Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

More fotos.
Note the 4001 raised letter TRC. Yes, it's odd that it has this TRC and not a plexi but you've got to remember this was one of the first v63's and it has a few oddities. The truss rods were the new 4003 style, adjustable at the headstock and the truss rod block was neither the flat steel nor the old style 4001. Mark made me a 4001 truss rod block because he hated the what the one RIC used. Yes, I still have the original block.
The money shot. The bridge will go lower. There is a little bit of relief on the neck and it will go flatter. Not sure I'f I'm going to try to get her flatter. She plays very well. A world apart from where she was prior to Mark's modification. The neck is a very chunky "C" profile. probably one of my stoutest Rickenbacker necks. Lots of figuring grain on the neck as well. it did not show well in the fotos.

Sepp

Wonderful that it was a success! The action shot, at least to my tender old hands, would be way high for my liking.

fran4001 wrote:Wonderful that it was a success! The action shot, at least to my tender old hands, would be way high for my liking.

It's not quite high enough for Percy Jones (truth here, Percy and I discussed this several years ago after I tried to play his bass).

Apparently the same as Jamerson's Precision. I think it was Rainey that said he 'tried' and couldn't coax a note out of it...lol

Nice! Interesting that the neck heel is somewhere between the rounded and square heels.

fran4001 wrote:Wonderful that it was a success! The action shot, at least to my tender old hands, would be way high for my liking.

Fran,

I tweaked the rods a bit last night to take some more relief out. The bridge can go much deeper into the well. I picked up a little fret buzz at the second fret when I play aggressively. I think mark may have cut the nut a put too deep on the E string. He replaced the whooped white Delrin nut with a bakelite one he made. I just may make a new nut of the block of white Delrin I have here.

Oh, and the magnetic shoes that Mark and Lollar said were dead// Nonsense!! After a few days with two magnets from old computer hard drives on them, they are now magnetized and and have been holding a charge for the past 4 days!

Sepp

Excellent! It's a real beauty too.

Congrats on a beautiful bass! I owned a late 80's V63 for a time and am sorry you had to go through so much with your bass. Would love to hear some sound files. It was my original understanding that the magnets on the V63 horshoes were NOT charged and were largely ornamental. I know the original pups had charged horseshoe magnets like Macca's, but was your early V63 designed to have working horseshoe magnets or is this a mod you're trying to do? I'm also curious whether the original design had both a ceramic magnet under the bobbin as well as horseshoe magnets around the pickup. Played Ricks over 30 years and only owned the one horseshoe, but never took it out to examine.

A limited number of the initial V63's, circa 1984, did have functional horsehoes like days of yore.