Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

aceonbass wrote:Your average guitar tech will just screw it up. Buy the rods and swap 'em out yourself. It's a pretty easy job.

Well, Chris got some bass truss rod assemblies in stock yesterday, so I have decided to order one and give fixing it myself a shot:
http://www.pickofthericks.com/rickenbac ... mbly-bass/

Kopfjaeger wrote:As long as your neck is not FUBAR then it will benefit from the addition of two new rods.

My fear is that the neck is at least slightly messed up. My suspicion is that the previous owner over-tightened the rods in an attempt to correct the severe neck bow. I have no idea what to do for a neck that has a permanent forward bow with no string and rod tension. I will know more when I go pick it back up after work this evening and take another look.

The neck and body wing joints are all tight with no cracking, right? It seems like you had a neck relief issue since you were unable to take the bow out and not a neck angle issue. If after sighting down the neck you still have a forward bow with no string tension, I have the name of a guy in Arizona who does steam pressing on set necks and neck through instruments. He does a ton of delicate rescue type work. Let me know and I'll post his website here.

Sepp

Kopfjaeger wrote:Remove the nuts & push the rod toward the body until the acorn nuts clear the neck. Unscrew the acorn nut and push the rod out toward the headstock.

Today I am finally going to go pick it up and try to replace the truss rods myself (it's been at the tech's shop since soon after I started this thread, and still no call on what it will take to fix it or when it will be done).

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated!

I suppose I should do the above procedure with the strings removed, yes?

Is there anything else I need to know or be aware of when replacing truss rods? I have never done this before, and I really don't want to screw this bass up. But if there isn't much risk of causing any damage, I think it would be fun to try.

Thanks!

I have some very good news and some slightly annoying news.

Get this. I had planned to go pick this bass up today so I could try to replace the rods myself but, coincidentally, I got a call this afternoon saying it is all fixed and ready to go! Yay! When I got there, I looked it over and the neck relief and action look great! Yay again! No neck issues! That is the very good news!

The slightly annoying news is that I get it home only to discover that the tech took it upon himself to remove the stereo jack I installed and replace it with a mono jack.

So, back to the shop she goes!

Why would he do something you didn't ask for?

Yeah, definitely not cool....

jps wrote:Why would he do something you didn't ask for?

Admittedly, I did a hack-job of wiring the stereo jack (but it worked!) He probably thought a previous owner or I had done it and had no idea what he/I was doing, and would help me out by "correcting the mistske."

Well, then this is a good opportunity for you; have him wire the stereo jack back in doing a more professional job about it.

superheavydeathmetal wrote:

jps wrote:Why would he do something you didn't ask for?

Admittedly, I did a hack-job of wiring the stereo jack (but it worked!) He probably thought a previous owner or I had done it and had no idea what he/I was doing, and would help me out by "correcting the mistske."

Just a question, why did you put a stereo jack in it? Do you run two amps or two channels in the same amp?

rictified wrote:Just a question, why did you put a stereo jack in it? Do you run two amps or two channels in the same amp?

Oh, yeah! I was in love with the stereo option until just the other day when I instead experimented with splitting the bridge pickup. I think running stereo sounds better when sitting in front of an amp playing solo, whereas I think splitting the bridge pickup would probably allow more character retained in the mix.

I just ordered a stereo harness from Dane with the push/pull .0047uf cap option to put in my V63. We'll see how it sounds in stereo vs. splitting the bridge pickup.

I run the bridge pickup into a Line 6 POD X3 using the Plexi Jump model, and the neck pickup into a Line 6 Bass POD XT using the Ampeg SVT model. The combination is fantastic!

Don't you need the stereo wiring/jack even to be able to split the bridge pickup, assuming you mean running the bridge pickup to two separate destinations while running the neck pickup separately, too?

Is this the Tuxedo bass??? GLAD to see that you were able to get the problem fixed.

Also, I'm with Jeff----don't you need the stereo jack for the set-up you described?????

jps wrote:Don't you need the stereo wiring/jack even to be able to split the bridge pickup, assuming you mean running the bridge pickup to two separate destinations while running the neck pickup separately, too?

Lefty4003S8 wrote:Is this the Tuxedo bass??? GLAD to see that you were able to get the problem fixed.

Also, I'm with Jeff----don't you need the stereo jack for the set-up you described?????

What I mean is that I can run stereo, meaning one pickup to one Pod, and the other pickup to a separate Pod.

Or, I can split a regular mono signal using a standard mono cable and jack, then get a "y" splitter. Then run the two ends of the splitter into different amps/pedal boards/pre-amps/whatever. For that, I would set the pickup selector switch to the bridge pickup. So, it's the same signal from the bass going through two paths, where as the "Rick-o-Sound" is two separate signals.

If I ever get a Fender Aerodyne Jazz OCR, I will probably put a stereo jack in it as well. I just see no disadvantage.

And yup, that's the tux! When I get it back tomorrow (for good, I hope!) I will add better pictures to the register.
http://www.rickresource.com/register/vi ... ine%3Dtrue

Well, it looks like this saga continues.

I got it back from the shop. All the tech did was a setup, with a little extra work to the rods (he told me he manually straightened the neck then adjusted the rods to keep it there. I didn't bother to tell him that doesn't apply to the 4003, haha).

The relief was great for a while, but now it looks like the neck is starting to develop some excessive relief again.

I will keep my eye on it. If my suspicion is true, I suppose that means the truss rods are shot. I will try my luck at replacing them. I am not sure what the proper procedure is for unscrewing the truss rod nuts, as they are never supposed to be turned more than a quarter turn at a time.

Most people here will recommended against doing this but for ex. I bought a 20 year old J bass last month, neck was like a canoe I don't think it was ever adjusted. The truss rod would adjust maybe an 1/8 to a 1/4 turn then stop, etc. I'd do a quarter turn let it sit for a few hours, day etc then do it again until it stopped again. I have gradually gotten the neck to where it's very straight over the past month. I always pull the neck back and take the tension off of it while I tighten a truss rod which is the same as saying the I manually move the neck first. I got that idea from the manual on my brand new 71 P bass years ago. (the manual suggested putting it on top of a table and having someone push down on the neck and tighten it while holding the body end down at the same time) On a Fender obviously you can buy a new neck but it was either force it or buy a new one, I was a little nervous but it worked. Sometimes it takes a long time and a lot of work to get a long neglected neck to straighten out. You may have a strong neck that just does not want to straighten out, I had a 4001 years ago which was perfectly flat, I had to put a set of heavy gauge strings on it and let it set with the truss rod nuts loosened to even get it to get a little relief in it. I would just keep fooling with it and don't be so afraid of it. If the truss rods were shot it wouldn't straighten out in the first place. Are you using high tension strings?