Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Be careful when addressing apparent flaws in the original design. Granted, they are not perfect. I once had a conversation with JH about those old rods and believe it or not, there are good reasons for them being the way they are. If you significantly alter the way they load you could seriously damage your bass. Given the fragile nature of the 4001 neck, you may want to run your ideas by him before experimenting too much as he really does know what will and won't work. Just a suggestion.

Question: Should the rods be straight or have the bow as in the pic above? When I re-installed my rods with a bow in them like in the above example, it did little to straighten the neck...when I STRAIGHTENED out the rods as best as I could and THEN re-installed them, the bow in my neck dissappeared... and, I ended up with a nice flat neck! Whether that's how they're supposed to work or not, I don't know, but those were my results.

David...thanks for the intel....
Hey John...
I measured the rods...
You would start out with 3/8" round rod...even though I measured my rods to be .390", I guess there is a +/- process variation of the rod...
Then put it in a milling machine to put a flat on the top and bottom of rod...I measured .125" from flat top to flat bottom,...this varied slightly, but that seemed about average...
The side of the rod that is threaded was 24" long and the other folded side was a pinch over 23" ..I am going by memory since it is written down at home....
I don't see the original design is flawed, since it was designed for the strings that were used back in the day... I only suggested a steel with a tad bit more carbon for a tiny bit more stiffness wouldn't hurt... I believe JH once mentioned that changing the type of steel can change the resonance, which is understandable...

Chris

I am working with round rod squeezed down to flat rod similar to the original material. I have access to a big machine with two adjustable steel rollers. It is kinda like making pasta only out of steel.

Yummy! Steel pasta! Can we have some ball bearings and grease sauce on the side?

Does KitchenAid make an adapter for their mixer to do that?

I brought the rods into work so i can re-tap the 10-32 threads and make them clean...the threads were mangled by who-ever previously owned the bass..
My next dilema is to replace the aluminum seperator... The one I have is distorted and the nuts were dug in atleast half way into the aluminum... This may explain why the neck always lost adjustment...
Is there anyone here who makes this piece???
Does the nes 4003 bass use such a plate?? If so, can I use the new one??

Chris

http://www.rickenbacker.com/pdfs/trussrods.pdf

The 4003 rods are called out on that print. The boutique does not sell parts, only the whole assy. I do not know the part number for the 4001 aluminium seperator. Besides, without seperate parts available, it is a moot point.

The neck lost adjustment because the rods twisted or buckled. The 4003 plate is much thinner so not much use. The rods work by one pulling & one pushing against the block. If the top rod buckles ir twists this effect fails pushing the block over & ends over into the back of the neck. Further tightening makes things worse. The rods must be straight to start with to get the push pull action right. After fitting push the neck into place by hand then snug up the nuts. Don't try to move the neck by tightening the nuts, this causes the buckling.
There is no need to make new rods or cut different size threads. Make a copy of the block out if mild steel but slightly thicker.
There's lots of advice here but take it from a guy who has done this to 2x 64 4001S, you have everything you need except for a 10/32 die and a new block.

The old style bearing plate is much thicker than the new one. That is because they serve slightly different purposes. The old one MUST be soft enough to let the adjusting nuts dig in to prevent them rattling loose. Also, the short ends of the rods have to dig in to prevent too much expansion at the nut. The new style bearing plate provides an anchor for the adjusting nuts and distributes the compressive force of the rods over a wider area.

In a private email from JH, I was made aware the current truss nuts (06101) and spacer (06119) are available on the RIC Boutique under the Miscellaneous section. Just wanting to be accurate.

http://www.rickenbacker.com/cart.asp?viewitem=06101&category=viewitem&buffer_category=Miscellaneous
http://www.rickenbacker.com/cart.asp?viewitem=06119&category=viewitem&buffer_category=Miscellaneous