Restoring a '76 4001

[Grainger]

Hi there,

First of all, I have no idea if this is posted in the right section. Not really familiar with RRF so far...
If it's misplaced; feel free to move to the appropriat section

Quick introduction; My name is Edo, I'm a 19 year old guy from the Netherlands. Obsessed with the Rickenbacker since I saw Death from Above 1979 with Jesse F. Keeler on its 4001.
I absolutely loved the yellowed white in combination with the black pickguard/hardware. I played one of a fellow dutch forummember and I was blown away. I'm in need of a Ric!

Needless to say, as soon as some money got available I was searching for one. Some dutch bassguitarforummer had a WH BT 4003 for sale, within a week I picked it up and I've never been disapppointed with the bass

So I'm on the dutch bassguitarforum, and there's this Rickenbackermaniac called Bert (berth, pretty known member here for as far as I know).
He puts every Rickenbacker he can find in a Ric topic, keeping me in constant awe.

Then this 4001 came by. Shocked by horror and opportunity at the same time I watched the bidding and started bidding in the last 15 minutes. I won. Until the bass arrived I've literally dreamed of restoring it!

So it came in today and I've decided to share the whole process with this forum.

I was psyched, checking the trackingnumber every 15 minutes on my cellphone, I couldn't wait. Today after coming back from working in someone's garden (thank you rain) a truck stopped in front of my house. I knew it was on its way due to my tracking checking mania.

A grumpy little delivery man drops it of making my heart race an unknown pace.

Ripped of the box, and found a shaggy case. Never knew that was in the deal, but obviously it was easier to pack and send this way. I opened up and saw a soft blond glow coming from the MapleGlo. I was starstruck, the beauty, the class, the horror. Who in its right mind mangled this beauty into this Frankenstein?



Plugged it in to see if anything was working. This wasn't the case. As I screwed off the pickguard it became clear why. Loose wiring, blown solderings, you name it.
Inside was still an original volumepot with the original knob and the original pickupswitch. Definetly using that one later

Here's the body, an ugly P/J setup dumped inside this body with a DIY pickguard from plywood. The monstrosity. Do note the silly bridgeground...


Screwdriver and I'm on my way! Beauty is unfolding itself


The head has a little crack underneath a tuner. It's underneath a thick layer of lacquer so my best guess it came out of the shop this way and is nothing to worry about



Fretboard is nicely lacquered, eventhough there are some stringbending traces. Will be done again as my wish is to fret it again.


Crack in the binding near the first fret.


Body was stuffed with green foam, for what need? I don't know...


The body was chaved down for a BadAss bridge, the most hidious scar on the whole Ric

Can someone tell me how deep the mutebar cavity is? I need to drill this out again...


This looks nasty, needs some cleaning


Tunerscrew is missing, needs replacing


A perfect back, no signs of bucklerash or loosening bodywings! By the markings in the case I could fairly guess it has been in it for years...


Neck is straight as an arrow!


Light stringscratches


Daniel?


The extra drilled pickguard wholes. Annoys me, but I have to learn to life with it.




A quick mock-up with bridge and pickups. And yes, there's a wiring harness from an old '73 4001, hail eBay.


About to order the pickguard, knobs and screws. After which it can be assembled again. Fretless. For now, just wanna jam on the Yeasayer basslines. They delivered some fretless GAS

So how am I doing for a 19 year old

[bassduke49]

Wow! Welcome to the Forum, and thanks for the tour. Looks like you have things properly in hand.

[jps]

Welcome, Edo!

Looks like this poor old 4001 fell in to good hands!

[Grainger]

I hope so to. I'm really looking forward to playing this baby once it's nourished back to health Definitly need to calm myself before doing things to hasty...

And I pretty much thought of anything before even bidding on the bass.

[T.A.R.]

The Bass is lucky you found it Edo

[MattB]

Wow, what a tough road that bass has taken and what a great intro from a new member! Looking forward to seeing your progress with this project, Edo. You have a good eye - the maple body on that one is beautiful.

[Grainger]

Thanks for the compliment!

Pickguards (yes, plural, white and black, just curious ), knobs and screws are on its way!

Only thing now is not really a product but hard labor; refretting!
Already mailed a shop nearby (The Bassgallery) the man refretted a Squier for me before, he even restored the fingerboard! Thing is perfect now! It'll definetly be in good hands there!

I'll keep you posted!

EDIT: Matt, quite the entree on this forum for me indeed. All I did so far was getting the register updated to my 4003!

By the way, here's my beautiful '88 4003, aged white with black hardware. Jep, that's me in the blue shirt!

[johnallg]

Welcome Edo. You have a real find here! Wonderful maple on this one - how could someone drill that beautiful wood??!! A question - did the pickups come with the bass? I'm assuming the tailpiece did. What luck, and also for finding a '73 wiring harness. As to removing the wood from the tailpiece routing, my 4001 came to me with a Badass II on it also and I used a wood chisel and carefully cracked it along the grain of the wood insert and slowly broke pieces out until the whole piece was out. My rout was fully filled.

Good luck with this, though it looks like you do not need it. I wish I was this together and focused when I was 19 (39 years ago).

[edit] Great pic! I figured you were the one in blue.... unless you've led a rough life. Who are the other two?

[Grainger]

Hi John, no, the tailpiece was not included with the 'corpse'

Thing is I do a lot of modding on my basses, only 1 of my 10 or 11 basses (this is embarassing, I lost count) is still original. The others all have things changed to them.
All this modding on basses got my contacted with a fellow 'outside the box thinker' Peter, a good man. He had the pickups and bridge for sale, all for a 250 Euros (approx. 300 dollars?) This really helped me keep my budget

About this Peter guy, he's serious business. He has like the world of basses, all modded with Darkstars, Orange Drops, specially wound Lakland pickups. Where the man gets his contacts, I don't know. We're sort of each others posts The man even did a Tractor bass! (Google is your friend)

About the other guys on the picture; Geert en Jack. Both the Blue boy as the FireGlo belong to someone else (Sven). We had this bassmeeting and even did some interesting finds when comparing the 3 Rics.

I'm not sure if 'I got it together', I'm just diving in, head first!

[rickenbrother]

Welcome to the family, Edo. I'd say you are making great progress in the restoration!

[cjj]

Welcome to the RRF! Not sure what to say about those cracks in the headstock. Even though they are under the finish, it's likely that this has been refinished, at least the fretboard has, so other parts may well be too...

[FretlessOnly]

Indeed, welcome Edo.

For a 19-year old, you seem as if you've been doing this for years! If you can bring yourself to take the plunge, go fretless for a while before you decide about re-fretting; those black nylon-wrapped strings sound great on a Rick FL.

[johnallg]

Hi John, no, the tailpiece was not included with the 'corpse'

Thing is I do a lot of modding on my basses, only 1 of my 10 or 11 basses (this is embarassing, I lost count) is still original. The others all have things changed to them.
All this modding on basses got my contacted with a fellow 'outside the box thinker' Peter, a good man. He had the pickups and bridge for sale, all for a 250 Euros (approx. 300 dollars?) This really helped me keep my budget

About this Peter guy, he's serious business. He has like the world of basses, all modded with Darkstars, Orange Drops, specially wound Lakland pickups. Where the man gets his contacts, I don't know. We're sort of each others posts The man even did a Tractor bass! (Google is your friend)

About the other guys on the picture; Geert en Jack. Both the Blue boy as the FireGlo belong to someone else (Sven). We had this bassmeeting and even did some interesting finds when comparing the 3 Rics.

I'm not sure if 'I got it together', I'm just diving in, head first!

Man, you've had great luck putting this together.

Geert and Jack - I remember the names from the thread on the get-together you guys all had. I believe it was Bert that posted pics in a thread.

Thanks.

[jps]

What's Jim Boyle doing in The Netherlands with a Blue Boy 4003? Does Donna know about this?

[Rickenhands]

What a great story, Edo. Thank you for sharing--I can't wait to see how your Ric looks when you're finished.

Peace.