Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

For the last year I have been fighting poor action and a bowed neck on my 4003 DCM. Coupled with the other issues the bass has (noisy pickups and what appears to be pitting on the bridge) I was really frustrated with it and rarely took it out of the case. A couple of weeks ago, I decided I was going to at least make every effort to get the action right or break something trying (okay, maybe not go quite that far). I can't have something just sitting in the case. The noise problem I have solved by buying a hum debugger pedal and the bridge is just cosmetic, so I can live with it. I had adjusted the neck before to what seemed like flat and a good action, but within a week, the neck would go back to its old position. This time, however, I think I got it right.

It really only took a couple of good cranks on the rods to get the neck to stay in position. I think I hadn't tightened them enough in the past and the neck just readjusted to the string pull. I took it to church band practice last Thursday and played it this morning and the action is still great. It isn't quite as low as on my 79 4001, but it is no where near as high as it was before the truss rod adjustment. The neck size doesn't bother me, either, and I'm able to switch between it and my 4001 without any problems.

The only bad thing about playing it this week was I put a clear coat scratch on the front of it while wiping it down with the polishing cloth. I hope Scratch-X takes that out. I also figure I'll have to polish it every time I play it, since I tend to sweat a bit while playing. It's funny, though, because I really don't care much how the fireglo on the 4001 looks, but I want the DCM to be shiny! I only wish the full width inlays had been put in production when this thing was built

When I first bought my 4004Cii the neck would change every day . The people on this forum said that was normal and it would settle in time and so it did . Glad you got yours done and I bet it will continue to be fine tuned.

Living in the desert, mine change all the time. Especially this time of year when we fluctuate between using the air conditioner to nothing at all to using the heater all in the same week. I do love how easy these Ric necks are to adjust at will. When they get to a point of annoying, on the bench they go!

nukebass wrote: The only bad thing about playing it this week was I put a clear coat scratch on the front of it while wiping it down with the polishing cloth. I hope Scratch-X takes that out.

It should, you might have to get a bit of muscle behind it depending on the scratch. I've been amazed about some of the scratches and haze that Scratch-X has removed on a couple of instruments that I had bought used.

You put a clearcoat scratch on it with the polishing cloth? I take it you mean just a fine, light polishing mark. If you can't feel the scratch with your fingernail, the Scratch-X will work. If it's something that can be felt, however, you may need more than Scratch-X.