Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I have recieved my new tailpiece and put it on, my bass is as good as new now. I noticed that the new one is a hell of a lot thicker on the underside and appears to have more mass

This is a response to two postings in this thread.

First, I apologize to John Hall for refering to the material of my broken 370/12RM tailpiece bracket as "pot metal" in a previous posting:

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I have 2 4003s5's ... neither of them came with the extra screws ... on one I drilled the holes and added the screws and on the other I replaced the tailpiece with a newer one that had the screw holes ... they both look pretty much the same now ...

update on the new tailpiece i installed:

Its a lot beefier than the original one that warped, and the part is completely flat along the bottom ( like it should be)

HOWEVER.....once screwed on the bass, the back of the tailpiece does not lie completely flush, there is a very small gap. this leads me to beliefve that most ricks when new probably have a totally straight tailpiece that doesnt actually lie flush.

Yes, the tail end of the bass body curves away from the tail piece. This is due to the sanding and finishing of the bodies.

My 68 lies flat and tight against the wood ... no space at all

this is just downright frightening!

http://imagehost.vendio.com/bin/viewimage.x/00000000/codisbest/rick4003inputs.jpg

Aside from the tailpiece bending up. Why does this 4003 not have the walnut stripe down the middle?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2532719824&category=4713&rd=1

It should be visible on the back.

a 4003 never has a walnut stripe ... the walnut stripe is on some 4001 models ... mostly 1970's models ...

Give me a drill, 2 screws, a screwdriver, and a few minutes and that tailpiece would be flat ... no problem ...

Jeff, i believe you and everything, but how can screwing down the tailpiece flatten it. Its one hell of a tough bit of metal, surely screwing it down would lift up the front end, or worse still dig into the body.

That bass on ebay looks like early 90's (black trim etc). My bass is a 1991, and Jeff, aint those 5 strings you repaired early 90's too?

This is the 7-screw tailpiece of my '86 Shadow.
It doesn't bend.




This is the 3-screw tailpiece of my '72 4001 Fretless.
Miraculously, it doesn't bend.





The 5-screw tailpiece of my '98 4003 FG bends a little. Its very end is 1/32" from the body top.

I suppose the '60s-early '70s 3-screw tailpieces were made of very strong material...

And I wish for the existence of 5-screw tailpieces made of materials employed 3 decades ago...

Owen wrote:
"how can screwing down the tailpiece flatten it. Its one hell of a tough bit of metal, surely screwing it down would lift up the front end, or worse still dig into the body."

It is basic physics ... the force of the screws pulling down is stronger than the force of the strings pulling up .... even on a five string ... as per the digging in ... if you leave it alone and do nothing it is more likely to dig in than if you screw it down ... one of my 4003s5's came to me this way ... as it pulled up it started to dig in where it curled ... it stopped when I screwed it down ...

The first thing I do when I get a new or used Ric is to loosen the strings, remove the bridge and tighten all the screws in the tailpiece, for some reason the bridges on even new Rics (that I've bought anyway) are kind of loose. I just got a 98 FG and the bridge was up maybe an 1/8 of an inch, I tightened all the screws and now it is maybe a 1/16 or less. I too have a 3 screw 72 Ric and the bridge is perfectly flat. In my experience tightening the screws flattens out the tailpiece, and keeps it flat.

One more thing were those 7 hole tailpieces made by Ric or do people drill a couple of new holes in them? I had an 84 4003 with 7 holes and always had assumed someone had drilled extra holes in it because it was the only one I had ever seen.

many basses in the 80's/early 90's had 7 screws