The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Very nice - although you might want to amend your pic title - it's not an Ibanez.

It's actually very much at home here - it's an Arai/Matsumoku - sourced 4001 copy, these were sold as Aria, APII, Univox, Greco, Electra & a whole array of other brands. These are about the most accurate of Rick copies, down to having dual truss rods & fake "wavy" Grover tuners - which are more durable & reliable than the real thing!

Because of their authenticity, many of these have ended up wearing Rick TRCs & being passed off as the real thing - in fact I'm currently restoring one that I acquired through a friend of somebody who was duped like this - not cool.

Here's mine, as it was when I got it - it's in bits, and just a little cleaner now!



The Ibanez/Fujigen Gakki Rick copies, while being good basses in their own right, were actually very inaccurate - presumably to keep manufacturing costs down, they were fitted with the same pickups as the Fujigen Gibson EB-0 clones. Also they did not feature stereo outputs.

You can find very good wiring diagrams for stereo Rick basses here:
http://www.joeysbassnotes.com/Rick%20maint.htm#wds

Obviously, they're equally applicable to accurate 4001/4003 copies.

And if you want an appropriate truss rod cover for your bass - I'll happily send you a hi-res version of my avatar image!

Jon.

All of them were poor copies but for the 2389b DX, which is what I was led to believe that this was. The 2389b DX had dual trusses, stereo outs and a toaster pickup, like the one I have.

I still can't be certain as there are no defining marks on it, other than the letter "B" under the bridge in sharpie.

Are there any specific features I can look for which would tell me more about its origin? perhaps the truss adjustments or the tuners... mine are small tuners, much like the 2389 are supposed to have. I'll post a pic of them in a bit.

Frankly, I'd rather have an Uncle Matt than a Hoshino, but that's just my pref. Help me believe!

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actually, after looking closely at yours, I do think you may be right. tell me, on the center block, A) is the skunk stripe about 3/4" wide rather than 1/2" and B) does there appear to be an almost paper thin layer of wood between the skunk stripe and the body wings?

Thanks!

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john

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j.k.

Not that I need it either but I may be interested if you decide to sell.

No & yes. The stripe's exactly 10mm - these were built to metric dimensions - and the two very thin stringers are less than 1mm. Are you sure about your imperial measurements - 1/2" & 3/4" seems very wide.



I have no doubt yours is not Fujigen, in my previous post I simplified the differences for the sake of clarity - later ones were more accurate, but still did not have the more authentic features of the Mat/Arai copies.

I post on the Ibanez Collectors forum & there's been a bit of discussion about these - the model numbers are disputable, for a start. In later Ibby catalogues, the through-neck version appears both as 2388B/DX and 2389B/DX. It's likely the second one is a misprint - because in the 1972 catalogue, the 2389B designation is actually an Ampeg AUB copy! http://www.ibanez.ru/info/catalog/1972/23.jpg

There actually seems to have been four distinct versions of Ibanez Rick copy, and I think they should all share the 2388B designation. The DX suffix seems to have been used to indicate a neck-through rather than a bolt neck.

I think I'm right in saying all Ibanez 4001 copies had checker binding (much smaller pattern than the real thing), single truss rods & mono output, plus conventional open-back tuners, with longer shafts than the type used on real Ricks.

Other than the construction, the difference between the early bolt-on & neck-through is the pickups - the bolt-neck had two pickups like this:



Presumably the bigger Gibson type humbucker would have made the bolt-neck joint weaker/more problematic.

Both versions of early Ibanez copies had full-width sparkle inlays, like the pre-73 Rickenbackers, and these also featured a quite squared-off looking tailpiece - hard to describe, but quite different from the real deal or accurate copies.

Later Ibanez copies had more accurate pickups (the neck unit being a hi-gain type, not a toaster) & smaller inlays, plus a wider spacing between the pickup & neck, consistent with the changes in later 4001s - but they kept the checker binding, single rod & mono output.

This is as accurate as I can be, based on what I've seen - but as I'm sure you know - this is all detective work & "educated" guessing! Something will probably turn up tomorrow & disprove all my assumptions...

Meanwhile, a really fascinating guide for comparisons is this vintage Greco catalogue archive: http://psyco.jp/greco/cata.html

These are the Japanese home-market ranges, and if you look at the catalogue credits, Greco's owner, Kanda Shokai, sourced from both Fujigen & Aria. This means they sold the Fujigen designs - identical to Ibanez - and the Aria simultaneously. It also appears that from about 1977 they stopped selling the Aria/Mat version, and just carried the revised Fujigen.

As you no doubt have realised, I have a slight interest in the bizarre world of Rickenbacker copies!

J.

No doubt! You're about as obsessed about it as I was for the Epiphone Crestwood style guitars. I got so retarded about them for the longest time.

Regarding this instrument, I've come to wholeheartedly agree that it is indeed Matsumoku. I found many of the same hallmarks and points that you made in your post.

As a side note, I am going to fix this puppy up and give it as a gift to my mechanic. He hooked me up big time by rebuilding my Porsche engine at cost. I couldn't figure out how else to repay him, so I figured it would be a nice gesture to give him a pretty rare and nice toy. He's a guitar collector, so I think he'll dig it.

I can't justify giving him a real Rickenbacker, obviously, and since I have a 4001 and a 4003, the copy is very superfluous.

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john

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j.k.