Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

My CS has probably the flattest radius of any bass I've owned short of Status. Given that Chris's bass was an old one, I assume the radius on his would have been something more in the realms of my 72 4001. Were/are all CSs the same? If so, why? Any ideas?

My CS also has pretty big frets; can't remember what my first one was like but my current one has bigger frets than my other Rics (I think my original did too). Once again, is this common throughout the run? And lastly, why a vermillion board? I assume Chris's bass had a bubinga board like all the others (although it does look rather more red in most photos).

I can only answer regrading the fingerboard wood. At some point in time Chris' bass got a new fingerboard (I am guessing early '70s) and he chose Vermillion for it; I assume he had the headstock wings changed to Vermillion at that time, also. Remember, this is pure speculation on some details.

Thanks Jeff; you learn something every day.

Any other owners? Are yours the same/different? Comments please?

The early ones (up until about '65) were radiused by hand on a belt sander and not very consistently but tend to be around 12" Richard Burke verified this at the 75th. He said of my '63 "I'll bet the radius of that fingerboard changes 3 or 4 times from the first to last fret." It does. Squire's bass was probably like this too. The next ones were 10" all the way up to the transition to the shedua stripe and poured inlays in '73. At that time the radius changed to 7.25". Right around the transition to the new truss system the boards flatten out to 10" again and as far as I can tell, have stayed there ever since. I have played a few CSs and never noticed them to be different from the V63. Unless they are not all the same, I would guess CSs are 10" just like their contemporaries.

Thanks for the info Ted, that's really interesting. My Alembic is apparently 12" and my CS is similar; if anything I'd say maybe flatter still, but without a gauge it's difficult to tell. It's certainly much flatter than that of my '72, which by your calculations would be 10". My'73 4000 is about the same as my '72.

rickfan60 wrote:The early ones (up until about '65) were radiused by hand on a belt sander and not very consistently but tend to be around 12" Richard Burke verified this at the 75th. He said of my '63 "I'll bet the radius of that fingerboard changes 3 or 4 times from the first to last fret." It does. Squire's bass was probably like this too. The next ones were 10" all the way up to the transition to the shedua stripe and poured inlays in '73. At that time the radius changed to 7.25". Right around the transition to the new truss system the boards flatten out to 10" again and as far as I can tell, have stayed there ever since. I have played a few CSs and never noticed them to be different from the V63. Unless they are not all the same, I would guess CSs are 10" just like their contemporaries.

And that right there is why Ted has been so sorely missed around here. Welcome back Ted!!