Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Cleaning my bass today and noticed that a bubble in the finish has appeared on my bass! Its about an inch long and about an eighth inch wide. its right along the treble side edge of the tail piece. I don't think it wasn't there yesterday, and I know it wasn't there last week, what do I do!! Do I pop it of leave it alone? Will it spread? What could have caused this? Ive only had this bass a week and it came from California, could climate have caused this?

Don't pop it. It'll get infected. It might be one of those California Mad Bass Disease carriers.

Your guess about climate is close but here's something a bit more specific: The bass could have blistered because of a sudden temp or humidity change, or because the previous owner tightened the tailpiece screws on one side too exuberantly. You don't mentioned where you are, but it is due to mechanical or environmental stress, or a combination of both.

Whether it will spread is doubtful, and if it does, chances are it won't spread too far. What color is the bass?

Jetglo which means it shows everything! It was shipped from California to here in Alabama. Its constantly 95 degrees right now and we are in a drought so currently humidity is not really an issue.

Hehe I need to proofread my posts better. (shakes fist) Curse you California!!!

Try not to hate us too much...

Once it has stabilized, JG is the easiest to repair. Sure sounds like a tailpiece overtightening more than anything else...pictures?

Here is a pic, sorry for the size but it was the only way I could get it to show up. The length of the bubble starts around the back tailpiece screw to the allen head adjustment screw on the treble side.


http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h204/ ... 0_1038.jpg

Tailpiece, as I thought. Is it an older bass? Could have had some tailpiece lift, and the previous owner overtightened in an attempt to compensate...which is the wrong thing to do...

JG is the easiest to touch up, so thank your lucky stars.

I think its an 04 but I could be wrong. How do I go about touching it up? Do I need to back the bridge screws off a bit? I dont know if it was ever disassemled or not. I know when I got it, the truss rods were adjusted on it kind of funny, and the pickup assembly was put together wrong.

Thanks

John

I'm sure I'll get flogged for this but I tend to think it is related to tail lift. Where the paint bubbled is in the area of where slight distortion/stress in the tailpiece occurs. The same thing happened on two of my ex-4003's around when I noticed tail lift. IMO, of course.

I guess in the end now that its happened I can now finally end my paranoia binge of hitting it or denting it. As far as the tail lift thing I can't see any evidence of that happening. There is a little gap in the end, maybe enough to slide a piece of paper under, but nothing that Id consider lift. I just need to know how to fix the bubble because I'm worried that its just going to get bigger every time I enter a different climate environment (i.e. practicing in a hot garage and then going into the air conditioned house.) I guess I'm also concerned that it may not be the end of the bubbling and that it may happen in other places around the bridge.

Link to a larger pic

Looking at the pics and reading your last post, John, it sounds like the previous owner messed with the bass, and did not know what he was doing. I think he had the tailpiece off, and really cranked down on it putting it back on. The stress of shipping and climate did the rest. You can't do any harm just leaving it alone. Backing off on the screws will not make the blister go away and chances are that it won't shrink now. Still a nice instrument.

Oh yeah I'm still in love with it! I'm sure it won't be the last of the mojo it will get. Its not really even all that noticeable, I appreciate the input from you guys and thanks to Ilan for properly linking up the pic, thanks also to Paul for giving me some confidence that it won't spread like the plague!!

John

You can name it Bubble Boy

I had a similar problem with a JG 2006 4003 bass. The chipped area was on the bass side of the tailpiece...Good advice was mentioned on this forum about fixing it up. But I had an opportunity on a 78 AG 4001 so I traded it away...

I have the same type of thing on my '79 right next to the surround.