Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

The v63 is my main bass for years now. I'll wear it proudly

But I was wondering for years why the TRC did had that transparent dot on it. Now I know why Thanks to this topic!

berth wrote:

anoukane wrote:

... You should wait with the next turn on the same rod though. 1/4 turn a day when you are carefull I think I read somewhere (here).

Heard that too, but recently saw a post on the Ric forum where John Hall mentions his method:
"For instance, while there's absolutely nothing wrong to allow the instrument to equalize, 1/4 turn of the rod isn't going to do much. When I adjust a bass like this, I secure the body to a bench with a clamp, bend the neck and/or twist it just slightly beyond the position I want it to be in and then tighten the rod up snug to hold it, however many turns it takes. Indeed, it might take a period of time and several adjustments for the settings to hold in some cases and there are damaged instruments I'd want to do more slowly. The main point is to move the neck yourself and only then snug up the rod to hold it."

It's the old 4001 method. I recently did it on my CS bass, which took ~3 months to refinish/restore (the nuts were loosened until the neck was flat/straight, for that entire time)... worked like a charm. A few turns to tighten after stringing it up, and haven't touched it since. John's a pretty smart guy!

xsubs wrote:John's a pretty smart guy!

He certainly knows what he is talking about.

So the right way to adjust 4003 rods is the 4001 way now, according to the CEO himself? Or is he talking about the 4001?

anoukane wrote:What does PF means?

Pininfarina.

oler wrote:So the right way to adjust 4003 rods is the 4001 way now, according to the CEO himself? Or is he talking about the 4001?

Any instrument can be adjusted "the 4001 way". Yes--any instrument. But a 4001 can only be adjusted the 4001 way.

A little follow-up: Here is how my fixing finally ended up.

Don’t have a before photo, but the problem was that the spacer bar at the top of the rods had sunk into the wood more on E-A side than on D-G side, leaving the spacer not perpendicular to the rods. The rods were forced at an angle through the pacer, stripping the threads. This also made the edge of the holes in the spacer eating into the rods, stopping the rods from sliding through, and preventing adjustment. I found out that the rods on this bass had been snapped and replaced previously due to this.

My solution to get the spacer parallel with the nut and perpendicular to the rods, was to mill out wood (with a Dremel) to straighten it out, and then fill in the space with a new block of wood. First I used 3mm hard plywood, but that was not 100% successful. The ply started to crumple a little bit under pressure. Also, when removing the rods the spacer had still eaten on the threading.
Removed the ply and used ebony instead. Made a new spacer with the holes slightly wider apart. To prevent any stripping of the threads I used aluminium to be on the safe side.

With a new set of rods with heat shrink tubing, the channels were too tight to get them in. Probably could have forced them, but would never be able to get them out again if needed. I’ll try without any tubing or tape, and see how that works out. If I get any excessive rattling I’ll remove them and put on some tape.

Good job, Geir - looks terrific! I'm sure ebony sounds better than epoxy..

Yes, you’ll get a more modern high-tech composite sound, while I get the old fashion woody.
Although I’m quite used to messing with epoxy, for this I felt I had more control pre-shaping a block of wood before gluing it in. Well, now the rods are finally working as they should.

Very nice solution Geir. Oh, a thought - it is possible there is tape residue in the rod channels. I'd investigate that before taking the shrink tubing off.

johnallg wrote:Very nice solution Geir. Oh, a thought - it is possible there is tape residue in the rod channels. I'd investigate that before taking the shrink tubing off.

Thanks for the thought. The old rods came out easy, and all the tape on them was 100% intact. Could have been something there from previous rods though. I bent the tip of an old rod slightly up, and scraped through the channels to make sure. Only wood dust came out. So, I don’t think there were any residues.

Heat shrink is a fraction thicker than the original tape. One rod I was able to force in quite a bit. The other was very tight in the opening at the top, so that the shrink tube was actually hacked up by the edge of the channel when I forced it in. Had I used a drill bit to open up the channel opening a little, and used talcum or something, I might have got them in.

The neck on this bass has some forward bow in itself, and I need a good deal of tension on the rods to get it straight. I haven’t strung it up and played it yet, but with the high tension I expect there won’t be much rattling. I believe rattling is more of a problem on necks that doesn’t need much tension on the rods. (I’ll report back when I’ve tried)

Just one question Geir: Isn't your nut a bit wide for this neck , how come?

heinpete wrote:Just one question Geir: Isn't your nut a bit wide for this neck , how come?

It’s handmade specifically for this bass, and not glued in yet. Yes, I can still sand off almost 0.5 mm on each side to get it 100% flush with the side of the fret board. I’ll probably shave off a bit more from the top also.

Looks like a job well done, Geir! And I like the black nut on a V63. Makes it more accurate of a reproduction. And your string spacing looks the way I like it too--a little more "in" from the edges of the fretboard than RIC currently goes.

May it rock when you string it up!!