Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Donny and Bruce,
You guys make any progress?

Just to update all who helped me out here, It seems mine's gonna be OK, at least so far. Time will tell, but it's straighter than before I did all this stuff.

As far as the rods themselves, they were bent, and I straightened them, but I don't know if that helped anything, and if it did I can't understand why. In my case, I think the key was adding a spacer at the body end of each rod, gave me more adjustment than I had.

Mike, I'm fighting a back bow now (solved my original problem in another thread...4-2-5 neck problem). I'm to the point of likely having to heat the neck to get any relief (or complete straightness)into it. Just wondering if I should do this with strings on or off and rods in or out of the neck.

Darn, Bruce, I'm sorry to hear that. Could you perhaps send her back to the factory? Seems pretty serious, yes?

I'm the third owner and it's a 4-2-5 conversion, so factory work is likely out of the question. Get to learn to do this myself, which can be a good thing.

Well, putting a tiny kink in didn't work, so back to straight again. I had added two washers at the G side and one at the E (body end), but I think I'd have to use a claw-washer this time around, as the E rod had spun; does this make sense?. Won't get it to it now until weekend; if successful, I'll post back.

donny - you've stated you run out of threads - do the body end of the rods go too far into the wood of the neck? Like Ted was talking about Saturday afternoon earlier in this thread?

It looks like I've run out of threads. As stated, I put a couple in on the body end. If thsi doesn't work, I dunno what the issue is. Bear in mind this bass has the G and A companion strings missing and there's still a bit of a curve. I want it straight before I'd let the curve back.

Why exactly are the G and A strings missing? I thought the truss rods would only adjust correctly with full string tension on them.
I would put 'em back on and adjust accordingly....

The A + G octave/companion strings are missing because the bass arrived without them; I've only had the bass about a week or so, private sale and was assured of no probs. I do rely on people's honesty with stuff like this, and I genuinely thought that all the neck need was a little tweak, but apparently not.

Off for another try..........

Just about full tightness again, and it's a bit better, but ideal given the tightness on the nuts. The E side is straight, but there's still that bit of relief in on the G. I'll have to mail order an 8-string and see how we go. Mad, this, for a new-ish bass.

Shda been 'not ideal'.