Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

here are some shotws of the binding on the neck....

this looks good, correct?

HEY HOW AM I DOING AS THE CRAZY NEWBIE ON THE FORUM!!! hahahhaha sorry bout that, these rics are a dream bass of mine, and I wanna be sure....so that is why all the questions and all the pics and all the posts.....(and I am a little crazy....but not crazy enough to be a drummer or a twanger! hahhahha)


HERE are shots of the body contour....

thoughts?





this curve here is smooth, and about 3/8 to 1/2 inch in width.....

the neck binding looks fine.

the "s" models had some contouring on the front. yours should not have any. sharktooth inlays should generally go along with no contouring.

phlemmy wrote:the neck binding looks fine.

the "s" models had some contouring on the front. yours should not have any. sharktooth inlays should generally go along with no contouring.

so, shark tooth inlays have no contouring front and back?


and, I guess the contouring- although not correct- is somewhat live-able.....

The back is rounded off a bit since it is not bound. The picture above looks normal to me.

I'm with Sean. The back, though it may be a tad oversanded, looks like normal contours. The front bound edge is usually a sharp edge all the way around. The fact there is a spot where it has been sanded through shows the sides had heavier sanding. The one pic showing that breach through to maple also shows uneven sanding along the flats of the side.

This bass is basically solid, the neck looks good, and is not beyond the capabilities of Paul or Dale to bring it back, any color you want. It's up to you whether to return it, keep it and ask for some money back (misrepresented and fairly raw), or keep it (with a rebate) and have it refinished. Lastly, you could elect to just keep it. That's how I see it.

The even more contributing factors are:

does it play well?

does it sound good?

yes, the bass plays ok...actually pretty well


the electonics are a little noisy, and might be the jack or my cord....and the ground wasnt soldered on professionally ..


so, all around actually sounds and plays pretty good


i am gonna put it back together now, and set it up with ernie ball 45-100's...and see how it sounds

and, the bridge was frozen, the adjusters actually

I dabbed some WD40 on there, and they move fine now, and I have the correct allen key in there as well to help coax the vertical adjusters loose

all ok now, so I should be able to set up'

and,
'
I was pointed to the setup manual and maintenance manual by ric...so I am gonna give that a shot
'
the neck might need to be adjusted a little.....but just a tad the dual truss rod should help with that


So I will report back, when it is together ---- where is that dam n soldering iron anyway, ,,,,!!!

she kinda looks purdy over there in the corner, doesn't she!

Black binding on Rickenbackers is often very thin and can look like paint. The black binding on the neck of my Shadow looks very much like paint but the bulges from the fret ends are clearly visible. The white binding on most Ricks is .060 but the black binding is .040 and .020.

Your bass (judging from the black neck binding and the black paint left over at the sides of the neck heel and joint) was originally Jetglo with black binding.

MG/BT was much more commonly seen with black body binding but white neck binding. But JG with black binding would typically have a neck bound in black, too.

Reason: BT was an option, and used a neck from the regular stack. JG with black trim and black binding were made in batches, and the necks were specially bound just for these batches, not taken from the usual stack of necks.

Most of that "contouring" is from a previous owner with a "take no prisoners" approach to removing paint. Done too aggressively, the sanding would round off body contours (sides should be straight up and down, not rounded except on the back, very slightly (1/16"R) most of the way around, and 7/16" R at the narrow waist, with semi-smooth transitions over about an inch either way.

To restore the bass properly, the sides should be re-sanded to re-establish the verticality and sharpness. This can be done in such a way as to be nearly undetectable, with a minimum amount of maple removed and the outside contour blended. Should take no more than 1mm of maple all around. Then the rabbet for the binding should be recut and new black 1/16" ABS binding affixed and scraped. This will give you a sharpish top edge again, like it was when new. Then color is your option--whatever floats your boat.