I'm the (now) happy owner of a blonde 4001 I bought new back in 1977 (serial# QD 1575, April 1977 manufacture) from one of the 48th St. music shops in NYC. At the time it was not clear to me that relatively few guitar shops have clue one about working on Rick basses, but I was to learn this painful lesson several times over the years.
I subjected my bass to the usual 'mods' of a young, perhaps too-easily influenced Rick bassist of the time -- removing (and then losing) the chromed plastic pickup cover, replacing the Rick bridge with a Leo Quan 'Badass II' bridge (thank you, Jeff Berlin), letting my bass teacher file down the nut (to suit *his* idea of good action), removing that pesky capacitor that everyone says lowers the output, swapping in a Seymour Duncan bridge pickup (under the mistaken impression that there was something wrong with the stock pickup -- which has now been reinstalled). I was also a committed roundwound user (thank you, Chris Squire) with all the concomitant fret damage that entails. My Rick also survived being knocked over during a gig, resulting in a cracked neck near the nut. Still I enjoyed playing the thing immensely. But as the years went on and I would take it to be modified or set up periodically (or repaired outright, in the case of the neck crack), the thing actually got harder and harder to play, more buzzy, and harder to keep properly 'intonated' -- all of which shouts *bad neck adjustment*. But around that time, the repairfolks at guitar shops began telling me that the neck was *no longer adjustable*. I let it go, since I wasn't playing it much since the late 80's, but when I recently brought the bass into active duty again to play some gigs, it became obvious that things had gotten out of hand. Now that I had the financial wherewithall to fix the poor thing properly, I decided to bring it in to a local shop that I'd been told *knew their Ricks*. I left it in the hands of Southworth Guitars of Bethesda, MD, with assurances that all would be well once they'd ascertained whether the thing was repairable (I told them about the 'not adjustable' responses i'd gotten in the last few times I'd taken it in, years before). In the meatime I rented a late model Fender Squier -- and was shocked at how easy it was to play , compared to my Rick. I'd had the action set so very high for so long on the Rick, to counter fret buzz, that I'd forgotten what a *normal* action felt like!
One thing that troubled me somewhat when I showed the bass to the Southworth clerk was his comment that, if the truss rods were unadjustable for some reason, they'd have to *remove the fretboard* to get at them. Now, I *knew* this was nonsense, and told him so, but as he wasn't the guy actually doing the repairs, I figured it wouldn't matter much -- surely the actual luthier/repairguy would know his stuff.
Wrong.
A couple of days go by and Southworth calls me to say the bass look like it's repairable, and will be ready soon. Great! I says, call me when it's done.
Another week goes by. Southworth calls to ask was I aware that there was a crack in the neck? yes, I says. Did I know it was opening up? No, I says, but please go ahead and fix it. OK.
Another week goes by. Finally I get a call from them: bad news, it looks like my bass *is not repairable*. The repairman says they have to replace the truss rods, and that means *taking off the fretboard* (steam beginning to come from my ears at this point). In any case, Southworth's man didn't do that sort of work , and I was given a few numbers of luthiers who might. Two weeks wasted (but no charge).
A few calls later, I learn that Rickenbacker no longer makes truss rods for that vintage, so more creative measures are called for. I'm beginning to get a bit worried. I'm given the names of two guys , one in New England, another in Washington, who might be up to it.
I have a nice chat with the New Englander, who seems to know his stuff. His repair apparently will involve welding. I decide I'll probably send it to him, but I should talk to the other guy just for completeness' sake. I call the Washington fellow, a guy named Mark Arnquist -- and it occurs to me that the name sounds familiar. Ten minutes of conversation with him and I'm blown away. I realize its the 'ask a Rick luthier' guy I'd admired in my one previous visit here. Mark describes in some detail what might be wrong with my truss rods, and how he will fix them with relative ease, assuming they aren't broken outright (which he suspects they aren't).
I send the bass off to him, which starts off a series of email exchanges wherein Mark keeps me fully apprised of the bass' arrival, its evaluation, and its repair. The bass turns out to have been cruelly misadjusted -- apparently a common tale for owners of 60's/70's Ricks -- and the fix is, for Mark, apparently routine. He removed the rods (no removal of the fretboard was required, oddly enough) removed the parts where the threads had been stripped by years of incompetent technicians, re-threaded and waxed the rods, and reinstalled them, adding washers to protect the aluminum block. He steamed the old glue out of the neck-crack and replaced it with his favorite brew of epoxy. He re-set the nut (which was separating from the neck) and filled in and re-filed the D slot (it being way out of whack), and re-shaped the other slots. He repositioned the Badass bridge further from the neck, so that it's now easier to replace strings. He also cut a new white plexiglass bridge 'surround', using the same thickness that Rickenbacker uses (the shop that had installed the Badass bridge back in the late 70's had used cheap, badly cut, thin plastic that had turned somehat yellow over the years). And of course he adjusted the neck, and set up the action and intonation using flatwounds I sent him. He smoothed out two of the saddles on the bridge. He also cleaned and tightened everything that could be cleaned and tightened, and adjusted the bridge pickup height. All this, for a *very* reasonable price.
Mark received the bass on Oct 26th; I had it back
on Nov 10 (it'd have been back even sooner, except that I requested Saturday delivery).
My old Rick now plays 'like buttah'. It's in tune all up and down the neck. It doesn't buzz. It sustains great. The dead spots are gone. The neck crack can be seen (because of years of crud that worked its way into the surrounding wood) but only barely felt. The bridge has a cool, and contextually 'correct' looking plexi guard around it. I couldn't be happier.
Let my saga be a warning -- don't let incompetents work on your old Ricks. And don't believe them when they say it's beyond help without *radical* measures. Chances are, it's not.
Arnquist Musical Designs' email is
AMD_Inc@msn.com
I can't recommend him highly enough.
My 4001 Repair Saga
Moderators: rickenbrother, ajish4
Wow man... rough story! I was bitten hard by a few DC area "luthiers" in the past ... and when it came time to undo the mess that was made (by Classic Axe) of my 75 4001's wiring.. I went to Southworth. Maybe I was lucky, but the man, who is nameless to me.. so I have no idea if it was the same guy in your case..did well with a non structural problem like wiring, it was put back to "original" according to the schematics from the RIC site.. which I gave him out of paranoia. And I was very pleased with the work. BUT!!! It's too bad that there is no way of knowing what evil lurks in the back room of the neighborhood music store until it's too late! I had one guy install a bass tremelo (ok I thought it would be cool) on my very cool Flying V bass... the Clown installed it... about 3/4 of an inch forward! It was fine if I only used a few frets of the neck... what an idiot. After all I have learned about the Rick since reading this site though.. I am even more paranoid about structural/neck work.. with good reason and would take your advice for sure.. thanks for the heads up!