Trussrod question

[Cobrabass]

Hi guys

I am new to this forum, and turn to you guys for some help and god advice.
I have had Rickys before but I am now looking to refurnish a 4001 1980s mod for a friend, with the free lend agreement on the other side. The bass is looking good, and everything sounds and looks splendid and as it should. Apart from the neck.
The neck needs tightning up, to improve playability and intonation. But when I removed the trussrod-cover I saw that one of the bolts/rods has been damadged and bent.
See inclosed picture. The luthier says +2000 dollars woorth of repair, everything off and back on again. But I first want to turn to you guys to see if there is an easier way to solve this.
My question is/
1. Is it possible to get it working again, and straighning the bolt/rod without taking of the fretboard and putting in a new trussrod, in case how would you preseed.
2. Any advice on how I can fix it without going to a luthier?

My own take on it would be to take off the strings, slacken the trussrod bolts till they dont have tension, then slightly bend the rod in place, and the tighten the bolts/ rods slowly again, and see ut it holds without bending. Do ypu think this could work?

So happy if ypu can help me out here

Greetings from Norway

Lars Erik

[ram]

Welcome to the forum. The fret board shouldn't need to be removed. I believe there are a couple stories (in the forum) concerning this. I think the nut can be bent back in most cases without removing the rod which can be removed without removing the fret board. you need to clam it to keep undue stress from popping it off. I'm sure others with more experience and technical knowhow will give specifics. good luck with the project... keep us posted with what's going on with it!

[Dirk]

The rod on the right looks fine, the left rod will need to be rebent or straightened.
Removal makes it much easier to fix it correctly. But I remember reading a post here about ways to do it in place.

The rods shouldn't be glued in the channel, and as ram mentions, keeping things clamped down helps a lot.

I can't tell if those are the vintage bent rods or not, if they are then there's a whole procedure to adjust the neck properly.
That should be searchable here too.

If you are handy and mechanical, it's possible to DIY.
That 2k quote is no doubt removing the fingerboard, which shouldn't be needed.

Dirk

[jps]

I can't tell if those are the vintage bent rods or not, if they are then there's a whole procedure to adjust the neck properly.

Those are the old style hair-pin rods. Relatively easy to pull out of the neck and repair.

[Dirk]

Excellent yeah old style should be easier to bend back as well.

So clamp it down, remove both nuts and the plate.
Pull out the left side bent rod.

There should be threads discussing that here too if you have any struggle.
I've never had to really fight with one to get it out, as long as it hasn't been glued or molested.

You could take out both to help compare when you're bending the other one into the same shape.

Good luck,
Dirk

[lumgimfong]

By “clamping” I think they mean putting a clamp, (similar to how a capo clamps on a neck, but use a real wood clamp, especially over frets 1-5) to keep the fingerboard from popping off the neck when you try to remove/adjust/bend the rod.
I have read of people who broke their rods and bought new rods from Ric and just replaced them and did not need to remove the fingerboard. Just slid them out and slid the new ones in. There are also YouTube videos on how to replace rods. Sometimes they get hung up during the removal if they were wrapped with tape along their length from factory to dampen rattling.

[cheyenne]

What Jeff said.

Worst case scenario, if the rod feels weak when you attempt to bend it back, you can even cut off the bad threaded part and recut the threads. It wont hurt a thing.

[lumgimfong]

trussed replacement tutorial on a Ric bass with bent rod end like yours:


https://youtu.be/yW-VyWsEn08

[Cobrabass]

Fantastic guys.
Thank you so much for all the good advice.
I will keep you posted on the progress.
All the best
Lars Erik

[Cobrabass]

Hi again guys

Your advice was Just perfect and things went as planned.
Send you can see the bolt and Rod is much straighter and more accessable now.
But another question.
I am tightening down the neck now, and applying presdure to the neck, and tightening the bolts.
But they sort of seem to slip off and the toghtninh does'nt seem to move the neck.

Should they be bolted at the pickup side sp they dont slide.
Or should i Just continue holding down the neck and tightening the neck until it straigthns out

[ram]

Hi Lars, Not sure I understand the problem here. First, the neck should positioned (bent/flexed) into the desired location, then the nuts tightened to that. Don't try to use the nuts to move the neck. Rickenbacker says the necks are supposed to be as flat as possible. The adjustments should be made with the strings in tune. Most folks check the flatness while in the playing position. I use a metal straightedge, some use the strings - I don't bend like I used to to be able to do that. I'm not sure what it is that you are describing as 'slipping off',

[Cobrabass]

I bolted the body down with clamp's, and first gemtøy pulled the head down and tighted the nuts.(with the strings in tune)
When i releave the pressure the neck goes back into an off position, and is no longer as straight as I wanted.
It seems like the trussrods are slipping/not being able to hold the pressure of the strings, and sliding up the neck.

I have tightened the nuts now, quite a few times. And will leave it for some time and see what happens and if i gave to go back to it.

My question is. Is this normal?
Will the rods slip?
Shall I just continuing tightning?

Thank again folks!

[nov_1981]

Hello Lars,
It sounds like the problem is that your rods are not being held in place by the aluminum block after bending the neck to desired position. Try using a metal file on the beveled side of the hair pin rods to sharpen the edge. This will help to hold them snug against the block. Also helps to remove the rods and give them a nice bend. Losen the nuts, bend the neck to desired position, make sure the beveled edge of the rods are snug against the block then tighten the nuts only as much as needed to hold the block in place.

Hope this helps
Rob

[Dirk]

Hey Lars,
it is possible the threads have been stripped, did they look in good shape when you removed the rod?
The rods only hold the neck in place, they do not work like a normal dual action truss rod.

And yes it is normal to require over compensation to get it where you want it.
So clamp the headstock down farther than you need it to be straight, tighten the nuts and check.
You are working on a delicate balance of tension on the neck.
I've never once gotten it right on the first try.

And congrats on getting that rod straightened.

[maxwell]

(In all innocence...) It looks like the ends of the rods are awfully "long" (exposed beyond the nuts), especially the left one. Could it be possible that at least one of these nuts has reached the end of the threaded portion of the rod(s)? If so, all the cranking in the world will not achieve any further adjustment. Perhaps the rods need some thread extension ("tap & die" sort of work), and then obvious over-extended ends trimmed off. (You guys know how much I know about old style rods... nothing.)

PS:

Here's a nice account of a repair, related to what I mentioned. The author trims off a couple of inches and then re-threads that end; unfortunately he does not mention anything about adjusting the length of the unthreaded end of the counter-balancing portion of the rod.

https://www.strangeguitarworks.com/rick ... od-repair/

Here's a two-part series where a guy replaces both rods (an option here?). Not bad, but he purposely bent the rods after reinsertion and assembly with a screwdriver under the nuts; gave me the willies.

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTe5eDnL_Rc

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrWEkraqx08

PPS: Actually, here's the web page I was looking for, something I ran across a while ago when this topic/old style truss rods were being discussed (and I had egg on my face). I found it educational. Looking at the diagram of the rod, you can see that it is critical to have the rod precisely oriented when installed (to maximally apply pressure to the fretboard), and as mentioned above, a sharp beveled edge on that counter-balancing/shorter portion is desirable to also prevent the rod from turning/spinning out of alignment when the nut is being tightened (well, so it seems so to me). (An aside: I bought a used combo amp and found the second input to be inoperative/dead. Rats! So I took a look inside and saw that a wire soldered to the input jack had broken with the jack having rotated out of position [causing the break]. The jack was installed with a lock washer, but it did not do its job when someone tightened up the jack retaining nut on the control panel face. All I had to do is rotate the jack back into position, really tighten it while holding it firm at the panel rear, and re-solder the wire connection.)

https://hazeguitars.com/blog/rickenback ... adjustment