RANDY! Here's your broken headstock!!!!!

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 1:41 pm

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4713&item=3756105936&rd=1

Exactly what you were looking for....AND its a killer old style bass to boot!!!

loendmaestro · Post by **loendmaestro** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:19 pm

that makes me want to cry...

docbass · Post by **docbass** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:22 pm

Wow, I think it has some possiblities. I like that color!

learning_curve · Post by **learning_curve** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:41 pm

Steve Thanks for the heads up dude!

you guy's are like professional ebay Ricenbacker stalkers!

When I saw it all I could think of was movie lines to quote

"Back home I got me a taxy-dermy man! He's gonna have a harte-tack when he see's what I brung-im!"

A Man's gotta know his limitations!

Get yourself some nice dresses and get a Facial............... and hire yourself a decorator. Cuzz....... DAM!

OK I like the body, but the neck, (like one of you guy's predicted), is broken in a bad spot!
I just don't think I am good enough for this one?

I need some opinions from this bunch of professional and practicing luthiers. So far I have not found out what the actual pigment coat is on a Rickenbacker? so I am starting from ZERO here.

Can anyone tell me if I can get a 4003 neck from somewhere? or do I have to wait for another organ doner to show up on the bay?

If I find a 4003 neck is it posssible to attach it to this 4001 body without the help of NASA!
( I am being sarcastic I know it can be done I am just wondering if it has been done by someone here I guess and how hard it is?)

Also am I correct in assuming this 4001 neck is not going to be able to handle 8 strings. I have some fantastic industrial epoxies but I'm just figuring by the time I remove the fret board and replace it. And find the truss rods are broken too, I might just be better off buying a new neck

What think you?

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 5:17 pm

I would think it is going to be VERY difficult, either way you do it. Since Rics are neck-thru, its going to be hard to find a replacement neck. One thought I had was to do what Ted is doing, getting a Warmoth blank headstock neck, making the headstock into the potatohead shape, and then putting the Ric body wings onto it.

I know my Hamer neck is very strong to hold 12 strings, and I dont know about this one holding 8, much less 4. BUT, you said you were looking for a broken headstock, and there it is!

And it shouldnt go for a lot.

It does make me want to cry, though, a '73 AzureGlo with checkered binding, I think thats the first checkered Azure I have seen!

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 5:36 pm

That neck is probably perfectly repairable. Of course it would be easier if the first repair was attempted by someone with more than a single digit IQ. Tell me that I am not seeing screw holes in the first fret right through the fingerboard!! Why do so many of the Azureglo's find their ways into the hands of numbskulls?

learning_curve · Post by **learning_curve** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 5:36 pm

I sure appreciate the heads up Steve. I will go through some Teds previous posts. And I may have a question or two if you don't mind? Ted?

I know what I have done with old furniture restoration/rebuilds. And I am pretty sure I can get the old neck out of that body, with no damage to the rest of it. I will most likly have to tear this down to the bones anyway? Lets say for shits & Giggles I can get the neck removed at least past the bass pickup area. Can I get a 4003 neck so I can modify it to fit the space I have made in that area? Seems quite possible. I do not know where to get a neck? Will Rickenbacer sell me one? I can't seem to get much from the factory? Although I have only been looking for S-5 parts and truss rod covers? Thanks

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 5:50 pm

The neck does not have to come out. The damage can be repaired in place.

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 6:10 pm

Ted, if anyone can do it, you can.

Talk about a challenge....
Randy, I dont think Ric sells necks, and for that matter, you would have to make it a bolt-on for something like that to work.
Those are not easy to find, either.

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 6:49 pm

I have a project in house right now that is going to be really tough. It is a '67 4005 with lots of problems but well worth restoration. The azureglo would be a great challenge though.

learning_curve · Post by **learning_curve** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 6:50 pm

I kind of figure I can epoxy this, but whats it worth? I still need to fix the neck binding the fret board needs repair and I am usure if the rods are good or if the neck is straight to begin with? Odd's aren't good that the necks straight at all anymore, it's got rust forming on the chrome. This things been in a cellar or used as a Mailbox?

I am wondering if this neck on it's best day could hold up to 8 strings?

I don't want to task anyone here to give me the step by step procedure.
I am wondering if after I Strip it down, repair the neck, repair the bindings and the fret board, pray the neck is not warped past what I can sand out or adjust with the rods(if their good?), fill any blemishes, cut the headstock to lenghten this for a potato top, shape this added piece, refinish this completely, replace checkerboard binding, buy tuners, pickup's and most likly new pots, cut a new nut, string this with 8 strings and five more things I have missed?
Will a 4001 hold up to this conversion?

I have a feeling I will not get this anyway there are a lot of luthiers and nut's like me who want to try and fix this? It just aint worth that much to me in this shape? Too bad it wasn't at a local store in this condition. I'll bet I could get this for $50.

You guy's are the experts I sure respect your experience here. I am looking at this and saying to myself It would be fantastic to remove the neck-through wood right down the center of the body to about half way and replace it with another 4003 Ric neck. But If I can't buy one I will have to find one like you used Ted, and go from there?
Is my thinking all wrong? can that neck hold up to 8 strings and an extended headstock?

And do only Numbskulls buy Azurglo's or can we buy other Ric's too?

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 6:57 pm

I would think a 4003 neck would be more suited to an 8-string than this one....Anything with a repair joint will be weaker than a neck that is in one piece. It's probably worth a few hundred just in parts, with a toaster and original checkered binding, might be able to totally strip it if someone had a 4001 to restore.

I'm no expert, I'm just a bass player. I will gladly defer to Ted or Dane or others who have the guts to start sanding and drilling one of these....I just can't bring myself to do it. Let's just say if you undertake it, it's going to be a LOT of work.

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 6:59 pm

Ted, please share more on the '67 4005 when you feel it is ready. Sounds like you are up to your boots in it...between that and the 4001 restoration, there's some really good stuff going on over there!

learning_curve · Post by **learning_curve** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:10 pm

Yeah Steve I'm just a Bass player that likes to tinker. I sure don't want to ruin a restorable 4001 certainly not my intension. Sure would be great to see this one come back to life as a 4001. I just thought I could buy a neck? And fit it well enough that you'd never know.

With my luthier experience I'd most likly be better off buying a used 4003 and going for it, and skip this nightmare.

It's out of my league. But you know how I love those Azureglo's!

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:18 pm

I love azureglo too. So many of them have suffered needlessly. Considering how few there are, a disproportionate number have been trashed beyond reasonable use.