And so it begins ....

[thx1955]

That's looking real fine, Jim!

Thanks Jeffrey, Larry does great work

Here are the follow on shots showing a close up of the inlays correctly sized, and the fretboard re-fitted to the body

Fully fitted to the Fretboard

This closeup also shows the relief set into the fretboard to accommodate the Neck Binding

Precision fit to the routed Fretboard

As I had mentioned in earlier pictures, there are a lot of holes drilled into the body

Fretboard looking great with the Ebony wings

Nice couple of shots showing how well the Wings and fretboard match

Hmmmmm Ebony

[jps]

This is going to be painted Jetglo, right?

[Dirk]

Great documentation on the progress, and I will say the Ebony looks dark and amazing.
What a daring move, but I think it really pays off.
Dirk

[thx1955]

This is going to be painted Jetglo, right?

Ummm ..... No; I've already got a Jetglo V-63 and, I have a Jetglo 4005 XC inbound, that's enough Jetglo for anyone

And, before anyone else asks, no, it's NOT going to be Fireglo either

First time I saw this colour on one of Paul Boyer's 4001's a decided then that if there ever came a time I'd get to do a custom refresh and refinish I'd go with "Minky"
The really dark edges are (I hope) going to help hide almost all the extraneous holes drilled into the 4001 over the years.

Hmmm Blood Soaked Fireglo

The next shots are some of Larry's other projects, and, these are the shots that made me think seriously about having a Ebony fretboard coupled with the "Blood Soaked FIreglo" (my new name for the colour) finish
Looking at the top picture with a standard Rickenbacker fretboard, comparing that to the lower two, the Ebony works a lot better with this darker "BSFGlo"
I also reached out to Paul prior to going with this colour to make sure he was ok with me using it.

Ebony looking good with the BSF

More Ebony, but, what a lovely Flamed Maple Body

[bassduke49]

Or how about: "ChestnutsroastingonanopenFireglo" ?

[thx1955]

With Fretboard slotting is now complete for both the Frets and the inlays.
It's time get the Fretboard Radiused, and also to decide on Fret sizes

But, before we come to that, Larry uncovered an issue with the original routing for the truss rods
It would seem that when the original slots were being cut, either the clamping didn't hold, or, the straight edge used to guide the cutting tool wasn't straight, or moved.
As you can see the lower slot (the E string side) is significantly larger than the upper one. So in this case there was little support for the truss rod in the channel and the only thing holding the truss rod in place was the Truss Rod Nut

Different slot widths

To address this, a new insert was glued in place

Lots of Tightbond

New filler

After drying

And then the slot re-routed

New straight edge

Not perfect but a whole lot better

With this error addressed it's now time to get on with Radius and Fretting

[thx1955]

With the Truss rod Slot fixed, it's now time to get back to sanding in the Radius for the Fretboard, in this case 10"
Interestingly enough, the Fretboard that came off was a much tighter 7.25"

Rough sanding to 10" Radius

Finished to 10" Radius

That Ebony is looking even better now it's been finished

With the Fretboard finished out, it was time to finalise the choice of frets.
Originally I had asked to have 'Banjo Frets" installed, I have these on my Dingwall and like the feel
Larry supplied detailed pictures of three fret sizes from left to right
Banjo - Guitar - Rickenbacker Standard

Side Elevation showing the relative heights

After a long discussion and comparing the frets on:

• 73-4001
  85-V63
  91- Chris Squire
  98-V63
  2001-V63
  2001- 4003S
  2012 4004
  2021 - 4005CX
  1973 - Fender Jazz
  2010 - Dingwall Afterburner

It would appear that even between Rickenbacker Models and years fret dimensions vary
In the end the final comparison was done between my Dingwall Afterburner (Dingwall use Banjo Frets) and my new 4005-CX which appears to have Guitar frets fitted

4005 - AB1

Final choice was to go with Guitar Frets
Larry's reasoning was that although Banjo frets would work, they would not leave a lot of (if any ) room for future fret dressing, so Guitar frets it is.
Next up ... the finished fretted Fretboard and re-instalation on the neck

[jps]

Final choice was to go with Guitar Frets

You do realize the bass will be playing an octave higher with those frets, right?

When I had to make a similar decision for my fretted Martin Keith bass I went with pretty small frets, somewhere between mandolin and "guitar" size (I don't recall the exact dimensions). The bass is like the fretless wonder of 5-string basses.

[doctorwho]

Great thread!

[Dirk]

Wow that truss channel route is scary, but consider when it was done, and of course not usually visible to the end user.

Thanks for the continued documentation.
Dirk

[cjj]

Final choice was to go with Guitar Frets

You do realize the bass will be playing an octave higher with those frets, right?

Yeah, but at least he'll be able to play something other than bluegrass...

[thx1955]

With the Fretboard now finished to the 10" Radius and fretted it is ready to be reattached to the newly repaired neck.
Almost all the frets have been fitted to the Fretboard off the neck, this makes the operation a lot easier overall,
at this point the 3rd and 20th Frets are left off to allow for Locating pins to be fitted under the fretboard for aligning with the neck.

Each time I see this Ebony it just keeps looking better and better.

Finished fretboard, with Dressed Guitar Frets onboard

Now the Fretboard can be relocated onto the neck.

You can never have too many clamps

After allowing suitable time for the glue to dry the new Fretboard is finally on the neck with the 3rd and 20th Frets installed

Together at Last

The fretboard and wings turned out a really great match

Full Frontal

Next up .... Neck Binding

[bassduke49]

That is soooo beautiful! What will the final finish be? Not kidding. Fireglo?

[thx1955]

That is soooo beautiful! What will the final finish be? Not kidding. Fireglo?

Not kidding, it'll be as I said earlier, Minky, like yours was, or as I call it "FireBlood-glo"

Not Fireglo

WIth the Ebony Fretboard it'll be lovely
As I've got older I've eased up on my Fireglo obsession, well not really, but I am slightly more open to non-Fireglo colours now.
I've even got 4 non-Rickenbacker basses as well, and, none of the are Fireglo either.

First time I saw your 4001 tricked out in that lovely colour I decided to one day have a 4001 with a similar finish.

[Dirk]

Yeah the Ebony head wings and fingerboard pop now, that is just plain hot!!!

Nice,
Dirk