Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

If you stick with a RIC tail piece, I strongly suggest fitting the route with a spacer. The 3 screws that sit under the bridge are usually the culprits here. If you set the tail piece in place without the screws, you will probably notice that the tail piece does not touch the wood right where those three screws go. When the screws are tightened (or overtightened) the tailpiece starts to bend right there. Newer Ricks don't have this problem as often but 70's vintage Ricks can have a gap under the tail piece of nearly 3/16". I use wood to fix this problem but you can use washers too. Just stack a few small washers under the tail piece on the screws until they fit snugly between the wood and tailpiece. BTW this will also improve the sound of the bass. Many older 4001s with weak E strings will simply spring to life just by doing this. I keep a supply of pre-cut maple shims on hand just because this problem is so common. They are planed to 3/16" thickness so I can sand them to fit perfectly. I drill them to accept the screws then apply a little wood glue and drop them in place. The pressure from the tailpiece clamps them as the glue dries.

"BTW this will also improve the sound of the bass."

No tail lift here but I'm going to try the washer trick!

My '80 AG was a real dog in the low end department for years until I did the washer trick. I had several others over the years with varying degrees of disfunction.

Out of curiosity, how quick does the lift happen? As I've mentioned in another thread, put DD Chromes on my C64 about six/seven weeks ago. It has a small but noticeable gap, which appeared right away, but does not seem to be getting any worse. Just seeing these pictures gets me wondering if it will get worse.

I did the washer trick on my 4003 (2004) and noticed the tone improvement and disappearance of most of the (very) small lift I had.

Any pics of this "fix" Ted?

Your putting the washers through the screws between the bridge and body right?

I will post some pics later today. In the meantime, the washers go over the screws, between the body and the tailpiece. They fill the space between the metal and the wood, thereby better supporting the bridge and tailpiece and improving the acoustic coupling.

I gotta try this...

That depends on the amount of slop to be taken out. Each bass is different.

"BTW this will also improve the sound of the bass."

No tail lift here but I'm going to try the washer trick!

Me too!

Wasn't there talk a while back about washers or shims in place of the set screw adjustments on the bridge, too?

The D & G strings on my V63 aren't as lively as I would like. I wonder if this could help.
BTW, I've adjusted the pu's as much as possible.

Ted is right - each bass is different. You can use any size washer just so the screw can go through the hole. In fact, using different sizes will give you different thicknesses to play with. What you don't want is to be too thick and hold the tailpiece up off the body. Ted's idea of using a wood shim (hardwood) is great because you sand to the thickness you need.

Kevin - the bridge fix was drilling out the recesses where the allen height adjustment screws go - you then couple to the wood. I did this and noticed more low end in my sound. BUT... I have had to adjust the bridge up twice since, especially the E string side - I think I'm digging into the wood. I plan to check this. If so, I will put a piece of metal there to let the screw work against. Something to be aware of.

I used the same screw, whereas the gent who proposed this (sorry I forget who) got longer allen screws that had a flat bottom to help avoid digging into the maple. I like the fact the allen screw now doesn't sit up where I kept catching the heel of my hand on them, so used the same one/length.

Definatly going to try that the next time I change strings. (all basses)

Ah, thanks John! I think I'll just go with the washers for now. I get plenty of lows now, and don't want to dig into the wood.

Goofy side note: I noticed a few years back that my '79 4001 had the tailpiece drilled out where the bridge screws normally rest in it so that the screws would rest on the maple. And it had longer height adjustment screws on the bridge. I thought somebody modded it at some point but this bass came to me very un-modded. I mentioned it here on the Forum, and somebody else with a '79 4001 said that his was the same and that he knew of another similar '79.

So can we conclude that somebody at RIC was drilling those holes out on the tailpieces for a little while, or that maybe some dealer was drilling out every 4001 that came through his shop?

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