This review is of a 1979 Rickenbacker fretless.

The bass is a standard Rickenbacker only with a fretless fingerboard. The neck has a strip of what I believe to be mahogony running the length of it through the body. The fretboard is rosewood or pau farro with dot inlays. One thing about the neck sidemarkers: there is one dot for where every fret should be. This takes a bit of getting used to; especially if you're used to a standard unlined fretless where the dots are every other like a standard fretted bass.

The tone is unreal. I have mine strung with Thomastick flatwound jazz bass strings, and with a touch of EQing it's as close to an upright tone as you'll ever get without an actual upright.

The controls are simple one volume and tone set for each pickup with a 3-way pickup switch. It does have the "Rickosound" jack also which will allow the player to run two lines out of the bass if desired.

The bass plays great also. Like all other Ric's, the quality is there.

The finish is beaten due to it's age. New Ric's have a semi-gloss finish. The finish rating below is based on a new Ric.

Construction	98%
Playability	96%
Appearance	97%
Sound	99%
Value	98%
Overall	97%