I think rick is doing just fine even with copies out there. These copies aren't even that bad.
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I'm okay with "tributes", "replicas", for their sake alone. I have heroes too, and they don't make John McVie signature models.
I'm curious though- did the bass come with that truss rod cover? That's really the only thing I'd take any issue with. Not that you care, (said you didn't...) but if it were mine, I'd use a similar font and have one made that said Lemmy-backer, or initials, or something else meaningful. Anything other than Rickenbacker/ Made in USA. Not cool. Just me.
I'm curious though- did the bass come with that truss rod cover? That's really the only thing I'd take any issue with. Not that you care, (said you didn't...) but if it were mine, I'd use a similar font and have one made that said Lemmy-backer, or initials, or something else meaningful. Anything other than Rickenbacker/ Made in USA. Not cool. Just me.
Its not like dude is making money off of showing off his "Ric" at a gig or anything. I think the only issue is if OP wants to sell to others claiming its a genuine, real RIC for the price that the genuine goes for.
It's crazier than you think - because there's actually four pickups! There's one under the pickup cover too.
I don't have it in front of me, but it looks like the three positions are:
1. Neck two pickup and the one next to it
2. Middle two pickups
3. Bridge pickup and the one next to it
Doubtful. Filing chapter 11 is done because a company got cannot pay its bills and/or make its loan payments. The company can reorganize its debt, and along with the courts, decide which creditors get paid how much, things like that, so the company can continue to operate. RIC has resisted all opportunities to borrow to expand, all its orders to dealers are done as COD, and they have no debt. An enviable position, as very, very few business’s today can boast such a position.
Growth can be a double edged sword. The minute a company takes out a loan to expand, it puts itself at the mercy of that creditor if sales slow down and the company begins to miss those loan payments.
I do take your point, but I butcher tone quite frequently with my playing and my setting selections and combinations and I doubt that anybody considers that the fault of Fender, Epiphone, Squire, Traynor, Ampeg, EHX, Tech21, or TC Electronic. I feel no obligation to any of those respected manufacturers to represent their brands well. Take your own story - that proves my point. It had nothing to do with an instrument.
This will never be my main instrument. But I expect that it will go out every once in a while.
I feel no personal obligation to either RIC, especially when I doubt that anybody who sees this bass is actually going to be turned off so badly that they give up on the idea of buying a Ric. What I actually see as a more likely outcome is that more people see a RIC logo or a Ric-shaped bass, and that's great advertising for RIC. Maybe people will say "that's cool looking, I'd like to buy one". At the very least, its great background marketing.
I like being part of this bass community, but I don't actually feel any personal obligation to the the bass playing community as a whole. The bass playing community has no obligation to me, either.
Watching this thread and i am glad it contains some interesting dialog instead of devolving into a slanging match. For full disclosure i am generally against counterfit products, I'm not a huge Ric fan despite Chris Squire being one of my bass heroes, but i really like that bass. I also agree with most of what you said in your last post.
Making a profit off of someone else's creativity with no royalty to the creator, when clearly the creation is no way is old enough or disregarded to be in the public domain, is not ok. That makes it IP theft, no different than flea market home made DVD copies, regardless of how talented the builder is. Given that everyone here is a musician I'm surprised to hear all the support.
A family member used to decorate her house in a Harry Potter theme every year for the kids. She is very talented and decided to sell some of her designs. She had to stop because she had no ownership or rights to Harry Potter. She now sells her own original creations with themes of holidays, nature, etc.
BTW this is settled law at least in the US. I used to work in the furniture industry which is full of knockoffs and yes there were lawsuits and yes the knockoff companies lost, sometimes to the point of putting the corporation out of business AND the company owners being personally liable. If we don't like the law let's change it.
More disappointing is this builder could have made something really unique - maple leafs for example (and yes I'm tying that into the buyer's Canadian home) and a few other tweaks or even improvements, and then top it off with a cover plate that proudly said "made in China" and maybe a name of ChinaMaker or something less like Rickenbacker (I think your cover plate said "Rickenbarker").
A family member used to decorate her house in a Harry Potter theme every year for the kids. She is very talented and decided to sell some of her designs. She had to stop because she had no ownership or rights to Harry Potter. She now sells her own original creations with themes of holidays, nature, etc.
BTW this is settled law at least in the US. I used to work in the furniture industry which is full of knockoffs and yes there were lawsuits and yes the knockoff companies lost, sometimes to the point of putting the corporation out of business AND the company owners being personally liable. If we don't like the law let's change it.
More disappointing is this builder could have made something really unique - maple leafs for example (and yes I'm tying that into the buyer's Canadian home) and a few other tweaks or even improvements, and then top it off with a cover plate that proudly said "made in China" and maybe a name of ChinaMaker or something less like Rickenbacker (I think your cover plate said "Rickenbarker").
I know a guy who puts Fender decals on all of his Squier and other Strat style guitars. He then posts pictures all over Facebook of his great collection, so evryone can admire his stuff. He also has a fake Rolex, and lots of gold fill chains and bracelets. He even has TWO Corvettes...happy compensating, pal!
You're going to need a car to tote that thing around.
Can I interest you in a gently-used BMW?
Can I interest you in a gently-used BMW?
It’s your bass, so do what you want with it. (I would get a custom truss rod cover made)
How does it sound? And how does it play?
If this is not posted with a humorous tone or sarcasm, then this is uncalled for as well.
The unemployment lines just got longer due to all of the lay offs down at the Rickenbacker factory. All of that happened because a guy from Canada bought a Chinese bass. For shame.
You’re a little over the top with that one. The OP neither made nor is selling the item in question. So he’s neither infringing on IP nor commiting fraud by the simple possession of a bass that looks like a Ric or has a truss rod cover that says: Rickenbarker.
Ric may want to go after Ali Baba or the builder for that. Or alert US Customs to the situation so they’ll seize any future imports of that model. (I’m surprised it made it through.) But that’s as far it goes legally.
Ethically, is a different matter. But that’s purely a decision for the owner. He doesn’t need to do anything.
The fake truss cover says Rickenbacker, just like an authentic Rickenbacker truss cover, the font used makes the "c" look like an "r" in the fake as well as an authentic cover.
No shade from me. Absolutely no one is going to mistake that for a genuine Ric, despite its dubious TRC. You went in with your eyes open, had some useful back and forth with the seller, and got what you expected. Opinions vary but, from the standpoint of my intellectual property lawyer day job, this kind of product is neither going to cause confusion among likely consumers nor unfairly compete with Rickenbacker's products. Enjoy your new contraption.
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