Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

johnallg wrote:The reason the rod rattles is because it is loose in the channel. Snug the nut enough to make tension, but if the neck began where you wanted it, don't tighten any more. That should stop the rattle.

Thanks for the advice, but I've owned and worked on my own basses for nearly 30 years (except for a Rick, on which I did the following recent adjustments based on the good recommendations from Joey and Cassius - thanks for your help, even if it didn't quite solve the problem). I have tweaked both rods in both directions (I'm a scientist; so experimentally one, then the other, then both, and viewed each response). My first thought was exactly what you posted, but no. Two 1/8th turns (tightening) to both rods over two days, and I lost my fifth "fret" harmonics. Too tight; but still the same buzz. If anything, maybe they were too tight as a result; loosened them up a bit one at a time over 4 days. Neck didn't change too much; while still basically dead flat, the same issues present themselves (but the harmonics came back nicely). Buzzes still there, but changed double stop positions somewhat (I only get truss buzzes on certain double stops).

I took the whole thing apart last weekend to remove the rods and couldn't budge them (I wanted to add the heat shrink 3/16" tubing John Hall recommends as being the latest on their bass trusses). Residual paint in the body/neck pickup cavity concerns me about using the nut driver to move them into the body cavity.

Sorry to be a bit obtuse; I know what I'm doing in general, having 5 fretless basses and an upright that I have worked on regularly, but this is a bugger.

Getting the rods out is generally pretty easy but if the tape is bunched up it could be a little more difficult. More than once I have had to use a piece of rod stock to push sticky ones out. I always keep a length of 5/32" steel on hand for this reason. A few taps with a hammer usually does it.

Thanks for posting this thread. I've had a Blackstar for 10 years and I've never been happy with it. Armed with what I've learned here, I adjusted it - something I was always loath to do. I had a hard time getting the tool over the adjustment nuts, but I'll revisit that another time. Now the neck is straight as a laser beam and it plays beautifully. I almost like it more than my 76 4001.

Excellent! I am glad it was helpful to you. Oh, and welcome to the forum! There are a number of Blackstar owners here. It is always nice to have another. Mine is #104. Please post some pics, we would love to see them.

Welcome to the forum, Ron. Nice to see that Ted's anatomy lessons helped you with your Blackstar.

Thanks. I took some pics of the Blackstar and my walnut '76 4001 (for another thread) but I am baffled how to post them in this message. The FAQs were no help to this technophobe. Can anyone put it in basic english?

Ron, they need to be no larger than 800 x 600 AND also 350k in size (IIRC). Use a free program to resize then upload when posting by using the Upload Attachment tab below the text box you type in. From there it is pretty intuitive. For a freebie resize program try PIXresizer: http://bluefive.pair.com/

Thanks John. Hopefully here's a few pics of my Blackstar # 96 of 200. It was beat up when I bought it and it still has a few too many dings, but it shines up well and sounds great!