DavyR wrote:My luthier said that since the fretboard is finished (glossy?) that new frets can not be installed unless you refinish the fretboard...
Any thoughts, etc. Thanks!
I had my '72 4001 refretted by Mike Lull (Bellevue, WA).
It was some years back so I've forgotten the details... I think it involved carefully cutting the varnish with a brand new razor knife before pulling the old frets; pulling them carefully because the fretboard tends to splinter; and hand-shaping each fret before installing it. Very labor-intensive, so $$$. He did an excellent job, and I've never regretted spending the money.
Thanks for the re-fret info, all. I'm in Pittsburgh, PA. My luthier, who is well know here as being the best, says a refinish has to be done to replace the frets. So, he won't do it, otherwise. I'm getting fret buzz and he says it's because of the worn frets.
Wish I could post pics. No iPhone. Pics are on a SD camera card. I talked about this bass here years ago. I'm the second owner and bought it in 1980. It's a single piece neck, thru the body. I replaced the pickguard and added the neck pickup toaster, etc. back in 1980. It was already routed. I just replaced the harness, recently, with a push/pull. I put TIs on it. I just love to play this bass. Light weight. Thin neck. I have a 1973 4001, also, and they are two different basses.
The OTHER problem is the neck to thru the body/neck angle. Too much angle! The bridge is lowered all the way! Not much one can do about this, right? It's playable. I pick a bit harder which adds to the fret buzz. TI flats are low tension, as we know. Very little tension on the rods. They, too, were recently adjusted. I'm a bit reluctant to try higher tension strings. The 'A' of the TI set buzzes the worst, which makes sense since it has lower tension than usual relative to the other strings in this TI set.
DavyR wrote:Thanks for the re-fret info, all. I'm in Pittsburgh, PA. My luthier, who is well know here as being the best, says a refinish has to be done to replace the frets. So, he won't do it, otherwise. I'm getting fret buzz and he says it's because of the worn frets.
The OTHER problem is the neck to thru the body/neck angle. Too much angle! The bridge is lowered all the way! Not much one can do about this, right? It's playable. I pick a bit harder which adds to the fret buzz. TI flats are low tension, as we know. Very little tension on the rods. They, too, were recently adjusted. I'm a bit reluctant to try higher tension strings. The 'A' of the TI set buzzes the worst, which makes sense since it has lower tension than usual relative to the other strings in this TI set.
David, if your bridge is as low as she will go and your relief is minimal and your action is still excessive it sounds like you have a negative neck angle issue. How about a lighter gauge string? There are a few "cheats" that can be used to lower your action but they entail either plaining the bridge bottom or machining the tailpiece well deeper.
Negative neck angle is common on vintage 4001's, unfortunately.
Yes, negative neck angle but not excessively high action. Is negative neck angle even more common in 4000 basses with single piece necks? This 1971 4000 bass has a single piece neck with a factory route for the neck pickup. Thinner neck, and weaker IMO, as compared to the three piece neck of my 1973 4001.
I already have TI strings on it. These are already low tension.
My 'beef' is fret buzz. True flats and/or higher tension strings should improve fret buzz, but then you may add to the negative neck angle. Hence, it really needing a re-fret.
One general way to detect negative neck angle IMO is to observe the distance between the strings and the neck pickup. My strings were alway somewhat further away than most 4001 basses new or old that I have seen over the decades.
If you really want to address the neck angle issue, have the neck pickup route filled with a maple block. There are some threads about that. If your repair guy knows how to do it right, you can probably solve that problem.
Ah, yes. I overlooked that you'd added the neck p/u.
Somewhere there's a thread where someone filled in that route, which was larger than needed, and made a much smaller route that just barely fit the pickup, and it helped with the neck angle.
