than few few of my fellow Ric'ers saw yesterday that a new 4003 bass went for about $800 on Ebay. The guitar and case were damaged in shipment and the seller provided a good number of pics.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rickenbacker-40 ... 4cfdda8914

The neck was snapped off at the body, pickguard was broken electronics were disassembled with possibly something missing but aside from other minor finish damage, everything else looked pretty good. I was really tempted to buy it and just send it to Paul but held my bidding back.

Looking at my own 4003 I saw (as we know) that the neck is part of the body so what I would like to know is how a neck on such a design is replaced. Would this have been a deal that someone wouldn't get hurt on?

And if one of the forum members snagged it, good luck!

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Four Rics and Counting!

Looking at the break, I'm not totally sure that a neck replacement would be required if you wanted a player's instrument. Its a good long break, with plenty of opportunity to introduce a stabilizing key or pins from the back. I've dealt with similar breaks on Epiphone Les Pauls a couple of times with success. However I'm just a tinkerer, I'll leave a proper opinion to the pro's

The break can be glued and finish touched up. MID Blue is a fairly easy touch up and if done properly the break will be unnoticeable. MG or FG would be more obvious.

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Rickenbackers: I love to play them. I enjoy the challenge of working on them. I love the way they sound.