Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I stripped a nut right off my Mid. blue 78 4001 last year, John Hall suggested I take it to a machine shop and have an inch taken off of the rod, and have it rethreaded. I took both of them to my local machine shop, the guy cut about 1/2 in. off of all 4 ends, rethreaded the two threaded ends, and drilled out and rethreaded the nut as none were to be had at his shop. I put it back together and it plays excellent like it did before all this happened. So if you have a 4001 with rod problems try this, it worked great on my bass. And it only cost me $20.00. I think that if I had put a little oil on the threaded part of the rod none of this would have happened.
I also got my Pyramid flats today, I put them on my 98 4003FG, they are much quieter than most of the other strings that I have used in the past, I was worried about getting a dead E string as I have read that here before, but all were ok. They have a nice tone, and a very nice feel, I am maybe playing tomorrow, if not tomorrow, I am playing Thursday, I will be able to tell better in a live situation if they are me or not, but they seem like a quality string and worth the money to me.
I tried one of Sergios tricks tonight on this bass, the D string was a little quieter than the rest and this was accentuated with these strings for some reason. I got out my locking pliers somewhat fearfully and put it on the D string button and turned it counter clockwise and lo and behold it rose up (too much) I then turned it clockwise and it went down, so I found out something else, you can also lower these newer buttons. I set it the way I liked it on both the bass and treble pickup, I also lifted the E button a little bit on both pickups. I was very careful when I did this, I held the button very tightly so as to not slip and ruin the pickup. The bass is now like a new bass, it is very even now on all notes and strings, what a revelation, thank you Sergio! Oh one more thing, I am sure that this is not recommended by Ric, so if your bass is under warranty, you might want to think twice before doing this, I had no problems but I have made mistakes in the past with basses, (such as above) so beware. Also I think that Sergio said this only works on post 90's basses, but look up the post as I am not sure what the cut off year is.

Hey Bob,
Congratulations!
Nice to know your '78 has been brought back to life (for only $20) and that you managed to adjust the polepieces of your '98.

Can you lower the polepieces on the guitar hi-gains as well?

Reason I ask is because I was testing a 360 yesterday . . . the high E seemed a bit weaker than the rest, and I've noticed this on other ricks as well. Thanks!

I don't know, I would ask Sergio about this, first time I heard about it was reading one of his posts a few weeks back, and I don't remember where it was.

John,
Go to " Rickenbacker Basses >>High-Gain Questions " 01-28-03. Sergio explained it there.

Sergio's computer is under mainteneance now. He won't be back here until late June.

I recently purchased a '75 3000 for a great price but the truss rod ends were way wacked out from incorrect adjustment. I pulled them, straightened them and then re-threaded them with a die that was the next size smaller. Even though the rod end is slightly smaller, the threads now go all the way around them so I think it should work a little better. I then re-arced the rods and slid them back in. Now the ends stick out nice, straight and parallel.My luthier is machineing a new truss rod bar, brass washers and steel nuts to fit the new ends for around $20.00. I should get the new parts tomorrow so I'll post on how it all turns out. The threads were pretty bad and I didn't want to shorten the irreplaceable rods so I think this was a better alterative.

FYI, an inch shorter, at least in the case of truss rods, won't make the slightest difference.

"At least in the case of truss rods".....a point well made JH.

Yeah, my bass came out great, neck is straight as it should be, Thanks again John.

Hi, Paul and everyone! I'm back (for the next few days, at least).
Bob: you are welcome.
I believe the cut-off year for high-gain pickups to be 1990, i.e. as from that year on no damage will come to these if you attempt to adjust or even remove the polepieces thereon. Don't mess with the polepieces on pre-1990 high-gain pickups, though, unless you really know what you are doing.
John: as for lowering the (taller) polepieces, well, yes, this can be done, however you also will have to lower the pickup magnet accordingly, as ALL polepieces sit directly on it. To be totally honest, this is too much trouble. Keep it simple - just raise the high E-string polepiece instead. Provided the 360 you mention was made after 1990, of course.

Hi,

Can you tell a little bit more about this procedure? I had always been told that a truss rod can only be removed by taking off the fretboard, etc--costing as much as a new instrument.

Ely

I'd like to know a little more as well -- the guy that worked on my bass this week tells me it has a bend in the neck near the heel that just won't come out. I can see the bend and the action and intonation deteriorate as you go past the 14th fret(this is my 21 fret 4001). The previous owner mentioned he had a luthier change the truss rods out because the originals were broken and I got a reduced price because of this. My luthier told me the top piece that holds the truss rods was put into the neck backwards, and he wondered if the guy that replaced the truss rods was a novice, or just didn't understand the Rick truss rod system. Anyone have any ideas about this?
Sergio -- hey, welcome back, I thought you might reply to my post yesterday about E string problems -- glad to see you back on the forum!

I have a 4001 with a bend near the heel, this happened because I put heavy strings on it, didn't adjust the truss rods and left it for 6 months without checking it. I put Thomastik-Infield flatwound strings on it which are very light, and it plays nice now, but The rest of neck is almost straight so the days of heavy strings are gone for this bass. I am hoping that it will gradually straighten out with these strings on it, and it seems to be.
To take out the rods, all I have done is take off the nuts, then take off the top piece (the curved end is supposed to fit right into the cavity (if the bass is standing up on the floor the curved side would be down), that piece is sometimes hard to get off, you may have to push the rods in a little bit but don't push them in all the way. After the top piece is out, then I use a pair of needle nose pliers to pull the rod up (so it doesn't damage the top of the cavity) and out. they should both come right out, although on a 25 year old bass sometimes there is some resistance. Watch which way the threaded part is (I think the threaded part is on top) you need to replace these the same way. When you put it back together again just make sure you put it the way it came out, and obviously you want the strings either loose or off all the way when you do this.
Another thing that I have tried for the heel bend is to loosen the E and A (I assume the bend is on that side) and leave it for a while checking frequently for overbend. If it is the whole heel loosen the strings with the truss rods at normal tension, look down the neck frequently so you can judge how much the neck is straightening out, and check very frequently. The necks can easily go the other way. There are other ways with clamps etc. but that would probably be best left to a professional luthier. But then again a 21 fret Ric is worth it.
And no you don't need to take the fretboard off. Always take the tension off the neck if you tighten the truss rods too especially on a 4001. I do this by standing the bass up on the floor (on a rug works best), putting my right foot in front of the bottom of the bass and putting my knee behind the heel and pulling back near the first fret, while sighting down the neck (all you need to do is take the forward tension off the neck, don't overpull). I tighten the truss rod nuts as I am sighting down the neck. Don't force them either, that is how I twisted the nut off in the first place. A bend can take a long time to come out, months sometimes, just keep working at it a little at a time, easy does it is the motto for these kinds of things (I learned the hard way!) Those bends at the heel don't really respond much to truss rod tightening, but will gradually come out with light strings and frequent attention to the neck. (RIC original equipment Nickle round wounds are light enough also, and sound great)

hi bob (and everybody),

mine is not so much bent in one place (like at the heel) but evenly bowed along the neck. But turning the rod does nothing. So I don't know too much about the mechanisms here, but I guess whatever the rod is supposed to tighten against --or into, rather-- is stripped OR the rod is broken.

as it happens, it's still quite playable, but anyway...

is the "top piece" you refer to, the top of the rod? is the rod more than one piece? where does the rod engage the body? is there a resource (web or otherwise) out there you can recommend that has diagrams, etc?

I'm sure by the way I am not ready to do any major surgery myself, but I don't want anyone pulling off my fretboard if they don't have to!
I'm in NY and they all seem to want to. Anyone recommend good repair folks in this overpriced community?

thanks!

Hi Ely, Is your bass a 4001, 4003's are a little different, this is for 4001's. Most of what I say I think would also pertain to a 4003 but they don't have that piece of aluminum I am talking about. There is supposed to be a piece of Aluminum(?) about a 1/4 in. thick right near the nut end of the cavity. the two truss rods go through two holes, one end of the doubled over truss rod goes through it with the nut on it, and the other end is butted up against the other side of the piece. (the truss rods are doubled over with a 180 degree bend at the body end of the neck, they are one piece) When you tighten the nut it pulls the rod against the piece (the other end which is against the other side of the aluminum piece) with more and more force which forces the doubled over truss rod to separate in the middle of the two ends (it can not do anything else) this straightens out the neck. The nut should get harder and harder to turn, if not either you have no aluminum piece in there or the doubled over truss rods had broken somewhere, I have never heard of this, but I am not an expert. Are the threads stripped? Both would have to be stripped for this to happen.
Even if the rod was broken you should not have to take the fret board off to get at it because both ends of the doubled over truss rods are in the cavity. I don't know how well I explained that, with out diagrams it is kind of hard to explain. Maybe someone here has some diagrams, the concept is simple really. All the action is in the cavity under the name plate., all that is in the neck is the doubled over truss rod, if you can't fix it find someone who really knows Rics. If your truss rods aren't working you really should fix it because the neck will probably bow more and more as time goes on, and it will play much better also.