Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I'm not sure how to describe this, but my little four legged friend ran past my 1974 4001, and managed to snag herself on the wire and YANKED it out of the bass. NOW, it is dead. NOT THE DOG, and not the wire, the bass.

IF I pull the wire about one CLICK out of the jack, it works.....

What do I look for inside the jack? Could something just be bent?

Thanks everyone.

It's probably just a bent contact in the jack. It can be bent back with a pair of needle nose pliers. Remove the jackplate, that'll give you access to the back of the jack.

Yup,

Common with basses this old.

Thanks guys,

I opened up the bass, didn't see anything OBVIOUS, moved some things around....it worked perfectly for about a day. Now, BOTH Ric-o-Sound and Standard jacks are dead.

Could it possibly be a cold solder joint somewhere in the harness?

While I'm at it, does anyone know what other years have the same harness?

IF I ordered a new one from RIC, doesn't that change the way the bass sounds?

Any other suggestions?

I still would guess it's in the jack harness. You could always order a new one and change that out. It would not affect the sound of your bass.

I agree with the jackplat harness area as the source of the problem. If I remember correctly there is a connection that is made at the top of the jack (just two pieces of metal that push together) which may be out of alignment. Try it out of the body and look to see if every thing is making contact or maybe shorted.... Pictures for us to look at?

Thanks for the reply everyone,

I'll be taking some photo's on Wednesday. I'm running like a nut until then.

I really would like to restore this guitar to as close to original as possible. I'm even thinking of a refin in the future.

I'm not normally into the "vintage" thing, but this bass is amazing. I just want to get it to the point I can play it daily.

I'll get those photo's ASAP, thanks again.

Sorry it took me so long to get back to this thread.

After playing around "taking photo's", I found a bad solder connnection on top of one of the tone controls. When I push down on it, the bass works, as soon as I take my finger off of the solder joint, it goes dead again.

Thanks again!