Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

John Simmons sent me a 4001LH to refinish...

A classic bass from a classic Rickenbacker era, which has really had to work hard for its keep, judging from the number of mods done to it over the decades...

Here's how it looked upon arrival. Nicely aged MG, a fair amount of wear; everything looks like about 8/10 to the casual eye:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1972%204001%20LH/arrived.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1972%204001%20LH/arrived2.jpg

My job is to bush the tuner holes for the correct items, fill any extraneous holes in the face, strip the body and fretboard, but leave the frets intact, and refinish in another color (to be revealed!).

Here are the tuners that are on it, which required that the headstock holes be hogged out to 1/2" diameter. Judging from the completely burnt edges on these holes and their oval nature, this was another amateur Dremel-with-a-sanding-drum job. Permits ought to be required to use those things. They are the guitar butchers' friend, that's fer sure...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1972%204001%20LH/tuners.jpg

We begin to disassemble it. Pull the pickguard, unsolder the bridge pickup leads, unscrew the jacks, take off the TRC and jackplate.

Here's what I found under the TRC:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1972%204001%20LH/uh-oh.jpg

This guitar has been running round wounds for awhile, apparently. The truss rod nuts were maxed out, and the rectangular washer was distorted beyond repair. The photo below was taken after I had loosened the nuts. Both rod tips were bent into the rout. These can be carefully restored:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1972%204001%20LH/uh-oh.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1972%204001%20LH/washer.jpg

Here are the rods with their nuts off:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1972%204001%20LH/rods.jpg

And here they are after I got them pulled:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1972%204001%20LH/rodsout.jpg

They will be re-arched and the threads re-cut and extended a bit.

Next, I turned my attention to the body itself. The bridge pickup rout is normal and factory-original. The coax rout from the bridge pickup to the control cavity is also a typical earlier factory Forstner-substituting-for-router job.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1972%204001%20LH/purout.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1972%204001%20LH/routs.jpg

But, look at the outer edge of the factory control cavity Forstner-rout. Someone has enlarged the cavity, using a couple of dozen 1/8" drill holes and apparently a screwdriver, to modify the cavity, probably to fit a non-original pickguard.

Here's a closeup of this hack. Nice job!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1972%204001%20LH/hackhack.jpg

A lot of patience to drill all those holes, and then--BAM!!!--he runs out of patience and just chews it up with a hammer (or a large rock that was hanging around the cave?) and a screwdriver...

The finish was stripped by sanding it carefully. MG is easier to strip than the colored finishes.

Now it's time to take stock and look at the work ahead. In the photo below, the holes to be filled are marked with light blue arrows:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1972%204001%20LH/holefill.jpg

Looking at the headstock, here's what's on top. There are no less than three different sets of TRC holes, a few of which were extraneous (blue arrows, again):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1972%204001%20LH/hsrepairs.jpg

The red arrow shows one of the the enlarged tuner post holes--you can see the charred edges that I mentioned before.

The fretboard was sanded to remove all the old CV. This is quite rewarding, because the tropical hardwood used on Rickenbacker fretboards, is quite durable and fade-proof, and always comes up nicely with some stripping and/or sanding. This bass also got a light fret levelling, as the first four frets were slightly worn:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1972%204001%20LH/fretboard5.jpg

Next the bass was carefully sanded to #320 grit and taken into the booth and sealed:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1972%204001%20LH/readyseal1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1972%204001%20LH/readyseal2.jpg

This is the turnaround point. From now on, this bass gains in beauty. New installments later this week!

What a pretty 4001! Really looking foward to the finish on this one. Hopefully it's something that lets the grain shine through.

Don't know how that's going to be possible given the amount of holes that must be plugged and bushed on this bass. I'm guessing some kind of solid color that wasn't stock back then.

Sorry, but that bridge/tailpiece assembly is a re-issue. As for the rest of the bass, very nice and desirable. And rare, too.

This is, I expect, is what my '72 that Ted is working on will look like before sending it off to Paul W. for the refin. Ted's done a marvelous job so far, and he expects to have it ready to ship next week.

If you wish to see the bass as it was when I bought it about 5-6 years ago, here is a link to it:

http://www.homestead.com/aurs3/leftybass.html

The bass had many mods: tuners, bridge p/up(V63), bridge/tailpiece(V63), pickguard and knobs(V63)...you get the picture..plus a wacky looking TRC from a post 1988 bass.

After I bought the 72 4001 LH that was used on the Forum bass t-shirt, I was going to sell this bass. For a while I had started scrounging for parts to put back correctly and sell it---I bought a new lefty wiring harness from RIC and input jacks. The high-gain was purchased from a circa 1973 bass, it's not quite early enough for a 72 but it'll do nicely....oh yeah, I saved a good set of wavy Grovers for it too. Anyhoo----

Feeling bored one day I decided to get the soldering iron out and get it going again, I hadn't played it in about two years. With the high-gain and the toaster I thought it would sound good. I was right. It sounds REAL good.

So, I decided to keep it and really bring it back right, or as right as we can. I sent it out to Paul to work some magic and TLC on it, and I thought it was a good basis for a restoration.

Nice work, Paul.

And thanks for the photo updates.

Paul wrote:
But, look at the outer edge of the factory control cavity Forstner-rout. Someone has enlarged the cavity, using a couple of dozen 1/8" drill holes and apparently a screwdriver, to modify the cavity, probably to fit a non-original pickguard.

Believe it or not, some of this may be factory, although this bass has had many incarnations. I (along with others) have seen other vintage Rickenbackers of many different types, in much better condition (read: Unaltered) that have had similar finish work under the guard in order to make things fit. I believe most of this kind of alteration was done at the assembly table, surely after the body and neck were finished. Of course with the way things are done now at RIC I doubt if this kind of thing is done...way back when, highly probable. YMMV of course...

Paul W. Great photos. Educational as well. Thanks so much for taking the time to post them. I look forward to seeing the project finished.

Since it's a lefty, John, anything goes. I assume those were pretty much handmade back then.

That could well be a factory rout. The L/H instruments were far more individual and no one knows that better than John!

Looking forward to seeing the finished result...

Well, I'm no luthier for sure, LOL... but a Forstner rout is not as precise as the process that was used for the rightys. Even so, I have seen right-handed Rickenbackers that have had a little trim-work done in the cavity in this manner...a 320 from 1969 comes to mind that was sold on ebay about 2-3 years ago. On the older guitars it may have been more of a practice than we know...just part of the 'history' and the lore I guess.

The forstner was a way of life at Rickenbacker for years. The control cavity of my '63 4001 is entirely forstner cut - and not very well either. That little path from the controls to the neck pickup is a walk in the park compared with the crater crated by 1"+ bit used to make the cavities. BTW - the righties have the forstner cut cavity to neck pickup route too. I think they changed the process to use a router (shaper?) around '79 - '80.

Aaaaah, I love this stuff....