Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

i lost my handbook and need to lower the action on my guitar b/c the strings about 36ft off the fretboard...can someone please give me some detailed insight on how to accomplish this please...i tried using the allen-wrench on the springed bolts holding the bridge in place but they only go so far down...please help...thanks!!

Kevin: Before you begin lowering the bridge, is your neck straight. One the low E string, press down on the first and 17th frets to check this out. Can you see much daylight under the low E string?

"they only go so far down"? You may be making a mistake that some folks do their first time trying--turning the screws in a clockwise direction actually raises the bridge until the screw heads bottom out on the bridge stamping proper. Then your strings are 36' above the fingerboard.

Turning them counter-clockwise (anti-clockwise if you're a Brit) will actually lower the bridge.

And do check your neck for straightness and relief before you do the bridge thing.

I may have been a bit vague there--I meant that turning them clockwise raises the bridge until the screw heads compress the springs. Then the whole darned thing locks up against the bridge stamping.

yes, there is plenty...my intonation is terrible on the bass strings, is there a way to adjust the truss without loosening my strings, and then when i do adjust, which direction should i turn to alleviate it? Thanks thus far

paul...sorry i didn't get that post til just now...if i turn them counter-clockwise they just come unscrewed pretty quickly

Kevin--

Those screws should be roughly in the middle of their travel, within 1/16" either way. Up too high and they compress the springs like I said above. Down too low and they unscrew. If you've got them down so far that they are ready to completely unscrew, and the action is still too high, then you've got neck problems.

The truss rod adjustment technique is different depending upon the year of your guitar.

Can you post a pic of the bridge and a couple of the neck?

How old is your guitar? What part of the world are you in?

Welcome aboard, Kevin.

The string action is too high?
There are 2 possible causes:

1-The neck has too much relief---big up-bow.
2-The bridge is too high.

Procedure of setup (the order of the steps can't be altered):

1-Neck relief check-up and adjustment: With yourself sitting down and with your guitar IN PLAYING POSITION (don't do it with the guitar lying flat on a table because gravity will pull the neck towards the floor and make the neck seem straight) , press your low E string at the 1st and last frets at the same time. (Using a capo on the 1st fret will make it easier for you.) There should be a .005"~.010" distance between the string and the 8th or 9th fret. In other words, the space there should only allow a very thin business card to slide through. If you can slide 2 or more business cards through there, then your neck has too much relief on the bass side. If the string is "kissing" the 8th or 9th fret, then your neck is too 'backbowed". Do the same to your high E string and make sure there's a .001"~.005" space (almost no "daylight") between it and the 8th fret. Don't just look at the neck from behind the bridge or above the headstock because "looking" is never precise enough.

The advantage of RIC's dual trus rods system is that, unlike a single truss rod system, it allows you to have propper relief on both sides of the fingerboard---less relief for the treble side as thinner strings have smaller vibration amplitude.

Beware that a neck that is backbowed or dead straight will have fret buzz on open string notes and notes at frets 1~5. A neck that has too much relief will have fret buzz on notes at the last frets (17~21 or 24).

If your guitar is a post-'84, then it's got the modern truss rod system which is easy to adjust. It's recommended to adjust the truss rods with the Xcelite L8 1/4" hex driver.




To decrease neck relief, loosen the strings and turn the truss rod(s) clockwise for a 1/4 turn at a time. If the relief is still too big, tighten the truss rods in a few hours or the next day until you get the proper relief/bow. Bear in mind that it may take a couple of hours or a day for the neck to settle into the new straightness, under string tension.

***Pre-'84 RIC guitars have the old truss rod system. You have to manually back-bend the neck while turning the rod nuts snug. It takes 2 people or one with a clamp to adjust it.

2-Adjust bridge height: Set the bridge/saddles low enough for you to feel comfortable playing the guitar with no fret buzz audible when amplified. Conventional standard is to adjust the bridge so that there is a 5/64" distance between the 1st string and the 17th fret, and 3/32" for the 6th string. Again, do the measurement with the guitar in playing position. Keep in mind that different players need different string action. A heavy plucker/picker should want a higher string action to avoid fret buzz. A player with light touch can go for the low "plays like buttuh" action. However, beware that a guitar or bass with too low an action doesn't yield nice, full resonance.

3-Check intonation: Tune up the strings with a tuner. If a certain string is sharp at the 12th fret while it's correct at the open string note, loosen that string and move its bridge saddle away from the neck. If it's flat , move the saddle towards the neck.

4-Check pickup height: With the strings pressed at the last fret (again, in playing position, not laid flat on a table), the distance between the pickups and strings should be no smaller than 1/8". However, RIC pickups could be brought closer than that to the strings without ill effects (magnetic pull on the strings causing false harmonics, incorrect intonation, lack of sustain, etc.) because the magnets are at the bottom, under the polepieces. The bridge pickup may be a little closer to the strings than the neck pickup as the amplitude of string vibration is greater near the neck's end. The rule of thumb is to get the pickups to be equally loud. If strings 1~3 sound louder than strings 4~6 through a pickup, raise the bass side of that pickup to gain equal volume for all strings.

I hope this is helpful to you.

Well done Paul.

I like it. It is explained in very lay terms. Easy to understand. User friendly you might say. Very good, Paul. It will help me.

that was amazingly informative from you all and i believe I have fixed the problem as well...thanks so much!

peace
oh, for whomever asked...I'm from Indiana and the guitar is a 2004...

An excellent tutorial.

I was wondering if when adjusting the truss rod, should I loosen all the strings, or can they be left as-is?

John,
Loosen ( for 80% is good enough) the strings before tightening the rods.

No loosening required (provided that you can remove the TRC easily) for loosening the rods.

By the way, please allow me to delve deeper into the issue of pickup heights. Have you found that getting the pickups very close to the strings give you more volume but less chime and jangle whereas seting their heights lower gives you less volume but certainly more brightness?

Well, think "Proximity Effect"---When a mic or a pickup is very close too a sound source, the low and low-mid (from 300 Hz down to below 50 Hz) response is greatly increased---that's why a voice sound louder and fatter (and "pops" easily with words containing the b and p letters) through a mic when they are very close to each other. A 6-polepieced pickup is like a microphone assembly with 6 mics on it although the polepieces detect changes in magnetic flux while the diaphram of a mic reacts to sound pressure.

Therefore, raising the pickups of a RIC guitar very close to the strings will increase volume and "oomph" but certainly decrease the chime and jangle which is mostly composed of high and high mid frequencies (800 Hz to above 10 KHz).

On the other hand, raising the pickups of a RIC bass can give you a strong, solid low end. I set the bass (neck) pickups of my RIC basses to their maximum heights to get the most volume and big boom without causing magnetic pull, thanks to their magnets' being at the bottom.

Just my humble opinion.