Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I spent an afternoon with the chief builder at Lakland a while back. He says that for whatever reason, when he started putting graphite rods in his necks players started telling him that they did not notice any dead spots. He can't readily explain it but graphite in the necks seems to enhance the resonance. He admits that it could be due to the routed channels and not the rods. What ever the case, many Lakland players are convinced that it works.

Ted, a very basic explanatioin on the resonance and why Grahite, or any other material helps.

Typically a dead spot is caused by a sympathetic sub-harmonic resonance in the neck at a specific location for a given note (frequency), when this happens the vibration in the neck cancels, or weakens the note as played.

Adding grahite or another substance help reduce the potential for these standing sub-harmonic frequencies to occur.

As the sound wave is created by the string and starts to travel through the neck, it passes from one medium to another(ie wood to graphite) the shape of the wave is changed, this is what helps dissapate the energy.

Baic law of physics, as a wave moves from one medium to another the frequency alters. the density of the mediums also affects the propagation and velocity.

Hope this helps ..... !!!

I don't know why but have always thought of dead spots as the function of a standing wave. Do the truss rods serve to reduce the effect?

Yes, the standing wave is what causes the cancelation. The actual mechanics of how it occurs in the neck is more complicated, but the basic mechanics are the same.

The standing wave is built up at a specific physical location, causing the dead spot.

And yes, twin truss rods do help, again by altering the physical path of the potential standing wave.

Many 4001/3s are dead on the G string around the 4th or 5th frets and on the D string between the 7th and 9th frets. It seems that if a 4001/3 has strong dead spots that is where they are. I wonder then, is this a function of the shape or perhaps the way the bodies are routed? Those deep routes for the treble pickups take a lot of material away apparently right where it is needed the most. My 4002 and my 4004C have no such deadness

Could very well be, I think more so is the neck profile, and density of the maple in the neck and body.

Also string type, I don't have any noticable deads on my 4003, oor v63, but there again I always use rounds.

The whole notion of the mechanics of dead spots is facinating.

Another thought occurs ..
I wonder if dead spots are less prominent on 4001's with the skunk stripe !!!

Any ideas on this ??

I have a few dead notes on my '63 4001 and on my '87 Tuxedo - no skunk stripes. My '80 4001 is has only slight deadening on one or two notes. But I have played 70's 4001 that were loaded with dead spots. I am not sure if I see a pattern though. That is an interesting thought about the skunk stripe though.

It has been a while since the last post here so here is an update. The original truss channels have been restored and will be receiving a nice new set of rods. Sorry about the ****** picture.

Whoa! Nice job (as usual) Ted!!

I know it looks a little scary. The walnut down the center replaces the Gibson style truss rod. I dug the rosewood filler out of the original channels using mosly my small chisel. The glue that held the filler in place actually helped in the removal. It let me know when I hit the bottom of the channel.

There are two complications of removing the fingerboard. It is likely that the reason the fingerboard was replaced is that the the neck was cracked at some point. The heat that was use to soften the fingerboard glue also softend the glue on a crack that runs from about the 6th fret on the G side to the center line of the neck and then stops about the 10th fret. The crack was very clean so the repair was more or less invisble. This crack openend up shortly after the fingerboard was removed. Also, the 4005 neck is a complex set of laminations unlike the 4000 and 4001 of the same era. The heat also opened up those laminations which need to be very carefully reglued before final assembly.

You sure do have patience! And patients

Here are some pics of the first trials of the crushed mop formula from Dale. This is just a proof of concept batch and not intended to be a final product. I started with a white layer of polyester resin. Just before it set I added the crushed MOP flakes. After it set I covered the flakes with uncolored polyester resin. This is very hard to photograph (for me anyway). These pictures do not show the true color and depth. The real color is a slightly golden-white with a pearly luster. The blurry pic almost gets the color right and the dark pic shows the texture.



I think I have to make the MOP flakes smaller. Any thoughts?

To give you an idea of the scale. The floor planks are about 1 inch wide.

Ted, my vote would be to try the same experiment a couple of more times, each iteration cut the size of the flakes in half, but keep the amount you start with the same. This may allow you to adjust the density of the MOP layer

The finish and effect looks great, I think it's a little "open" between the flakes though.