4001 Truss Rod Help

[deblase4001]

Truss rods ready to reinstall. Hopefully this will do the trick. I straightened the threaded ends the best I could with a vise and pliers then bent a 2" arc in the rods by hand. I hope to have time to put it all back together this evening.

[Kopfjaeger]

Nice, the bend looks radical but like was mentioned, you'll lose a bit of it inserting it. Are you going the electrical tape route or shrink tube? Which segment gets taped or shrink tubed??

Sepp

[deblase4001]

There is a strip of electrical tape on the top and bottom part of the rod where they fold together. The existing tape still looks good, is intact, and still really sticky after 36 years I plan on leaving it on and just cleaning the rods up a little - they look pretty good.

[johnallg]

Nice, the bend looks radical but like was mentioned, you'll lose a bit of it inserting it. Are you going the electrical tape route or shrink tube? Which segment gets taped or shrink tubed??

Sepp

On the folded rods they have electrical tape between the rods but not encasing them because they need to flex and oppose each other to work as designed.

When you tighten the rod, it draws both ends towards the headstock. The angled shorter rod end hits the aluminum block and is stopped. More tightening will cause the rods to bow away from each other and "fill" the slot they are in, holding the neck in place. More tightening will bow the rods more, not moving the neck at all, but with enough bow (overtightening) the rods push out hard enough that the end of the neck will separate from the neck wood, as CJJ showed his bass had sometime in it's past ownership. But as a method of holding the neck where you want it (where you move it to and hold there while tightening) it works very well. My 4001 does not move with season and humidity changes.

[deblase4001]

Very happy to report that it worked The rods went back in easily and I was able to setup the bass just the way I like it. There is even room for more adjustment. The rods are working the way they should. Thanks again for all the help.

[kiramdear]

Greg, congratulations! My hat's off to you; it's not rocket science but it's a task not for the faint-hearted either. Looks like a perfect job.

And dontcha love this outfit?

[T.A.R.]

That's great to hear Greg! As Kira said not for the faint of heart.

[antonius]

That's great news Greg! I'm so pleased it worked. As others have mentioned, the 4001 rods do a great job once you understand just how they work and how to maintain them.

[jps]

I've done it, too, on a couple of Ricks. Great to hear you got it sorted out.

[rickenbrother]

Great job, Greg. Glad you got your 4001 setup well!

[deblase4001]

Having fun playing with the new setup.

[Kopfjaeger]

Greg,

Sounds and looks great! Question, the audio is great! What did you use to record it?? Program and gear if you don't mind sharing yor secret.

Sepp

[deblase4001]

Greg,

Sounds and looks great! Question, the audio is great! What did you use to record it?? Program and gear if you don't mind sharing yor secret.

Sepp

Thanks.

I am using an iMac with an Apogee One usb interface. For this video I plugged straight into Garage Band and recorded my bass while playing along to the the song. Simultaneously I was using Quicktime to record video of me playing the audio. I added some compression and EQ to the bass track after recording. I then brought the audio recording and quicktime movie into iMovie and synced them. I muted the audio in the video track so you could hear only the garage band recording.

Oh and congrats on your new Ric acquisition. That's one beautiful bass!

[Kopfjaeger]

Greg,

Thanks for the info and thanks about my latest RAS purchase! I had to have it!!!

Sepp

[cassius987]

I used to love jamming on that song--nice work! Jaco is a bit of a cliche today but man could he groove with the best of 'em, and you grooved right along with him. I love happy endings. I will have to look into Quicktime for recording video, I wasn't too amazed with iMovie but I'm still a newb at that sort of thing.

It sounds like you had the tone rolled off and the bridge pickup soloed... That would be my guess, anyway. The tone reminds me of what I used to aim for in a fusion band with my 4003FL. Burpy, but smooth and still plenty of depth. I love it. Keep up the great work!