What are the tricks to get a 4003 neck straight??

elgranluis · Post by **elgranluis** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 8:33 am

Hi everyone. It`s been a good while since i last posted in here. anyway, my ric has been sitting in its case for about a year now. Thing is, I can`t get the neck straight. It was driving me nuts so I just put away the bass. Anyway, I was doing some research and then came to some posts about different things that could happen to the rods that would make them "seem" not work. For instance, I read about the rod turning upside down in the channel. Also about the aluminum base bending, etc. Would you mind sharing all those oddities, and possible fixes?

I guess I need to say a bit about the bass. I bought it new on 2002 or 2003. Anyway, maybe 2 years back (when I bought a used ric), i noticed that this particular bass had ridiculously high action (maybe even half an inch at the middle of the board). I lubed the threads, tightened, waited, tightened some more (always bending the neck into position to help out the rods), waited, tightened, even took the rods out (c shaped, BTW), put them back in. At that time, I could get the neck relatively straight-- meaning the relief, when holding the first and 12th string, was around half a centimeter (a bit less than 1/4th of an inch I believe is the conversion). Anyway, I bought a couple of old fender basses (66, 65,74) and they are all incredibly responsive to truss rod adjustments--1/4 of a turn will do the trick every time. And my rick, even with it`s baseball-bat neck and 2 rods, just keeps compressing the wood under aluminum bar. I always use a screwdriver to adjust the rod (it`s a lot harder to break one that way), but i`ve came to the point where it doesn`t make sense for the neck to just not move past a certain relief point. . I`d like to see if there are any last hopes for this neck.. Thanks in advance!

beatlefreak · Post by **beatlefreak** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 9:10 am

The good news is, it can always be fixed. To what extent you might have to go to get it fixed is another story...

You've already listed a couple of things, and I take it you've already checked to make sure the rods haven't turned in the channel, or the aluminum nut base hasn't compressed the wood. Are you by any chance using high tension strings? How about tailpiece lift - Any advanced stages of that?

johnallg · Post by **johnallg** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 11:36 am

Others (2 cases I can think of) had to straighten out those "C" shaped rods - once the rods were straightened the neck would adjust to be flat again.

admin · Post by **admin** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 11:56 am

Welcome to the RickResource Forum, Luis.

cheyenne · Post by **cheyenne** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 12:02 pm

I'd try some lighter guage strings, relax the rods, pull the neck back into correct "relief" angle, then snug the rods evenly.

If that doesnt work, find a good luthier,(one that has a good understanding of Ricks).

C'mon guys,,,,I know their's alot of people here that know a lot more than I do 'bout Rick necks.

Paul, Dale, Ted, just to name a few..

johnallg · Post by **johnallg** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 3:01 pm

Oh yeah, I forgot, WELCOME Luis!

If the rods were as curled as you say, "C" shaped, I would really start there and get them straight again then reinsert and see how it is adjusting the neck flat.

Some on it here - pay attention to Dale Fortune on Feb. 11 10:57AM and the posts after:
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doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 3:53 pm

Welcome (back) Luis! I hope that Paul W., Dale, and Ted will pipe in here shortly with their extensive knowledge of neck adjustments.

markbass99 · Post by **markbass99** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 7:38 am

I would definitely pull the rods and check for straightness and wood compression, but like Kris said, there's a way to fix your problem. The modern trussrod system that rick went to over the folded rod system works great when everything is in good working condition.

After you pull the rods put a 24" straight edge on your neck(strings off of course) and make sure an upbow hasn't developed in the neck wood, this would definitely work against the rods. If your neck is straight or slightly back bowed than it's in good shape.

I've actually had the opposite problem than you have, in my quest for a really straight neck I over adjusted and started getting buzzing frets up by the nut. It's easy to fix that, you just have to loosen the rod nuts a little bit at a time until the buzz starts to disappear.

On my five string 4004's I actually have two different reliefs adjusted in, really straight on the treble side and about .015" on the B string side. Of course this is only possible on a bass that has dual trussrods(thanks RIC).

elgranluis · Post by **elgranluis** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 12:13 pm

Hi there, thanks for your answers. Yes, I was here a while ago and then left the internet!
The rods are definitely not straight, they are curved, but last time I asked here I was told they were supposed to be curved.

Well, when I took the rods out I couldnt thing of a way to get them straight anyway. Maybe put several nuts on one end, fix that to a table press and then bend?

Most of the solutions have to do with putting lower tension strings, and I don´t believe that should be a solution to start with.

I was thinking about the superglue to avoid compression of the wood, and maybe that wil give me a new grip.

The neck is straight when there is no tension applied to it.

John, thanks a lot for the search words.
Marke, yeah that´s the detail--- it´s not in good working condition! It wo´nt get things straight!
Kris, nope, I don´t have tailpiece lift. I believe that was a problem with the older allow, specially whatever they used on black hardware, whick is the most common victim ive seen of neck lift.

Hey, thanks everyone for your responses. I´ll keel on digging!

markbass99 · Post by **markbass99** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 10:44 am

When I had to deal with some curved rods a while ago I put the rod in a small vise and just took my time slowly bending it back and working my way down the rod until I got it as straight as I could. It just takes a little patience and because the rods are mild steel you're not going to hurt them. I would definitely try to get them as straight as possible to eliminate that as a cause, then if that doesn't help you can move on to something else. Try not to break the ends of the rods off(from overtightening) as they have been out of stock for a while now and could be difficult to replace. I think it's possible to make your own rods if you could find some 1/8" mild steel rod stock about 24" long and cut 8/32" threads with a die nut. I've never tried it but I think it could be done.

johnallg · Post by **johnallg** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 3:53 pm

Did RIC ever make 3/16" rods? I tried pulling the rods out of my '91 4003S and they were so thick and tough to bend enough to get out of the neck rout that I was afraid I would pop the fretboard trying. I left them in. One has a curve.

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 4:09 pm

John - Get one of them spoon bending guys to think real hard.....

You would have to experiment to see which side he would have to stand on to bend correctly.

elgranluis · Post by **elgranluis** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 5:41 am

well, here´s an update. I had some spare time a couple of days ago (about 5 hours!). Anyway, I removed the rods, straightened them (by hand, pretty tough BTW, and they didn´t actually end up really straight anyway!). Also applied some super glue on both "bases of the rods." Ot was pretty tough getting the rods in straight, but actually it was harder to get one of them out because the tape got stuck in the inside. Anyway, I placed the rods back in, put the washers (which were very stressed and deformed btw), and tightened the rods. And tightened. And then tightened some more. I fretted on the first and 12th, and then the relief was... NONEXISTENT! The neck is finally straight. I wish I would have done things step by step to see which one was the exact thing that made it all work, but hell, it works now and that´s what matters! Thanks a lot, thanks everyone!

qwezirider · Post by **qwezirider** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 7:28 am

Any tips on how you got the truss rods out? I'm trying that to look into my neck issue and they're pretty well stuck in there. Got them to budge about 1/2" out of the top, but it appears tape or something else is holding them fast. I'm stopping before I tear up something.

johnallg · Post by **johnallg** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 10:18 am

Bruce, see my post in your neck thread.