Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Thanks Dane, this certainly has been a learning experience. I went with the hipshots mainly because Jeff Scott had already put them on the bass when he owned it and the M4's were gone. Some of the good points about the hipshot's are they are the lightest tuner, just adding one was enough to drop the neck down some, I think five M4's would have dropped it even more. Also, the hipshots are reversible which came in handy when I decided that the top row was going to be set up with the keys on the backside of the posts. I prefer to space the strings by their centers because that's where your fingers make contact at first, I want the contact point to be the same between each string. The shimming part of the nut was something I guessed at, I cut the old nut off on the end of the fret board and left a 3mm piece of it still glued in as a "base" for the smaller Carvin nut. Then all I had to do was take what was necessary off the bottom of that, and then tweak the end slots down some.

Nice job you have done on your rick. I wouldn't have the guts to do so. Then again, I have a fivestringer if I need the extra lows. One of my basses is a fivestringer, a Status Graphite Energy 5. It is light in the left hand, and the spacing isn't to wide. I used to have a sixtringerbass, but I sold that one after I got my Status Graphite. Sometimes I'm thiking of a 4005 for the future......just thoughts, but my wife gets nervous.....

Another nice thing about the Hipshot tuners are they have a much higher tuning ratio for greater tuning accuracy. It is also possible to replace the Y keys with cloverleaf for that vintage look if desired. I have a set of those that will eventually find their way onto my 4005WB when I change the strings; that may be a while as the Chromes last a long time.

If I do a black Laredo(more like when), I'm going to use the Hipshot chrome cloverleafs with a chrome bridge and probably retain the hb's for a darker sound. Black and chrome is the same motif on my motorcycle, a Honda VTX 1800.

thats 2 of my favorite 3 Bs ....Bikes , Basses & Babes !