Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Very nice work Ted. I enjoyed the story as well as the photo's.

Well done, and thanks for the insight on the repair.

I am overwhelmed at how nice this bass, my only Ric, now plays, sounds, and looks. Ted sweated all the details to make this bass as perfect as can be, along with Dale on the finishing end. I even have the vintage tone cap in there now! The playability went from what seemed like a baseball bat, not much fun to play, to a smooth as silk, plays like butter fast comfortable neck. Wow! The walnut wings are cut so beautifully with true craftsmanship and precision, and the color and grain are the perfect compliment to the rest of the bass. Dale's finish is factory beautiful, and silky smooth. I could not be happier, because this bass is now what I had always wished it would be. I'm extremely happy with my choice of Ted and Dale to do the work, because they truly treated my instrument as if it were their own. Thank you Ted, and thanks for relating the story so well.

hope the "seller" got some negative feedback...

WOW.

I saw that bass a couple of days ago, and thought it was seriously screwed.. - I'll remember you guys if I ever have a problem with mine...

Nice work Ted!

It great to know that no matter what the problem, a guitar or bass can be brought back to (near) perfect condition. Thanks for sharing.

Amazing work Gentlemen, That sure is one handsome bass.

"hope the "seller" got some negative feedback..."

Nope, until the truss rod broke, I wasn't aware that there was a serious problem. Much of the fault was mine. I should have ask questions about the one rod protruding so much more than the other long ago. Perhaps using 40-90 strings and accepting med-high relief would have saved the rod also. I just kept trying to get it right over a two years time or so with med gauge strings.

Nice work Ted (as usual)!

Ted and Dale... The dynamic duo!! As usual, fantastic advice and superior workmanship.
Ted offered me some good advice when my Monty Brown Rick trussrod sheared off... Thanks again. Always a pleasure!

I have seen master luthiers restore shattered instruments so well that the repair was undetectable afterwards. I am in awe of people like that. They are orders of magnitude beyond me. What I did here was really just basic nuts and bolts repair work, certainly not master work. It does show though that unplayable instruments are not necessarily dead. There are probably lots of instruments with issues like this that are stuffed into closets and under beds - given up for dead. Repairability is the true beauty of a well made instrument.

Ted, you may not consider yourself a master luthier, but you spin a mean tale! I really enjoy these repair pictorial writeups. Kudos to all for a beautiful project and a pleasing outcome.

Oh, can you email me the wallpaper?! Someday my MG will have walnut wings.

Thanks for the kind words John. Sure, I can send you a copy.

One thing I left out was that the bass came to Jack with a toaster. Part of the work was to replace it with a current issue high gain. All Jack knew going in was that his bass did not sound the way he expected it to sound. What he was not getting from his bass was certainly a function of the wacky neck and not the pickups. The toaster probably would have been OK long term but the high gain really is so much hotter sounding. Someone here a few years ago said that part of the Rick bass sound ala Squire and Lee is a certain amount of fret noise. I guess that is absolutely true.

Hey Jack, how about a few shots of your born again beauty!

Ho . . . ly . . . **** . . .

If I ever have a problem with my bass, Ted, you will be the VERY FIRST person I contact. That is freaking amazing . . . many congratulations to you for fixing it, and to Jack for getting such a great bass in the end. Wow.

It's interesting Ted that you mentioned the toaster. I had been wondering how the toaster would have sounded on the corrected bass. It's tough to decide which one is best without some really good A/B comparisons to listen to. I did not care for the sound of the toaster on the uncorrected bass. If it had sounded the same on the corrected bass, I would have been disappointed that I didn't ask you to put in the hot high gain. I'm not comfortable doing this work on my own, so it was now or possibly never. At this point, I'm thinking that the difference in sound between the high gain and toaster is a subtle one. The majority of my playing is through some decent headphones, mixer, and my PodXT. There is a subtle difference in the three pickup settings through the headphones, and more tonal variety if I play with the volume and tone pots. More than enough good sounds for me. I'll find out just how the high gain roars if and when I ever play out again. The sound I get from my amps in my living room is awful. As for pics, I'm trying to think of a good background for them. I'll try to post some soon.

The toaster would have been fine. Not quite as crisp and loud as the high gain but fine just the same. That bass has tons of balls. Even through my little 75 watt Laney it spoke with authority.


Some day many years from now on some online forum, Rick bass collectors will be trying to figure out why a 2002 4003 has walnut wings. Was it a prototype? Custom order? Experiment? It can't be a mod because the original finish is still intact. Of course a sharp eye would catch the fact that the frets overlap the binding. Or would that just deepen the mystery?