73 truss rod help

rickwatt · Post by **rickwatt** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 7:38 am

I recently bought a '73 4001 at a good price because the neck was badly bowed. The owner said he tried truss rod adjustments and got no results claiming the bass was just "old and shot". I removed the truss rods and found that both rod ends were bent,and one rod had broken in half at the foldover crease at the other end. The fingerboard is in good shape and shows no sign of seperation. I think all I need is a set of new rods. Can I buy these directly from Rickenbacker? Is there a difference between older and newer truss rod styles?

aceonbass · Post by **aceonbass** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 7:47 am

Original style truss rods are not available from RIC and the newer style wont retrofit. Someone back east makes a replacement. Do a search on this site and his name will come up.

johnhall · Post by **johnhall** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 9:29 am

Cut the rods off an inch and re-thread them. Hit the broken rods at the end with an arc welder- it's so simple that I bet a friendly welding shop would do this for close to nothing.

There's plenty of advice here on this topic if you'll take the time to search the site, without resorting to buying new rods.

aceonbass · Post by **aceonbass** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 11:24 am

Thanks John. I didn't know they could be re-welded.

rickwatt · Post by **rickwatt** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:56 am

Thanks for the help. I'll try the welding method and let you know how it turns out-