65 4005 Restoration Feature

jwilli · Post by **jwilli** » Tue Jan 29, 2002 12:16 pm

Mark is restoring my '65 4005. Pics are up here:
http://www.homestead.com/aurs3/654005.html

The bass is not finished yet but there are some interesting photos there. Commentary is not 100% but I'll put more up when I am able.

markthemd · Post by **markthemd** » Tue Jan 29, 2002 5:16 pm

John ,

The braces are in fact not alder but 1/4 sawn maple .This makes them 'stock' yet with the scalloping and the dimensional size difference a lot stronger.

Why did I do the internal changes?
answer- the body was warped .

What was done to straighten this out?
answer- I made 1/4 sawn maple braces that cross each other and are notched and fitted .The original was three seperate braces and did not interlock .
This , with the pickup hole and the pressure of the bridge behind the pickup hole , compounded with the tailpiece area that was NOT touching the back ,but rather it helped to 'fold' the top !
The center of the fold was at the location of the bridge .

To counteract this folding , this is what was done ;
The braces are cut and pre arched to pull the top back to flat (actually the top is minutely arched at the moment!) This is similar to what is done to the braces in an arch top /jazz style guitar.

The Alder that I used is the filler section where the tailpiece cut is .You will notice from the before and after photos that the section is larger .I added a block of alder under the location of the bridge first .This was for support.Then I added a 5/16" thick piece of alder (this was used for strength and lightness of weight) to the underside of the tailpiece area.

The scalloping was done for pickup lead access to the control area and to remove weight.This is also a proven way to brace acoustic tops (many companies use this CFM style of bracing in their acoustics)
The body now weighs .....3 & 3/4 pounds!

If you have any questions about this restoration ...feel free to ask me .

fabgear · Post by **fabgear** » Tue Jan 29, 2002 6:16 pm

John,

I was looking at your page earlier today to see what you had added, and I stumbled on this!

Extremely cool!

Mark, you're doing an awesome job on it, looks beautiful.

I can't wait to see it when it's done.

admin · Post by **admin** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 3:03 am

This 4005 is going to be a beauty. Thanks for the photos John. I am sure we will all be following this transition. When it is complete, I will be most interested to hear comments from John and Mark with regard to the tonality of the 4005 compared to the 4001 and 4003 models.

claudel · Post by **claudel** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 5:11 am

Hi

Good to see another one of these old guys being resurrected.
Some before & after pix of my '67 are at

http://www.sonic.net/~claudel/4005/

The "befores" are as it was when I got it with
poor detail on the semi-botched repairs.
One day I'll find the time to add text :^)
This one had a couple of massive body cracks and
the neck was broken ( completely off ). Someone also
did a cosmetically poor repair to the neck joint that had to be cleaned up.
Massive props to the kind folks at Rickenbacker for an incredible BG refin.
It was an ordeal that would have been cheaper had I just bought
one in good shape but hey....

Maybe some day some PhotoShop ace can put together a group photo.

Claude

admin · Post by **admin** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 5:46 am

John: I hope you don't mind but I couldn't resist posting a photo of your 4005 here.

kennyhowes · Post by **kennyhowes** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 7:54 am

Holy cow Claude--not to take away from the work Mark is doing on John's bass, but MAN that looks good. How'd you get Mr. Hall to do the BG finish?

John, you gonna paint yours?

Somebody find me a trashed one too!

jwilli · Post by **jwilli** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 8:05 am

Mark, thanks for the correction. I'll fix the caption soon. Claude, your 4005 looks great. Kenny, we're still figuring on what finish the 4005 will have. One finish is the original MG, the other is top secret

.

kennyhowes · Post by **kennyhowes** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 10:03 am

OOOOOOh, top secret classified finish...cool...

Bring back Walnut! (i.e. tobacco burst) I feel a new thread coming on...excuse me, I'll be right back...

claudel · Post by **claudel** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 4:16 pm

Hi

I got in a year or 2 ago when Ric was accepting refin jobs...

Claude

admin · Post by **admin** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 5:06 pm

I remember this brief period of time when the custom shop was able to do a limited number of refinishing jobs. This was a great service. You we lucky to get in Claude.

wmthor · Post by **wmthor** » Thu Jan 31, 2002 3:07 am

Looks like John will have "One Killer Bass" when Mark is done with his magic.

As far as finishes go, my vote would be for a Blue-glo like Mary Chapin Carpenter's 620.

markthemd · Post by **markthemd** » Thu Jan 31, 2002 5:06 am

When I worked at Rick in the early 1970's we had plenty of discussions about names of colors .

One , we thought the glo scheme was a silly thing , but in reality if sure does work for one color .
So to get to the point ....

as Fireglo is a style of finishing , we tried to name the green -burst , never really came up with a name for it other than Martian-glo (sod glo,phelm-glo,getupan-glo,nausiate-glo,and lawnglo were some of the other names )

As this talk surfaced once more when we began to paint the white basses , we asked what glo name did it have ?

answer ......white .....we liked snowglo .
For the blue burst we liked ......
cloudburst or skyglo .........

You can take this and run with it .

Taking hints from clearasil ads of the time , maple glo became clear-a-glo in the booth ,especially the ones that had a blemish and had to go fireglo!

admin · Post by **admin** » Thu Jan 31, 2002 3:11 pm

Mark: How about Emeraldglo or Emeraldburst?

jwilli · Post by **jwilli** » Thu Jan 31, 2002 3:32 pm

I love that finish. John Hall told me that there was even a run of "Glow-in-the-dark" RICs at one point. Now those would've been cool. Hey, bring back "Glow-in-the-dark-glo"!