Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi ...
I am new to forum...I think this forum is amazing... I was not satisfied on other forums, because they did not go into any depth and detail like I see here.. I will learn a lot here and possibly share some insight on my findings...
I know you guys love photos...so I attached one of my 1972 4001 Ric, which I have owned for two months.. Now my bass is a wierd one.. The jackplate is dated for OA , meaning it is 1975...BUT, the neck pickup is factory routed for the 1/2" spacing...which is odd... The inside of the wiring cavity has factory writing that says 12-18-2 with the name Henry written next to it... All I can figure is that it was a 1972 that was released late and possibly someone swapped the jack-plate..since the plate is pitted beyond belief..
The basss sounded amazing and was my pride and joy ..Playing it through my 1970 SVT head and into a 1969 cab with Alnico speakers was heavenly... Now comes the problem that has me sick to my stomach and that is where I need some assistance.. I took the bass to what was suppose to be a top Ric repair guy that use to work at the factory for a set-up ... Well I get the bass back and the E string is totaly dead!!! I mean really dead..No matter where you fret it.. it now sucks... It now sounds like a 3 string bass with the A string being the deepest sounding ..The low E is like 7dB down ..My pride and joy is now useless to me...This guy is now telling me "good Luck" on finding the problem... This is why I am interesting in examining the truss rods.. I don't trust this guy..he may have swaped something out..since the bass "was" amazing before...now it just lost all the magic..
I did have a tiny board lift at the first fret on the G string side..maybe 1/8" long from the nut... I simply asked him to inject some glue and clamp it.. When I picked up the bass..I see he lifted BOTH sides of the fret-board for just about the legth of the 1st fret..he said he needed to do this to clean up the old glue and re-glue it...Well the work is sloppy and I see small gaps..Now I am thinking he killed the resonance of the bass...
I am looking for suggestions for things to try... I won't give up on this bass till I find out what the heck is going on and get it back to what it was..

Best Regards
Chris

Hi, Chris! Welcome to the forum.

I can categorically say that your bass isn't from 1972.

From the image, it lacks Grover tuners, full-width MOP inlays and checkered binding. Also, it has no evidence of ever having a thumbrest.

It seems this bass has been retrofitted with a toaster and possibly had surgery.

As well as the jack dating, the hallmarks of this bass suggest a 1975 model 4001.

Also, I think I've seen another January 75 4001 with the old style p/u spacing. You know how RIC has those "grey areas" in production.

I think JH has said that it was around May of '75? that the 1/2" spacing was changed to 1"...and that he had the last one? something like that...

Welcome, Chris! Sweet bass you have there!

I had a '75 Azureglo with the 1/2" spacing as well.

Every '75 I have seen has the larger neck pickup route. I suspect it was because '75 was the transition year and there were still a lot of 1/2 inch guards in stock so the bodies were made to accept either spacing. I have 5 '75s that have it.

Gentlemen, I think we missed the point of Chris' post about his setup problem. What would cause the E string to be dead; fretboard, nut, string/height? If the guy was messing with the fretboard, he must have removed the nut, could something be wrong here?

time for a new set of strings ... sometimes removing and reinstalling strings can make one or more of them go bad ...

My '75 also has the large pickup route that can hold the neck pickup in the 1/2" or 1" position.

Chris, my humble suggestion is to have a professional remount the fingerboard to the neck with having all of the old adhesive removed. There's probably something about that recent fingerboard repair that is absorbing the energy from the E string...or there is just something else that would near impossible to figure out without actually having a look at it.

Have you talked to the repair guy about it? You should probably give him a chance to make it right. Make sure the treble pickup is installed the right way around. They are not symmetrical. The E pole piece is closer to the end of the pickup than is the G pole. Also, check the obvious stuff like pickup height.

Chris, welcome to the forum. Is the E string dead no matter where it is fretted? If you are above the fret board repair I would be looking else where first, strings and pickups as Ted and Jeff suggested. If it is only when the E is played open or the first couple of frets then I would be looking at the repair.

October '75 here...

Ok, I know it's the wrong way round!

Hi..And thanks for all the responses..
Here is some more info..
I did call the repair guy and nicely explained to him what was going on.. He basicaly told me "Good Luck" and "Let me know when you find out what the problem is"...In my younger,hot tempered days this would have not ended nicely..
I did put on a new set of Ric strings for this set-up... I did try different strings and no fix..
Based on what was mentioned I now feel confident I have a 1975 bass, thanks... My routing is factory..not modified..and is for 1/2" spacing which is cool... The pick-guard on there is a Paul C's....I have pickguardian making me a nice one right now...
I am trying to locate an original pup for it..But in the meantime I love the look of the toaster in the neck... The pick-up that I have in the neck right now is a Seymour Duncan humbucker, which I removed the Duncan cover and put on a toaster cover... I also used black cloth tape to cover the top of the humbucker..before puting on the cover, so it looks pretty good... I tried the new 7.4K toaster and found it too weak in the neck position compared to volume of the rear stock pup that measure 7.22K ..
I do have the .047uF cap bypassed on the rear pup.... I plan on rewinding the re-issue toaster pup to 12K, that might work out for me...
The E-string issue is weird... I noticed it is way worse, when using the neck pup than the bridge... I believe the D note on the 10th fret of the E-string is acceptable anything below that is dead..until you get to the 1st fret F note which get a little better...
I did notice that the treble pick-up E string is not directly over the pole of the PUP.. SO I removed the 4 screws for the pick-up cover and was able to slowly slide the pick-up around while playing... I found that it made a HUGE difference in amplitude if the E-string was directly over the pole vs. being slighly off axis... I guess these pups are more sensitive than others.. SO the only clean fix I see is to order replacement bridge saddles and re-cut it so the E is lined up perfectly... The A is just a hair off, but not significantly and not worried about the A, it sound good... The bridge saddles look factory original...

Best Regards
Chris

How does the E string sound when it is not plugged in? if it is quiet and dead acoustically then it is the string ...

try the old E string back in there ... does it sound better ...

check the pickup heights ... check pickup alignment ... do the strings go outside the effective width of the pickup ...

try just replacing the E string only with another E string ...

Chris, I have OB-1087, a Burgundy 75 4001. It has the 1/2" spacing for the neck PU.

Pics are on my son's computers, but if you can search my posts (not sure, can we do that?) I have posted pics of it.

As for the E string, check the bridge. Sometimes things can get whacked, maybe the string is slipping off the saddle...

Just a swag... Welcome to the forum. Some pretty sharp Rick (and guitars in general) folks on here!