What'd y'all think about this Fakenbacker?! Should I even bother upgrading it? Follow me on Instagram and let me know! instagram.com/patrickhunter

100% LEGIT. Still think you should have gotten pink so we could be matching super best friends 🙃🙃

It just doesn’t sound like a Rickenbacker. Sounds almost like a PJ.

In the hands of a good player anything sounds at least decent.

Turning it into a copy of Cliff Burton's Rick might be interesting, with the guitar pickup and the mudbucker.

Fun fact, Peter Hook loved his Ric copy because it didn't really sound like a Ric

I actually thought it sounded good.

You look like Leddy Gee with that bass...

I'd say upgrade it with real Rick pickups and hardware. It would be interesting to see how it stacks up against a real rick

Given the conduct of Rickenbacker and their CEO, I have trouble feeling sorry for the company over the fake issue.

Would make a fine, if expensive, prop for someone's Scott Pilgrim cosplay.

I like the inlays says the guy who hates Jackson who uses the same inlays

I’m so glad you made a video over these. I’ve GASSED over a Rickenbacker for a long time but don’t have the cash to get one. I considered one of these chickenbackers but couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger. Glad I never did! Great video!!!

Hey man, just wanna give you props for doing these demos, you play in a similar style as me with a pick and the tone all the way open. Too many people demoing basses are guitarists who just palm mute

Hey it sounds pretty good actually

Thanks for a good review, it sounds pretty good the way you play it. The notes at the frets sounded ok and in tune, all in all a bit of fun!

The reason the bridge pickup is so quiet is because when you took the cover of you didn't raise it high enough. I have one of these and that same thing happened to me and the bridge pickup sounds amazing, better than a real Rick, I've played both and it's incredible

If only there was a sub brand that could make licensed copies of rickenbacker designs and go through qc to make sure everything works and plays right 🤔

For a fake rick, it sounds pretty good.

I as a first time bass player, this is definitely A good start-up for myself. It’s got the look, the sound (pretty good to me, but that’s just me), I don’t really care, but once I get more experience I’ll definitely consider getting the real deal to make up for the Fakenbacker. Other than that, I am still very happy I got myself a guitar in the first place.

I would buy it hands down because I refuse to take my authentic on the road with my bands. I would do all the modding as well, don’t get me wrong lol but I love that 4003 style

the tripple harmonic at 0:48 was impressive as hell

I personally think it sounds pretty good

I concur with your assessment. I have one and what improved it a lot was replacing the stock strings with really good ones. I put on Rotosound Swingbass 66s and the thing came to life. Cheap fix and it works. I also oiled the fretboard with Old English dark oil polish and let it soak in for a few days because the fretboard was very dry and it looks very nice. I waxed and machine buffed the painted neck and that improved it immensely.

Oh my gosh, I just found your channel a few days ago. That whisper pick up! Hysterical.

It’s you man . You play great. It’s just a bass but you breath life into that wood and metal!

It’s a Trickenbacker!

Big Thanks for testing it and your references 👌👌👌

I have a 1976 Univox Rick copy, and actually love it. Although the neck has a bow in it and I'm really nervous about trying to fix something with double truss rods.

You left out quite a bit... (covered in my review of these basses several years ago!) They are 34 in scale, not 33 1/4 scale like a real Ric. Which if you are used to a real one, is quite noticeable, that and the extra frets make them very "necky". The fake Toaster pickup is actually a humbucker (real ones aren't) They are most often out of phase - neck to bridge, which is fixable. The bodies are usually Chinese Elm, unless you pay quite a bit more for a custom one. One of the biggest problems is the incorrect radius of the bridge for the fingerboard used !!! This is also fixable with 1/16 in shims under the "D" and "A" saddles. A major fail is the mismatch of that neck pickup with the fanout of the fingerboard. The fingerboard is more like a Fender in how it widens as you go up the neck, and by the time you have the strings passing over the neck pickup, they are actually leaving the magnetic field of the pole bars - Chronic weak E and G string compared to the A and D.

Definitely like to see a video on trying to upgrade this bass... go for it.

I'd be down with an upgrade video. Great video as always!

Dude, for $250 it is good.

Yes! Maybe you could also do something like the high intergrity mod with it :)

Sounds pretty good for the price, just doesn't sound like a ric. Great video Patrick!

I bought one a few years back. Same issues. I replaced the pots and wiring with a vintage set made by a guy on ebay called aceonbass1. Rheemed the output jack, and added the rick-o-sound mono stereo jack. Can now hear both pickups good.Had to fret level, and tap down a couple fret ends. I then replace the musicmaster pickup with a better one from ebay as well. Other than it being head heavy, plays as well as any Squire, or Epiphone, but at almost twice the price of those two.

"Not that great, not that good". Sounds like a real Rickenbacker then. Tried a brand new, flat black finished real Rick recently, and was amused to see they'd not even bothered to finish the inside of the lower horn properly. It was rough, as though they'd not sanded it after being initially cut on the CNC machine. I decided to stick to my 1979 Greco copy.

This would be GREAT for a kid just starting to play bass. All his friends would be super jealous!

I had one of these in Wine red and after a setup it was sick. Sounded and played like an Epiphone EB-3 SG bass. It was my main till I sold it to help fund my fender p-bass

I once owned a 1972 4001 jetglow; I loved the way it sounded,loved the way it looked but the way it felt; not so much. I once needed tech support for it so I called the factory in Santa Ana and talked to a super nice guy ( I think his name was Dave) he was very helpful with my questions. Rickenbacker is a class act company all the way!!! If I ever get to where I can afford another one, I'll have them build me a 4003 contoured with no binding, it probalbly won't look as good as their standard bass but it would be a lot more comfortable to hold and play. Every bass player on the planet knows that a Rickenbacker is the Harley - Davidson of bass guitars; nothing sounds quite like a Ricky !!!

Please do an upgrade video. Would love to see what you do with it.

I thought about getting one of those, and then I checked one out that a friend had. I played it a bit - it's hard to find a lefty Rick - and frankly I hated the neck. Slow, unplayable. And with both pickups roaring (the toaster and a pseudoMM) it was loud AF. The only advantage it had over a Rick was the bridge - Ricky bridges are garbage. Doing intonation is a disaster. Tuning and intonating his fakenbacker was actually easier. There are other major problems that aren't as obvious, some of them structural. As you noted the wood isn't mahogany. I have no idea what it is. Pine? Who knows... But that's a big issue, for sure. The other structural problem is, it's a set neck. So, the neck is crap as you know, and will eventually warp, especially if you use high tension strings like Rotos. The truss rod will have to work, and if it doesn't the guitar is only good for kindling. Once you scrape the paint off. Sure, you can steam the neck off, but good luck finding a replacement neck for one of these, and steaming a neck off one of these would cost more than the guitar is worth or even costs. The pick ups are hash. The neck toaster pickup is OK, for sure - it almost sounds rickish-like-esque. The bridge PU is crap. My friend replaced it with some huge Musicman type pickup. Thing freakin' roared, but didn't sound like a Rick of course. As you noted, the routing is amateurishly bad, so one can attack one of these with abandon - you can't make it worse. One thing he noticed was that the fret ends started sticking out after only a year. Seriously. He didn't want to get tetanus, so he got that fixed. He played it for a year after that, but after 2 years, the Rotosound roundwounds he put on it ate the frets up. So, now it's pretty much a dead bass. His verdict? Fun while it lasted, but never again.

Thanks Patrick, suddenly my GLARRY moved way up the food chain. Your playing is incredible as always.

Very interesting. Thanks for breaking down the whole bass! I wouldn’t waste more money by modding it.

There is a very high possibility the bridge pickup is a 1:1 copy of an old rick pickup. Those had very low output too. Lemmy put a Thunderbird pickup in the neck for a good reason.

Definitely not the worst sounding bass. I'd say try some mods on it!

Id love to see new pickups/fretboard on this, I've always wanted a Rickenbacker and considered buying a Chinese fake and replacing the pickups.

Hey pat, awsome video! Would it be possible to get tabs for the first lick ? I‘m a beginner and this sounded really nice

I think it sounds good for the price, a student would be happy with the sound. You spent 8:40 so far talking about the look and what not. How was the setup, the neck feel, fit and finish? I can't knock it from what I'm hearing.

It’d be a cool project to put ACTUAL rickenbacker parts on it

Those harmonics were so cool they made me laugh. Well done 🤘

I traded a broken Epiphone Casino for a Chinese copy Ric several years ago thinking it would be a good project bass. I replaced the pickups with Seymour Duncans, had a new nut fabricated, replaced all pots and the switch, Ric strings, and replaced the bridge with an Allparts. The bass would not intonate correctly until we moved the bridge closer to the bridge pickup. After all that, it’s just an okay bass. It has a good sound when played through my effects - maybe that’s the Seymour Duncans though. Still didn’t spend as much as a real Ric though. I enjoy your videos. Thanks.

I think this would be a fun bass to modify … heck you can't make it worse

Sounds nothing like a Ric, but in a band context from 100 feet away, I probably wouldn't know the difference.

I love how you play bass, like damn you go ham

Sounds amazing when you’re playing it

seems like a fun gigging bass but I'd not record anything with it

Doesn’t sound like a ric but looks kickass

Thanks for making this video! Very interesting. I like the sound that neck PU gets, regardless of if it sounds like a Ric or not. For $250, honestly I wouldn't care about the type of wood or the routing quality - although I do appreciate you pointing these things out. The only thing that made me cringe was when you said the neck felt like a baseball bat. Thick neck is a deal killer for me. Everything else about this bass I would expect at the price point except the bridge PU, and I'd just replace that and be happy with it. Tempts me to get one.

WOW!!!!!! no string rattle and fret buzz. Excellent.

I’ll be honest and say that it sounds pretty good, it may be a knockoff but I’ve always loved Rickenbackers. They feel and sound great and they’ve always been one of my dream basses

It doesn't sound like a rick at all

Hey man, where can you find these? Sick video!

Regarding the complaint about the bridge pickup volume, are you sure you adjusted it properly after removing the bridge over? As the bolts that hold the cover on also control pickup height.

It would be cool if Harley Benton came out with a Rickenbacker style bass. I'd have to buy one if they made a lefty.

Buy a second one and do what cliff burton did to his 4001 see if you can get some sick tones

I would love to see a review of one of the Xaviere J-style bases from GuitarFetish, as well as one of their J-style bass kits.

I have a neck through Chickenbacker bass myself. Your assessment is pretty much spot-on. The bridge is absolutely horrendous. It took me way too long a time to get it set up halfway decent. The bridge pickup was a challenge as well. The holes on the pickup itself where the screws would go in to raise it were bigger than the screws themselves, so I had to put a piece of cardboard underneath the pickup just to get it to a height where I could hear it as well as the neck pickup. But THEN the pickups go out of phase when both are engaged, and that sounds like garbage. Overall though it's okay for a project bass where you slowly upgrade the parts, which is what I eventually intend on doing.

That 100-dollar Harley Benton still sounds better!

Seven minutes in and I’m still waiting to hear why it’s bad. So far he has said that the ad lies about its materials. Okay

Turn the volume down on the bridge pickup just a little and it will actually probably get louder. Cheap knobs will sometimes short out the signal when it's all the way open.

There was a UK based company called Retrovibe that made Ricky copies with stingray style pickups, till they got hit with a cease and desist. Sounded nothing like a proper Ricky but it had the aesthetics. They actually ended up getting bought out by Chowny, the company that made Davie504’s signature bass/purple hollowbody.

Every time I see a video like this I'm constantly reminded of the fact that tone is in the hands, not the gear, because I cannot tell how shite this instrument is. You make it sound impeccable.

Kinda sounds like a Thunderbird?

I’ve always eyed one of these and wondered how the QC would be to it’s price. Thanks for taking the plunge! Would be awesome to see how new electronics would improve it

I would definitely buy this for some weird reason. To me sounds ok pretty could use a few mods. Would you reccommend this bass for fun / small gigs. ??

Personally it's crap I wouldn't do shit to it, but you're already in this deep, you might as well try to upgrade its parts and show it off. I'd definitely watch.

sounds pretty sick, not like a rickenbacker but suck nonetheless.

BTW I bought one of those treble pickups because I wanted the assembly for a build I was doing - I tried the pickup just to see, and it sounded amazing. Better than my seymour duncan P, and much hotter than my jbe 50s P. I was very surprised.

In 1978 my father picked up a Rickenbacker copy from Greco Guitars on a visit to Japan. I have played it ever since and it compares favorably to the actual Rickenbacker.

I prefer the term "chickenbacker" over "fakenbacker"

Decent guitars/basses: "meh... you may want to get new tuners" This crap bass: "Good tuners." WHAT!? This makes no sense. LOL XD

My old bassist had an original and it sounded like it fell down several flights of stairs. It ruined them for me. I'd much rather get a kick ass knock off like this.🍻

I bought an Amoon bass on ebay a few months ago for $89 complete with shipping. How bad is it? The neck was not seated in the neck pocket exactly perpendicular to the pickups. So if they had centered the bridge correctly, the strings would not have been lined up with the neck. By a lot. So this is how they build their instruments. Slap the neck on, then put a string on it with the bridge not screwed down. Move the bridge until the string is aligned with the neck. Screw down the bridge. Do not worry for one second the the strings are not centered above the pickups. So I have a bass to play with and work on making right. First thing I have done is remove the frets and installed veneer in the fret slots. It was my first try and it went pretty well for first try. The veneer broke off below the fret-board in one spot. I probably will just leave that. But soon, I will buy a new body (probably from Guitar fetish) and put the parts all back together with a different body. I will have to drill out the screw holes in the neck and glue hardwood dowels into them as they will likely not align with a different body. I know that sounds iffy, but I have done it before and it works. I think I will most likely sand 'Amoon' off the neck too as they really don't deserve to have their name on a musical instrument. IMO.

>it's bad, it's not even good It sounds decent, actually.

Brazil wood !!!kkkkkkkkk no way ..... ou melhor; Nem fudendo !!!!!

I like the tone from the intro the best

I love the ways Ricky's sound, look, and feel. Time stamp 6:50 "This bridge is God-awful." Yep, they nailed that! Even Rickenbacker bass bridges are horrible! Will Rickenbacker ever fix the brigde hardware issues? Why on earth mix non-compatible metals? You're just asking for corrosion and metal to metal fusion issues. And the cheap plastic chrome plated PUP cover? That was always the 1st thing to go on my Ricks. I've owned two..a 72 Maple Glo 4001 and a "74 Arctic White 4001 (it was more cigarette yellow, actually) and I miss them despite the horrible bridge design (ever try to set up the intonation?). Yes they are still very expensive basses but I would not consider buying a knock-off..the sound will never be there.

Wait, he is using a PICK, ILEGAL

See if you can turn it into a good rick copy.

Working hard and saving then being able to find a real Rickenbacker is far more satisfying than finding and modding a cheap/fake one. I dreamt of having a Ric since i was 14 years old. Never thought I'd be able to find one. Let alone afford one. At 24, I came across one and bought it on a wimb. One of the happiest most satisfying achievements of my life.

Sweet video thanks for making this I always wondered mysel. I have a 77, 4000 and a 95 4003. Having said that Never Say Never but it's not looking like I'll ever be able to afford to buy another new one. My 77 wasn't wasn't bought new I'm not that old but my 95 was $1,000 cash back then.

boi

Everyone I know pronounces it Ricken Bocker

Would totally be interested in hearing what it sounds like with upgrades -

That rear pup assembly is actually much better than a ric. Low pup height and being out of phase might be the problem. Hipshot Bridge, single coil P bass pickup - JBE 50s or Seymour Duncan single P will do the trick an it ll screw directly to the fiberboard assembly. New pots and wires and that thing should be good to go. Oh, a setup and shielding. Thats a fun project.

Sounds not "that" bad ^^

Rickenbacker's should be on the ugliest bass list

Bow material, brazil wood? What?! That had me laughing hysterically!🤣🤣🤣

I’ve borrowed a “rockinbetter” branded clone from my old bandmate and it has the exact same bridge…any ideas how you adjust the bridge as I’m struggling with it :)