Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

No, it is not necessary to remove them most of the time.

"Do you really need to go through all of that? I'm not sure how bad the twist really is, but what about taking to a guitar shop that has humidified air? I've seen slight neck twists on a 360V64/12 straighten out with this simple solution. Just asking. You guys seem to know more about this than I do."

I have not yet decided to pull out the truss rods. I don't really want to unless I have reason to do so.

The humidity issue is an interesting one... and I do have electrical heating, and we are just exiting a dry winter, but then this twist has been apparent for some time (since I got it almost a year ago). Also, I have a 40 gallon aquarium in the same room that I keep my rics so I doubt dryness is an issue.

next question... I am trying and pull out the truss rods but they don't seem to want to budge. I am only using my hands... no hammers or the like.

never mind... pulled them out (tough at first). All looks fine and they are back in with no issues (I decided to reverse them however).

The neck still had the slight twist without the rods. No big surprise.

I feel that I have bonded with the bass... I have seen it inside and out now.

well... all is well that ends well.

Put back on my strings (breaking a week old 40 at the tuner peg in the process... oops, thin strings don't like to be taken off and put back on) and re-tuned, tweaked the rods.

Looking down the neck it was the same old same old pretty much. Little more rod tweaking and low and behold I have to work hard to cause buzzing after the 12th with REALLY low action. I look down the neck again and the dip is basically gone. (still a twist though)

Maybe reversing the rods did something. Maybe it was the 45 that I replaced the 40 with. Maybe I found a sweet spot in tweaking the rods. Either way I am happy as a pig in $hit!!!

thanks again (p.s. Kevin, I guess I won't be sending you my 72' after all)

I'll go to bed hoping the neck stays stable over night.

John-

Are you sure that the neck is twisted? The new nuts that RIC uses are more of a block than the nuts they used in the 70's. For the first few months that I owned it, I thought that my '98 V63 had a twist when I looked down the neck from the headstock side. At the time my only other Ricks to compare it to were '70's 4001's. It wasn't until I got my '94 4003S and my 2003 4001C64S(both with perfect necks) that I realized it was the "blocky" nut messin' with my mind and my '98 V63 never had a twist to begin with. All three look just like the above photo of your 4003.

Look again from the bridge side as well as the headstock side and try to ignore the nut.

Hope it has remained stable John. Good on you to pull the rods and get to know your bass a little better. The only work that I have farmed out was getting my upright fingerboard re-planed .

That 72 should be gigged and played.

yeah, same thing looking from the body up the neck. I can even see it in the frets. Unless the neck was designed with that neck shape... I am not going cross-eyed.

Morrow, the 72's gigged all the time (it sees equal time with the 96'). Also, it is the 96 with the neck issue, not the 72'.

I am happy to say the neck on the 96 still looks straight and plays great. It just needed the right amount of tweaking.

Well I'm home from work now, have checked my basses and have more accurate information: Both my '98 V63 and my '03 C64S have (original) nuts that are no less than 1/16 of an inch higher on the E side than the G side. This makes the neck appear to have a twist when you sight it from the headstock side. My '94, 80's and 70's Ricks all have nuts that are the same height on the E side as the G side. Looking at your photos again I see that your nut appears to be the same height on both sides, and that your neck does indeed have a twist.

Oh well...wishfull thinking I guess. It was worth a shot!

Glad to hear that your tweaking got it to play well. Hopefully the twist won't be a problem.

The twist does not seem to have any effect al all really. It was more the dip around the 14th that was causing issues. And that is all but gone now. Life is good.

Thanks all!!!