1984 Mapleglo v63

[Kopfjaeger]

A few moths ago I purchased the late 84 v63 from a forum member here. The transaction nearly fell through several times but I stuck with it and it finally happened. The bass arrived wearing .105 Rotosound strings that the prior owner had just put on. The instrument looks like it was stored in a time capsule for the past 30 years!! The finish is flawless! The instrument was one of the first v63's made. it has an original 1960's pair of horseshoe magnets that "power" the special made slotted pole treble pick up. It also has a long pole toaster. Both pups spec very close to their 1960's era counterparts. I would not be surprised if the toaster is a left over from the late 60's early 70's. The TRC is a raised letter 4001 marked unit. The truss rod block is a early style block turned upside down and is used with the new conventional truss rods. Quite a mix mash of parts!!

The action sucked even though the neck was nearly flat. In the fotos that were sent I worried about the neck angle but I took a gamble. This is precisely why I don't gamble!! I took the Rotos off and threw them directly in the trash. When I pulled the bridge out I was mortified. One of the prior owners had ground the underside of the bridge down in order to get it to sink lower into the tailpiece well to compensate for the negative neck angle.Using a 4 foot level on the fretboard, I found the neck had a severe negative angle. Measuring off the body right behind the neck pup route and again in front of the tailpiece route there was a difference of 1/16 of an inch in less than 10 inches!! There were no finish cracks at the neck/body wing joint or any separation whatsoever. A friend that builds custom kitchen cabinets told me he could fit the pup route with a tight fitting maple block and route out a more shallow pup footprint. We worked on her for a few hours one night and even after pulling the neck neutral and inserting the block, once tension was removed, the neck returned the same position. It was time to call a professional with way more skills. I called Mark Arnquist! After answering a slew of questions, mark told me to box her up and ship her to him. I sent him the completely stripped instrument with all the parts. Mark was not too happy to see I had pulled her all apart since he likes to be able to take measurements like an engineer and see what the instrument is doing.

He did tell me straight up that he could fix her. Great news for once!!

Sepp

[Kopfjaeger]

He put the tailpiece and bridge one and the white delrin nut, which was trashed. The bass had obviously seen heavy strings in the past. Numerous signs of being filled and glued and recut. After seeing just how much the neck angle was, he began the structural repair phase. He steamed the neck joint in order to get he r to move. using a brick in a 5 gallon bucket, he was able t9 get the neck to move into a neutral position. Below are the fotos he sent me along the way.

The bass as it arrived.

[Kopfjaeger]

More fotos.

[Kopfjaeger]

Still more.

M<ark has only had her since Wednesday of this past week!! It's now Sunday and she is going back together!! Thew major work is done and she now has a new nut and her neck is flat and neutral!!

Her shoes are a little weak and can use a re-gaussing. mark is going to give Jason Lollar a call and pick his brain. I know these can be re-charged. While he has her, Mark will be fixing a few small items. The treble pup poles did not line up with the strings. A little adjustment of the surround position and they line up perfectly. I screwed around with this a little before sending her and the tone improved dramatically once the poles were under the strings. At this rate, i may have her back in time for our gig on June 12th.!!

Stay tuned, I;'ll post more fotos soon.

Sepp

[rickyfricky]

Great news Sepp!

Can't wait to see it when it's done.

[bottom4]

Glad to see all is turning out well, Sepp!

I'm an original owner of a V63 which is only a few months younger than yours with all the proper vintage hardware including the vintage TRC. I've now owned this bass for 30 years, it's been played and is near perfect. It will never leave me. The neck is very much like the necks we know Shadows to have. I've always said, it's the closest you can get to having a RM1999 without having the real thing...
Cheers

[superheavydeathmetal]

Wow, that's too bad to see such a classic instrument in such rough shape, but it's great that it is getting restored to it's former glory!

Thanks for sharing this. For someone like me who knows next to nothing about guitar construction, this has been rather educational.

[ram]

COOL!

[songdog]

I'm starting to think this should be called the RickRescue forum!

I love following these stories of fine old basses being restored, I'm looking forward to more pictures (and maybe some recordings) of this one. It looks like a truly exceptional instrument.

[henry5]

I'm starting to think this should be called the RickRescue forum!

Yep, that's us!

I laughed out loud at the brick in a bucket line; amazing!

[JakeK]

I had the feeling that you'd end up with this bass, Sepp. Sorry to hear that it had that many issues, but it's a great thing you're getting them rectified so quickly! As far as strings go, sounds like you don't like Rotos very much! What strings are you planning to put on it? I know you don't like flats, so that rules out that option. Will this become your main bass, Ric or otherwise?

[aceonbass]

Rotosound Swing bass 66 strings.. . JH probably secretly loves the fact that people use these since it gives Rickenbacker an out when the neck pitches up. The current 4003 route seems like it will head off a lot of these problems, but why did it take RIC so many years to return to it?

[Kopfjaeger]

I'm starting to think this should be called the RickRescue forum!

I love following these stories of fine old basses being restored, I'm looking forward to more pictures (and maybe some recordings) of this one. It looks like a truly exceptional instrument.

Bill, I've had my fair share of rescues here. Some I knew of in advance but still others "surprised" me, not in a good way. What I've learned is, you never get back what you put in. I suppose I could have put her back together and put her up for sale for what I purchased her for and kicked the can down the road and let someone else worry about fixing her. I just can't do that. I can't "stick" someone else with a lemon. If she could not have been fixed, i would probably have looked for a donor body for her. The problem is, so many v63's have this issue.

I sent a set of .102 Kalium balanced tension strings to Mark to use on this bass. They should work well. Will this be my main bass?? Not sure. My 72 4001 carries the lion share of my gigging and does it with ease and style. I don't gig my 65 horsie, although I toss around the idea of letting her handle a few songs. I'm also waiting to mod the heck out of my Walnut S bass, when ever RIC makes her so In a few months I'll be gauging what instruments do what. I've slimmed down the herd as of late. That's not a bad thing.

Sepp

[wints]

This bass is spectacular in so many ways it's hard to imagine it could have been so bad in just one.

The early V's represent the closest thing to an original RM1999 and this bass certainly deserves everything that it gets.

Props to Sepp and MA.

[Lewis90]

That's really the work of a master! Nice save!