Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hey people!

So, there comes a time in every bassplayer's life that he is faced with the need to setup his Ric 4003...

Being the only Twin-rod bass I have, you can imagine I'm a little scared of twisting the neck... so... is there any in depth info on setups for twin-truss rods?

anything I should do diferently than when setting up a normal, single trussrod bass?

Cheers.

The dual rods are not a problem. Setting them up is really quite simple and safe. There is an excellent setup guide on the RIC site but in a nutshell, most necks do well with balanced rod tension. Just do the same thing to both sides and work in increments of 1/8th to 1/4 turn at a time. Sometimes I will loosen the strings and then take all of the tension off of the rods. From that point I turn the nuts until they are just snug and then go about 1/2 turn with the nut driver. Then I tune to pitch and check the neck for relief and adjust accordingly, always applying the same number of turns to each rod.

I usually adjust the rods with strings in tune ... usually in the winter they need a little bit of tightening and in the summer I back them off a little ... on my old 4001 basses I used to just lower and raise the bridge instead ...

I only detune when I suspect the rods are not balanced or if I want to baseline the setup. Normally I would do as Jeff said and adjust the rods with the bass tuned to pitch.

My bass side rod has a little more tension than the treble. Just make sure the neck is flat. It's pretty easy to do. Haven't had to adjust them at all since, despite the heat or cold.

heat and cold effect the strings ... but humidity effects the neck ...

Like Mark's, my late 2004 4003 bass side rod needs a little more tension then the treble side also. As long as I check it with a 24" straight edge, then I can make it nice and straight. Just the difference in the wood of the neck.

I posted a <a href="http://www.rickenbacker.com/forum_view_ ... elf?">step by step</a> in the official RIC forum if you want to read it over.

Ok, I give up, how do you post a link in this forum so it doesn't show the link info but links words in your post?!?! Aaahhhggg.....

Do you have 'Automatically activate URLs in messages' enabled in the Options section?

John, this place doesn't use HTML or BB code, it has it's own syntax. Hit the "coding" link upper left - you have to use a bunch of escape sequences to make it work.

what does the 'Enable HTML code in messages' pick in the Options section do?

Activates a URL as a clickable link, I think.

http://www.rickenbacker.com

I do have that chosen, but Alan's info does the trick. Thanks.

Setup Instructions

On both my new ricks the e side rod is pretty much doing all the work . My treble side rod is just about finger tight .

Or humidity! Solid and stable.