Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I kinda highjacked this clip from the "Artist" post, but check it out. Click on the 4th track, and check out Squires string action on his old RM. Looks higher than I would expect.

Lotsa distortion.

http://billysherwood.com/conspiracylive/default.html

If his bass is anything like my '63, the action is fairly high up past the 9th fret. This seems to be a function of the neck angle on the older basses. Mine tips forward slightly where the newer basses tip backwards very slightly.

my old '68 neck would never flatten out like a 70s 4001 or a modern 4003 ... but those 60's necks feel so good in your hand that you just deal with it ...

You gotta love the guy's tone and style.

It The tone that everyone has tryed to duplicate . Squire set the standard for tone .

Ted, you know a lot more than I do about Ric construction, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that the neck angle problem could start with high-tension strings. Even if the rods can handle the extra pull and keep the neck straight from the nut to the last fret, then the weak spot is where the neck joins the body. So the neck tilts upwards at that point, and since you can't shim it like you would a bolt-on neck, you get high action that can't be corrected with the rods or bridge height.

I think you've got it Ilan. I believe that's exactly the problem... especially considering the deep routing for the neck pickup at that point.

...and we all know CS used Rotos...

A 60s ric neck is thinned and it is 2 pieces of wood the neck and the fretboard ... in the early 70s they went to 4 pieces of wood and made it thicker ... and the modern 4003 neck is even stronger ...

my old 68 neck was flexible ... I could bend it while I was playing ... I could go from high action to backbow just by pulling and pushing ... I used to use this feature to get more fret buzz when desired ... also the weaker neck had a better resonance the the newer necks ...

the only bass that is a light weight as my old 68 is my 1998 4004C ...

He always makes me feel so small.

The face of the neck (where the fingerboard is attached) on modern Ricks angles backward. This is easy to see if you compare the line of the uppper horn with the fingerboard while holding the bass in playing postion. The older models were built with a forward slope. This angle is consistent (on my bass) and starts right where the neck leaves the body. My fret level sits perfectly flat all the way up the neck. If a bend or other distortion was the cause, I would think that there would be some outward signs like a high spot, twists, separated laminations or cracks at the body joint. None of which are evident. Maybe action was not as big a thing in the 60's because electric bass players were coming over from uprights.

"Maybe action was not as big a thing in the 60's because electric bass players were coming over from uprights"

I'll buy into that theory Ted.

Whenever I hear something like that or Rush's Hemispheres or Signals I remind myself NEVER to sell my 4001v63 no matter how many bills need to be paid! I don't know what other bass can sound like that.

Ah yes,,, the V63 !!

The V. What a great bass! I love mine.