Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I tried to put a little relief in the neck of my '00 V63 the other day and to my suprise discoverd the truss rods were completely relaxed. I have owned this bass for over 1 year and have never had any reason to adjust the neck. When I bought it I replaced the factory strings with D'Addario XL170's gauged .45 .65 .80 .100 and it played great, so I never messed with the neck. The other day I was playing and noticed a few buzzes around the 5th through 10th fret straight across the board, I was able to make a tiny adjustment that did take care of the buzzes, but now I have no adjustment in case the problem re-occures. What can I do ?

I had an old 4001 with a totally straight neck, it was like that when I bought it, so no telling how long it had been like that. I put heavier strings on it, loosened the truss rods and that neck took a long, long time to bend a little bit for relief. This is the only thing I have to suggest. Try med. gauge Fender flatwounds, guaranteed you'll have relief as soon as you tune them to pitch! haha

Thats the first thing I thought of, but I know that there has been several posts addressing V63 neck issues. Its just such a sweet playing, and sounding bass, (even unplugged), I want to make sure I do the right thing. Thank you Bob for your input.

Hi Scott, I just learned something, read Paul Yans "spare pre 2000 saddles" post and read what John Hall has to say, I guess the 4003 necks are supposed to be dead on straight, I never realized that in all the years I have been playing them, I always had some relief in them. I just adjusted one of my 4003's to pretty much straight and it plays great and sounds better, which surprises me. And the V63 is probably the same, I think they have the same truss rods.

I saw that post, thanks again Bob!