Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I have this '67 Plexi TRC:



Look closely at the nut side. The screw holes are at different distances from the edge, and the lower (G string side) tip looks like it was slightly shaved, so the tip is a right angle. I assumed this was done to fit the headstock.

Now this '67 4005 appears on eBay. I look at the heastock, and the TRC is exactly the same as mine. Same screw hole placement, same "shaved" nut-side lower tip:



So, 4005 owners: please take a look at the TRC (post a pic if possible) and tell me - is it the same on your bass? Did my TRC come off a 4005?

Thanks!

Shaved bottom edges like yours are not exclusive to 4005s. I've seen them on a few late '60s Ricks that I've worked on.

I'm not sure if ALL 4005s say "MODEL 4005" on the TRC, but the few I've seen close-up all did...

The screw hole thing is also something I've seen on a number of 4005s. Has to do with where the tip of the TRC contacts the tuner bushing...on a six-string, there is more room, so the TRCs have consistent hole-to-ege spacing, meaning that the angle of the base of the TRC did not need to be changed...

I think there's a good chance that the 4005 in the photo has had a 6-string TRC fitted, either at the factory or by a previous owner.

I've noticed the shaved TRC's before on 60's Rick basses. Dale has mentioned that this was all a normal part of the way they hand-built instruments in those days. The TRC's had to have the screw holes drilled in them by whomever was fitting it to an instrument, hence the hole location varied from one to the next. Also, sometimes the tuner post location varied. To get the TRC to fit between the tuner posts, they would sometimes trim the nut side of the TRC to slightly change the angle that the TRC would sit. It looks like the example in the photo above may have been trimmed to sit slightly higher in order to clear that D string post, which was drilled 2 or 3mm higher than the G string post.

"I'm not sure if ALL 4005s say "MODEL 4005" on the TRC, but the few I've seen close-up all did... "
Of the ones I've owned and have looked at in person, none of them had the model inscribed. I'm sure its like the other models, where some had it and some didn't.

If anyone has a picture of the TRC with "MODEL 4005" post a picture! I'd like to see it, mostly 'cause I've never seen it!

I have seen bunches of instruments that have TRCs with flat, shaved edges like the one in the pic above. As Paul and Jeff (and Dale) said it was just part of the assembly process back in the day.

The early 12-strings had MAJOR hand-shaping perfomed to the TRCs, so much that every one of them for a good while was unique to whatever guitar they went on; there are many pictures to prove this.

In pictures of early 4001 basses sometimes you see a fourth screw, roughly in the same position as the one Ilan posted a pic of. Check out the natural finished 1963 4001 in the Smith book, that one also has 4 screws. I think Ted's '63 is the same way too, IIRC...

Here is a pic of the peghead on the '64 360/12 I got recently...it has the flat edge on the bottom as well. But this TRC is more of the standard shape by Dec. 1964:

So John, is that an OS 12...?

Hi Andy... Nope, it's a round-top...

My 4005 TRC looks quite normal... from 1967

Thanks for all the input! The wealth of knowledge in this forum is amazing.