1965 4001 needs a bit of TLC

[Kopfjaeger]

I'd like to thank the following forum members for their assistance in making this project the successes it is. With any one of them, this project would have been doomed!

Sean (Xsubs) raised lip bobbin
Jeff (Colonel Sanders) C64 tuners and ferrules
Tony Dudzik (Pickguardian) perfect pickguard and tug bar!
Chris Clayton (PotR) Screws, springs, grommets
Dane Wilder (aceonbass) electronics wizard!! Rebuilt the entire harness and brought it back to stock spec!!
Mark Walker (Walker) Turned Sean's 6 pole raised lip bobbin into a 4 pole bobbin. Cut the bobbin down to proper height and re-wound it. Provided a ton of fotos of vintage basses to answer the two tons of questions I fired at him!! Mark, buddy, I owe a beer or three for all the questions I fired at you via Facebook!!

I want to thank everyone that provided opinions, suggestions, and motivation to do this right! it certainly worked out better than I could have imagined!!

Thanks again!!

Sepp

[collin]

Fantastic work, Sepp, it looks killer, you really brought this bass back in great shape. Glad to see an instrument like that in good hands.

[walker]

Absolutely, Sepp! Glad to help out. You wasted no time in turning this baby around! Nice job!

[Kopfjaeger]

That J-B Weld worked really good. SOMEBODY really filed those slots deep in the past!

Kudos for the rescue.

John,

Oh yeah!! The E saddle was nearly cut in two!! I'm really not sure how it did not split in half. Too early to tell if the JB weld fix is a long term success.

Sepp

[s4001]

Awesome rescue. Now it's a playa!

[xsubs]

Glad I could help Sepp... the bass turned out great.
Cheers
Sean

[leftybass]

Absolutely fabulous...!!

[walker]

I like your profile photo, Sean. I also use a Hiwatt cab for my bass.

[Kopfjaeger]

Day 3 with strings on and my fretting out issue has not gotten any better. I ran the scenario past Larry Davis and he suggested I take a closer look at the frets. The neck is pretty damn straight and there is zero tension on either of the truss rod nuts. I need to set the rods in this position to prevent the neck from taking the strain alone, without any assistance from the rods. I'll do that tomorrow.

I took a 6 inch straight edge and checked the frets at the locations where I was having issues. Yup, I have a few high frets. The worst is the fret between the 15th & 16th fret. It is lifted up at the G string edge and I can see a small portion of the tail. i can feel it with my thumbnail at the binding. The other location is between the 9th and 10th fret on the E string side. This is slight but I can feel a lift there as well.

The bass is quite playable. I ran through 3/4 of the set list and it works pretty well despite the high frets in these locations. Up to the 7th fret is fine on the E & A. 8 buzzes on both E & A but 9-20 is all good. D has no issues. 14 on the G is un-usable due to completely fretting out. 15 through 20 is all good.

Tone? MONSTER!! I'll have to put a You Tube sound bite together. Very treble heavy Rickenbacker goodness going on here!! Very happy and Oh so damn comfortable to play!! I may try one gauge thicker strings to load the neck a bit more. We'll see. For now I'll keep it where it's at.

Sepp

[walker]

How high is your action set?

[Colonel Sanders]

I may try one gauge thicker strings to load the neck a bit more. We'll see. For now I'll keep it where it's at.

Sepp

Thanks for speaking out loud about the fact that vintage Rickenbacker can be stringed with something else than low tension spaghetti noodles!

[leftybass]

Have you weighed it yet..?

[Kopfjaeger]

Mark,

action is at 7/64. I could raise it slightly but I'm in the ball park with my other basses.

Jeff.
Each string I have on now is pulling approx. 37 lbs of tension. Actually between 35 and 37.7. I do want to go as light as possible with her but I'd feel better with a bit more truss rod involvement on the neck.

Leftybass,

I have not weighed her but she is noticeably lighter than my 4002 and my Blackstar.

Sepp

[Colonel Sanders]

Jeff.
Each string I have on now is pulling approx. 37 lbs of tension. Actually between 35 and 37.7. I do want to go as light as possible with her but I'd feel better with a bit more truss rod involvement on the neck.

Sepp

What you would have now is about the tension of a set of Rotosound Swing bass 66 45-105 (standard gage). That is what I personally like.

[leftybass]

Leftybass,

I have not weighed her but she is noticeably lighter than my 4002 and my Blackstar.

Sepp

Yeah, I would expect it to be a fair bit lighter than the 70's-era and up basses....60's basses tend to be much lighter--my '69 is quite light.