My '76 4001

[jdean]

Hey guys, Thought I'd share my '76 4001 and get your thoughts and opinions, especially on the most recent set up I just finished after getting the bridge p/u rewound. First a bit of history. Back in the mid/late '80's when my son was in 3rd grade or so, I dropped him off at a friend of his to hang out for the day. When I picked him up later in the day, He came running out all exited about what he and his buddy found in the local dump, So he brings out a seriously beat up Rickenbacker 4001 along with a box of parts. Now I,m all exited especially when I got it home and after a good going over, found that although it had about 5 spray can paint jobs and looked like ****, The bass was extremely solid with a dead straight neck. The box contained all the parts except the bridge p/u. it also had a set of old grover p/u's. I,m a guitarist but a serious Geddy Lee fan, I thought this would be a great project for me and my son to do together. After stripping it ,it blew my mind. I was going to paint it black but when the wood grain showed itself there was no other option but to stain and clear coat the beautiful birds eye maple. I made a call to Rickenbacker ,who was putting out the re-issue V63 at the time so I bought the V63 bridge p/u, wiring harness and all electric's and a set of rick logo tuners, the rest of the parts I had were in unusually good shape. Instead of replacing the pick plate with a re-issue plastic piece of ****, I built my own from aluminum, beveled it, painted it an aged looking white and striped the bevel in black. I,ve had this 4001 for about 32 yrs. now and its still beautiful and plays/sound amazing, A while back the bridge p/u went south on me so I opted to get both p/u's overwound. Wow, Its pretty damn loud now! Anyway ,I've attached a couple pics and my most recent set up specs. I,m an amateur luthier and interested what you guys think of these specs. Like I said, I,m a guitarist for the most part but do enjoy playin bass ,sitting in for local bands occasionally. I,m happy with these specs, just would like others opinions. Here it goes: Oh by the way, I,ve since put the orig rewound high gain neck p/u back in it.

Neck p/u-14.55k
Bridge p/u-13.58

ACTION-E @12th fret-5/64ths
G@ 12th fret-4/64"

Relief at 8th fret -0.05"

first fret-E-0.08
-A-0.10"
-D-0.10
-G-0.10
So does anyone find this acceptable?

[lumgimfong]

I measure my 4003 differently so I cannot say what yours translates out to.

But to compare:
Neck straightness: credit card at 9th fret with 1st fret and last fret depressed
String height: 6/64ths (A and E) and 5/64ths (D and G) at 17th fret - no press
Nut height: just a sliver of daylight over the first fret can be seen between bottom of strings and top of first fret if I press the strings at the third fret
Pickup height : to taste. let the ear decide.

But if it plays comfortably and sounds great and your inner "setup-o-meter" is happy, then that is the only thing that matters. Numbers don't matter.

[Dirk]

Wow that grain looks great for a former painted body.

I dig the 2 layer pickguard too.

Enjoy it.
Dirk

[cheyenne]

That looks great! Can you post some more pics?

[jdean]

DSCN3255.JPG (12.54 KiB) Viewed 1718 times

I'll try to post mre pics ,they arev to big now and I have to resize to fit on this site. The best ones are on my android and I still dont know how to move them to my PC and organize, but I'll try. to me the only thing that could be better would be a checkerboard binding

[clasbas]

Wow. Just...wow.

[jdean]

Thanks Clasblas, I cant believe it came from the factory painted black.

[cjj]

That is some seriously gorgeous grain!


I've heard they sometimes painted incredibly nice grain just to meet orders. One has to wonder how many more of these gems are out there hidden under a layer of paint...

[lumgimfong]

Start sandin’ fellas!!
That looks like burl or sumpin’!

[clasbas]

Start sandin’ fellas!!
That looks like burl or sumpin’!