Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

The weird thing is that it only takes one catch-screw under the rear of the tail to stop it pulling up. You end up with four screws all up, none of which are seen.

But instead , they just kept adding more screws to the thing, which in my opinion is rather pedestrian and inelegant.

Yep, the split tailpiece on my 71 is still touching wood all across, as it should...

I get why so many of us want them to make that again, but I guess it's too expensive or labor intensive? Is that it? Help me out here...

...is a Ric bass w/o tailpiece lift still vintage? It's supposed to have one, right?

No complaints, however I love to modify my Rics the way I like/need them.
On the other way, RIC company will soon even make some more profit with the tailpiece lift by selling an appropriate replacement to those guys, who don't like drilling!
THAT'S BUSINESS!

Mike, actually the place where the bridge is bent would be stiffer, not weaker. Granted, a stiffer piece of metal is more fragile, but unleess the bridge was extremely bent I don't see it breaking. I've done it in two basses so far, without any adverse effect. I'll try to get pics next time!

"the place where the bridge is bent would be stiffer, not weaker"
I'll take your word for that, luis, though it seems contrary to common sense and everything I've seen in my own limited dealings with metal...but I'm not a scientist, engineer or metallurgist.

When metal is bent and then bent back, my experience is, it wants to crack at that point. At the least, it stretches and won't completely assume it's correct form unless it is heat shrunk.

But what do I know, except the old split tailpiece doesn't lift. I want one for my 4003 and my other 4001.

Quote: "...is a Ric bass w/o tailpiece lift still vintage? It's supposed to have one, right?"

My old 68 4001 had zero tail lift after 33 years of rotosound strings ...

as far as I know the tail lift started with 70s 4001 basses ...

"as far as I know the tail lift started with 70s 4001 basses ..."

Global warming?

hahaha ... no in the early 70 they changed the way the tailpiece was made ... I don't know the specifics but I know there was a change ... from the underneath side they look different and the old ones were stronger ... my old 68 was flatter with 3 screws than any modern tailpiece ...

and actually in the 70s the global warming theory was not yet invented ... the popular theory was they believed there was another ice age coming ... although now the current theory is global climate change ... with that theory they are right whether it warms up or cools down (CYA)

The older pre 73 units were certainly stronger. I have had 2 and neither showed any problems. I did have a 98 4003 with 5 screws and it was starting to lift from pretty early on. It still had the factory strings on it.

I have a virtually unplayed 4003 and it looked like the tailpiece had lifted.

Investigation shows that the tailpiece is quite flat, BUT, the top of the bass is moderately convex towards the rear edge ...

I pulled my 79 out over the weekend and it looks like it's lifted a little.

Sean, that is another proof for Ilan's hypothesis of global warming!

I can hardly wait for 2010!!!

Peter, you got a high res version of that "graph" you can send me?

"Investigation shows that the tailpiece is quite flat, BUT, the top of the bass is moderately convex towards the rear edge ..."

Manuel ... spot on, careful measurements taken on my Jetglo confirm that in fact there is NO tail lift, just a slight contour in the body!