4001 Truss Rod Help

[deblase4001]

Having fun playing with the new setup.

[Kopfjaeger]

Greg,

Sounds and looks great! Question, the audio is great! What did you use to record it?? Program and gear if you don't mind sharing yor secret.

Sepp

[deblase4001]

Greg,

Sounds and looks great! Question, the audio is great! What did you use to record it?? Program and gear if you don't mind sharing yor secret.

Sepp

Thanks.

I am using an iMac with an Apogee One usb interface. For this video I plugged straight into Garage Band and recorded my bass while playing along to the the song. Simultaneously I was using Quicktime to record video of me playing the audio. I added some compression and EQ to the bass track after recording. I then brought the audio recording and quicktime movie into iMovie and synced them. I muted the audio in the video track so you could hear only the garage band recording.

Oh and congrats on your new Ric acquisition. That's one beautiful bass!

[Kopfjaeger]

Greg,

Thanks for the info and thanks about my latest RAS purchase! I had to have it!!!

Sepp

[cassius987]

I used to love jamming on that song--nice work! Jaco is a bit of a cliche today but man could he groove with the best of 'em, and you grooved right along with him. I love happy endings. I will have to look into Quicktime for recording video, I wasn't too amazed with iMovie but I'm still a newb at that sort of thing.

It sounds like you had the tone rolled off and the bridge pickup soloed... That would be my guess, anyway. The tone reminds me of what I used to aim for in a fusion band with my 4003FL. Burpy, but smooth and still plenty of depth. I love it. Keep up the great work!

[sloop_john_b]

Nice playing!! Gotta re-learn that one.

[sloppy_phil]

Guys, I need to seriously drop a big thank you to everyone who posted info on this thread. Similar to Greg, I have an '84 4003 that had a totally chewed up set of truss rods. Myself and my engineer neighbour were able to follow the info contained herein and bring my baby back to full playing capacity! It took several tries and a bunch of dumb errors (mostly because I hadn't read this thread yet...), but all is great in my little corner of the world. Seriously, thank you guys for being the collective fountain of knowledge that you are! Got a long gig tonight, and this trusty black beauty of mine is gonna see me through it!

Next up, modding this thing for the 1/2" neck p'up spacing.

[johnallg]

Only remove enough wood to JUST make the pickup fit. No more, no less. As little as possible.

[jps]

Also, get a real Rick tailpiece/bridge for the bass!

Welcome, Michael.

[sloppy_phil]

Only remove enough wood to JUST make the pickup fit. No more, no less. As little as possible.

Gotcha; will do! Thanks for the tip

Am I looking at doing damage to the integrity of the neck-through design, or is it something else?

[sloppy_phil]

Also, get a real Rick tailpiece/bridge for the bass!

Welcome, Michael.

Thanks for the welcome! Glad to be a part of the community here.

Although FWIW, I'm pretty sure that it is the standard Ric bridge/tailpiece that I've got there... As far as I can tell, the early '80s 4003s had the standard tailpiece on them. The foam mute is long since disappeared, but that's about all I can see being different...

[jps]

No, that tailpiece/bridge assembly is an AllParts unit not a real Rick unit.

[sloppy_phil]

I'm not necessarily disagreeing, but just wondering what makes you so positive?

Here are shots my mine, a 1999 4003, a 1981 4001, and the allparts piece. To be honest, they all look fairly similar to me, but maybe I'm missing something? The only thing I can see is that the 4001 has more metal next to the mute-moving circular knobs, but the other 4003 looks just like mine in that regard (sorry that my pic isn't as high quality!)


Mine


4003


4001

Allparts
http://www.allparts.com/Rickenbacker-Br ... 16-010.htm

[johnallg]

Only remove enough wood to JUST make the pickup fit. No more, no less. As little as possible.

Gotcha; will do! Thanks for the tip

Am I looking at doing damage to the integrity of the neck-through design, or is it something else?

Yes, weakening the joint by removing too much. If you have the guard off, the pickup loose, you can locate where it will be at the 1/2" position and see/mark where you need to remove wood and measure how deep. Only take just enough - no use weakening it more there.

[johnallg]

I'm not necessarily disagreeing, but just wondering what makes you so positive?

Here are shots my mine, a 1999 4003, a 1981 4001, and the allparts piece. To be honest, they all look fairly similar to me, but maybe I'm missing something? The only thing I can see is that the 4001 has more metal next to the mute-moving circular knobs, but the other 4003 looks just like mine in that regard (sorry that my pic isn't as high quality!)


Mine


4003


4001

Allparts
http://www.allparts.com/Rickenbacker-Br ... 16-010.htm

The three biggest giveaways are the quality of chrome, the size/shape of the holes the strings pass through, and the size/finish of the bridge saddles.