Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

rickenbrother wrote:The rods should have a slight arc to them and they should be inserted with the arc up (frown) with the 4003 or in this case 4001V63 on it's back.

I'd love to see a picture of this. It's hard for me to envision where the apex should be in the overall length or the magnitude...

oler wrote:I've contacted pickofthericks to hear if they ship RIC parts abroad. It seems that the RIC boutique only ships to the US and Canada.

No RIC dealer in North or South America is permitted to ship outside the Americas per RIC's rules.

Thanks again for all your help.

UPDATE:

It might not be a bad idea to mix up some clear epoxy and maple sawdust and fill in the area that's chewed under the thrust plate.

Done. Except for the maple sawdust..



Now I need a new pair of truss rods. And that's where everything comes to an halt.
The norwegian RIC dealer don't have them, and won't order them from RIC

And as said, no american dealer will or can ship overseas.

Any chance one of you could help me out? I mean, order them from RIC and ship them to me? I realize this is much to ask, but I'm kind of desperate here - I would REALLY appreciate it, it hurts to see this wonderful ric in the present condition..

Thanks,
Ole

I will be glad to help. Send me a pm and we can get the ball rolling (You might have to send me a copy of Tommy og Tigern to add to my collection ).

Hey, thanks Todd!

PM'd!

Good man, Todd - beat me to it.

FINAL UPDATE

Looks a lot tidier now:


Clickable.
Before

After


New truss rods and nut installed. Neck seems to respond well.

Thanks to all you guys for your inputs. No way I could have done this job without you and all the info here at RRF. Special thanks to Todd for helping me out with the ric parts!

Ole

Congrats!

Long live the V63!

rickaddict wrote:Congrats!

Long live the V63!

+1!!!

Great looking bass Ole. Glad you got it fixed

I’m working on correcting a similar issue on my V63, and have a set of new rods coming.
How important is the tape around the rods? With the old 4001 style rods there was tape only in-between to prevent the two rods from rattling against each other. Nothing to stop rattling again the wood though, and there was not much rattling between rods and wood anyway. So I was thinking, with the 4003 style rods, would it really be noticeable if I don’t apply any tape or heat shrink tubes?

Hei Geir!

If your new rods are standard ric, they already have the heat shrink tubes from factory.

If you're having some made from steel stock, I'm not sure if it would matter if you taped them or not. You could always try and see what happens.

Good luck sorting things out!

Ah, the factory rods come pre-tubed Factory rods was my plan, but discovered just now that I need to make a new spacer with wider spacing of the holes. The current standard spacer has the holes ~2mm too close to each other, forcing the rods through at an angle. So, I need to order some steel or aluminium to make a new spacer, and can just as well order steel rods also, and make the truss rods myself.

Btw, how did you avoid fill the channels when filling up with epoxy?

Btw, how did you avoid fill the channels when filling up with epoxy?

Good question. I guess there's many ways to get the job done, here's how I did it:

I used rolled sheets of paper to close the channels. Put them some 3 or 4 cm down the channels, just so they sit tight and firm. Some clear tape is good were the paper meets epoxy, but you don't want to use too much, that will just make it harder to get the paper out when the epoxy is cured. When it's cured, just twist those paper tubes out (you don't want to roll those paper tubes too tight, you want to leave room in there to allow them to be "twisted" out).
Hard to see in the pic, but I also used some clear plastic in front (where the nut goes, basically) to keep the epoxy in place while curing. (I used CLEAR plastic just to be able to see how things developed in there.) The epoxy is easy to work with to get a smooth, plane surface, but you'll need som precision files.

Hope this helps,

Ole

YES, that helped. Thanks Ole.
My problem is that the spacer is pulled further into the wood on one rod than the other, so that the spacer doesn't sit straight (not parallel with the nut), and forcing the tip of the rods to bend sideways. I’ll have to think about it some more, if I will fill up with epoxy or some other solution to get it straight.

Go the epoxy route, Geir, it works! Good luck, let us know. Pix would be nice..

Btw, I made this steel copy of the aluminum spacer that was so messed up. The factory ric replacement rods were a little shorter than the originals, and I epoxied a little higher than was actually needed, anyways, I've got this left over piece of spacer steel with no holes. If you want it it's yours, just tell me if you can use it buddy.