'66 4005 restoration...how to proceed?

iamthebassman · Post by **iamthebassman** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 4:30 am

A friend has just purchased this 4005, it's in nice shape except that some moron installed P and J pickups at some point. Under the extra white bits are the routs. they're about 1/8" deep with holes thru the top for the wires. Other than that it's fabulous. The headstock face, and back of the neck are very nice looking with the contrasting wood. Checkered binding, and original silver case too.
OK, what next? He would need to have someone do any work done to it. We were thinking of filling in the pickups slots but figured it would show with any kind of clear finish, we thought jetglo but then you lose the contrasting wood.

ken_swearingen · Post by **ken_swearingen** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 6:21 am

send it to mark a in seattle he will know exactly what can and should be done [he is the man]for such a job.

beatlefan · Post by **beatlefan** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 8:39 am

rickcrazy · Post by **rickcrazy** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 11:31 am

That's one beautiful 4005, Ronn. Too bad it has been somewhat butchered. What year is it? Is that a raised-letter truss rod cover, by the way?

wints · Post by **wints** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 12:54 pm

Lovely old 4005 Ronn. Probably a 66/67 with the headstock like that. MA in Seattle would be an option for work, but please don,t refin that great wood. If anyone can do the work and leave the finish as good as it is now, he,s the guy. Don Adamek, the pickguard guy could come up with a guard for that too...And if that doesn,t keep you guys sweet, I,ll be happy to take it off your hands!

jps · Post by **jps** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 3:12 pm

Jetglo is good!

dminer · Post by **dminer** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 10:53 pm

You could ask Mike Dolan if this a project he might take on. He hosts a forum over at the Vintage bass trading Company...does great work and is timely as well. Look closely at the top.. some,(maybe all) of the 4005's had a center piece of maple...ie. a 3 piece top, so maybe, the entire center piece could be replace and then just the top of the bass body re-finished to match the rest of the bass.

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 8:30 am

Looks like a cool project. To keep the mapleglo or any other transparent finish, the wood repair should be nearly undetectable. This can be done by using wood that is very close in grain and color to the original. This is quite difficult but doable. I know a person who uses graining pencils to create very accurate grain patterns to mask this kind of repair. You have to be someting of an artist to pull that off.

iamthebassman · Post by **iamthebassman** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 9:23 am

Sergio, it IS a raised-letter TRC, is that period-correct?

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 9:30 am

In the languge of Sergio's people. Nao. I believe the raised letter TRC began in the early to mid 70's. 60's era instruments had the longer, backpainted plexi TRC's.

iamthebassman · Post by **iamthebassman** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 10:25 am

That's what I thought. While we're talking TRCs, did RIC ever make lefty TRCs with raised letters? Every lefty Ric I have/had has had the plexi type reguardless of year.

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 10:47 am

I would say no only because I have never seen one. Of course that does not mean they don't exist. I would imagine if Rickenbacker had invested in the tooling for a lefty raised letter TRC there would be a few of them out there. Lefties seem to have been a special case with Rickenbacker (and all other makers I presume) All of the lefties Ricks I have seen from the '70s were made in February. Maybe that was a slow month and they had time to reverse the tooling. This does not seem to be the case with the current production. I wonder if CNC tooling helps them make quicker layout changes. Lefthanded guitar players know all too well that there is no lefthand R tailpiece. On the 70's lefties I have seen, the pots are wired to be lefthanded. That is they are at the max postion when turned toward the headstock. The newer lefties seem to the same as the righthand harness except for the mirror image arrangement of the pots. I have only seen one current lefty so I don' know if that is rule or an exception.

rickcrazy · Post by **rickcrazy** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 11:51 am

That's funny. Not many years ago I owned a lefty 4003 made in February 1992 (B5)!
Ronn: it was the size of the TRC on your 4005 that made me decide it was a raised-letter one. Nothing wrong with that, of course, except that your bass is clearly from the late 60s/early 70s, when raised-letter nameplates had not yet been introduced. (Quick quizz for you, guys: exactly when did RIC introduce the raised-letter TRC? Right answer gets one of my bass pickups - I promise!)
Where was I? Ah, yes. What's the date code (the two letters) on the jackplate on your 4005? I assume the plate is original to the bass?

jaymi · Post by **jaymi** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 12:15 pm

Sergio, middle of 75 is when the raised letters were started. I have had a lot of those and the early ones with the carryover plate from the 74s...

rickfan60 · Post by **rickfan60** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 1:02 pm

I believe that is correct. Mid '75 seem right.