Pickup distance from string- why did they move it away?

[rictified]

Greetings.

Early 4001s had very little distance from the body to the top of the fretboard. Everything (correct me if I'm wrong) since has had gradually increasing distance. This causes all of the pickups to be further away, and thus they lose the growly pickup overload. What was the purpose? Thoughts, comments?

Probably part of RIC's effort to produce stronger necks.

I bet that's part of the reason too although some of the older ones like my 78 also had thicker necks. I think it comes down to hand sanding especially on the older basses.

[86kubicki]

I always figured that the fingerboard plane increased in distance from the body plane so that there would be more adjustment available at the bridge. My 4002 has the same fingerboard/body relationship that the older 4001's had, and the bridge is basically bottomed out to get the action where I want it (although I did have to file the G-string saddle to get it perfect).

[rictified]

I always figured that the fingerboard plane increased in distance from the body plane so that there would be more adjustment available at the bridge. My 4002 has the same fingerboard/body relationship that the older 4001's had, and the bridge is basically bottomed out to get the action where I want it (although I did have to file the G-string saddle to get it perfect).

Have you adjusted your neck lately? The whole neck sometimes will move rather than bow in the middle. My 79 4001's bridge is also low but I make sure it has some room for adjustment. I have observed this time and time again. When you loosen the truss rods not only does the neck bow more in the middle, the whole neck will come up at the neck-body joint, this is not good IMHO and I willl make sure that that doesn't happen. This can espacially happen with heavy strings.

[86kubicki]

Have you adjusted your neck lately? The whole neck sometimes will move rather than bow in the middle. My 79 4001's bridge is also low but I make sure it has some room for adjustment. I have observed this time and time again. When you loosen the truss rods not only does the neck bow more in the middle, the whole neck will come up at the neck-body joint, this is not good IMHO and I willl make sure that that doesn't happen. This can espacially happen with heavy strings.

Hey Bob - I adjusted the neck when I got the bass last fall to bring the action down a bit and thats when I noticed I also needed to bottom out the bridge to get it to my liking. The neck remains straight as an arrow and I'm using TI flats so string tension is light. Don't get me wrong, the bass plays great, but it would be nice to have a bit of adjustability if needed.

[rickfan60]

Greetings.

Early 4001s had very little distance from the body to the top of the fretboard. Everything (correct me if I'm wrong) since has had gradually increasing distance. This causes all of the pickups to be further away, and thus they lose the growly pickup overload. What was the purpose? Because the headstock angle kept increasing, did they raise the fretboard/neck so that they wouldn't have to waste as much wood? Seems strange to me. Thoughts, comments?

Sorry, I just reread your question and I think I misunderstood it the first time. You seem to be asking about the relative height of the fingerboard over the top of the body. This varies quite a bit on the older instruments (60's) but is very consistent on post CNC examples. Early 60's basses often have fingerboards that sit right on top of the body with little or no buildup from the face of the neck slab. By the 70's there is a fairly consistent elevation of about 1/16". The fingerboards are pretty consistent at 3/8" thick in the center but variations do occur there too. What really varies is how much wood was sanded off of the top of the body. Richard Burke told me that the hand sanding process produced a fair amount of variation from instrument to instrument. There was also some variation in the initial thickness of the body and neck slabs. They tried hard to maintain a standard starting thickness but drift was inevitable. Also, some instruments were reworked / refinished requiring them to be sanded down again which took a bit more wood off of the top. The offset of the top is most apparent in two places. The first being the height of the bridge. Some basses have bridges that sit way down in the tail piece either flush with the bottom or just slightly above while others sit up high enough for you to actually reach the saddle adjusters screws. The higher the bridge the more wood was taken off of the top and / or the thicker the fingerboard. The second place you will notice it is on the side of the fingerboard just past the last fret. The distance from the lower face of the fingerboard (just below the binding) to the top of the bass will vary slightly.