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I'm in Orlando for the weekend. My sister, her husband and I were supposed to meet for beers at 5:30 in the Ivanhoe neighborhood.

That means a second visit to my new favorite used and vintage guitar shop: Blackbird Vintage Music... since it's around the corner from the bar.

I swear I didn't want to buy anything. My intention was to check out a silver sparkle Ibanez Jet King with P90's, but this bass got my attention and told me to plug it in - so I did. And damnit, it sounded lovely. And the neck was comfortable.

Then it screamed at me: BUY ME YOU BITCH! And since I finally got a job offer last week, I said fuckit, and bought it.

It's a lawsuit era MIJ Bradley Rickenfaker 4003 (I think, it's been a while since I owned a bass). Research says that Bradley was the brand for Matsumoku made products commissioned and sold by by Veneman's Music/Music Emporium in Maryland, close to DC.

Here's a few pics of it:

Ricks have 3-5 degrees headstock angle while most of the modern knockoffs have Gibsonish headstock angle of 14 degrees, which absolutely kills aesthetics in my opinion. This one looks awesome, congrats!

The first bass I had in the 80s was a Japanese Ricky rip-off. This looks great

oh hell yeah, i've been lusting for one of these forever. there is NO bass that looks better than these ricks, and i have a special soft spot for these MIJ copies...

Miss my Tokai 4003 now. Looks great!

A young Peter Hook would approve... as do I

Congrats! Beautiful bass!

There's a Hondo Lemmy style bass going near me for £400. Bit too pricey and a bit beaten up but it looks cool.