Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

hey guy, i have a little problem on my hands, i think my nut mabie cut too deep, i like low tension strings and very low action, i like a rick like it is famous for, clanky character, too mellow thudds. I have the neck perfectly strait and this lets me achive great action. However i seem to get quite alot of frett buzz. But only on the first 3 fretts, all across the neck. this is barly noticable when i play soft, but when i grip on hard and pull the neck away from me in doing so, i end up with alot of buzz or barely any notes at all. It just seems my neck is very sensative to how i play. Just wondering what spec's you guys have your ricks set up to. im intrested in mesurments of hight at nut, 12th frett and bridge etc. There have been mentions before about this, however being english, and quite young i havent the fintest idea about imperial mesurments, i only work in metric.
Please help. i have my blue baby playing just how i like, she feels perfect, but then she seem too sensitive to different environments and heavyer playing. I like her just as she is, i really dont want to higher the action as alot of the time its super
x

James, which model is your bass, how old is it and what type/gauge strings are you using? It's possib;e tha the nut slots might be a bit low. You might have to compromise a little bit in your setup or string gauge to minimize or get rid of the fret buzz.

hey, its a 98 midnight blue with bt, at te moment it has rotosound swingbass hybrid guage rounds, did have ti flats on it till a week ago,still had simular probs then, mabie more so
x

4003 that is =]

To verify that your nut is cut too low, try the old match book trick.
Cut little peices of matchbook cardboard, insert them under the strings on the nut, play, repeat.

If that fixes it, then get a new nut cut. Any reasonably good guitar tech could make you one.
If not, check back in, for really good advice from a great smart bunch of people

Sounds like your playing style could use just a touch of relief at the seventh fret . I would also go with 2.5mm - 3mm clearance at the last fret . You need some room to pull on the neck and dig in to the strings .

The only buzzing you can get from a nut cut too deep is on open strings. Once it is fretted the nut is out of the picture. If I understand you right you may have a back-bow, the bridge is too low, or you may have a fret(s) that are too high and need to be leveled.

the matchbox trick sounds cool, i had already done a simular thing with layers of electrical tape, it seems to make a difference, but not compleatly resolve the matter, later when i have a chance i will do some mesurments of my present set up

Sounds like backbow to me, or possibly too low action (probably the former). Listing your action height etc won't necessarily help much as we don't know how hard you play relative to someone else. I normally find if I'm getting consistent buzzing across the lower frets a tweak of the rods sorts it out; obviously if your action is very low and you're hammering away then you'll probably get it everywhere else too. Shame you're in Lincoln as I'd have looked at it for you. You could always take it to a decent luthier if you can't sort it yourself.

even though visualy it didnt look like back bow, you guys were right, tweaked the rods and now its virtualy gone, it only appears on very hard playing, which aint a regular playing style for me. gawwww i love this bass so much. i keep dreaming of a beaten up old JG though. I'm realy craving a good old workhors bass.somethign that feels real lived in,

Hold down the E and G strings at the first and last frets and see if the string JUST meets the frets all along the length (a flat neck) or if it hits in between somewhere first (backbow) or if it has a gap along the string (upbow). Easiest way to check the rod adjustment.