Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi there,

i noticed that my 4001's truss rod aluminium plate (the plate behind the rod nuts) is painted also with the same color of the finish (fireglo) and i was wondering if this is correct or it could mean a repaint job or a replaced plate.

Also what is the correct thickness of that plate (in mm) ?

Thank you

Ciao Mattia!

are you able to post a foto?

The original rod bar of my '98 4003 FG came clean in rectangular form. The original one, including the nuts, on my '86 Shadow came with the top painted Jetglo, with round ends. I suppose rod bars were on the basses when they were finished (painted) in the '70s and '80s, while they were not at least from 1998.

Both are 2.75 mm thick.



Does yours look like the one on top or bottom? Or neither?

A 4001 should be aluminum and not look like either posted. There has been photos posted here that have shown finish on them. The aluminum should taper from the nut (thickest) toward the top of the headstock (thinest) to follow the angle of the headstock.

MiroN wrote:Ciao Mattia!

are you able to post a foto?

Ciao !!

Sorry i can't provide decent photos now, i have to wait tomorrow morning to have (i hope) some decent natural light.

Anyway as for "thickness" i mean the distance between the nuts and the start of the neck (i'll try to describe with a schema)

<----- fretboard -------><------ headstock ---->
-----------------------------tttttttttttt@
-----------------------------tttttttttttt@

where @ is the nut and ttttttttt is the aluminum bar (as watched from above) the thickness is the length of the ttttt section. Mine is circa 10mm

Although this photo is of a 1979 4002, all of my 70's/early 80's 4001/4002/4005 truss blocks look the same. Some of them are more mangled from adjustments and mis-adjustments over the years. Most if not all of mine came painted over from the factory, with color and varnish. This one is obviously MG, but you can still see a trace of varnish on one of the nuts and one of the rods.

http://rickresource.com/register/user_i ... llsize.jpg

Nice example of a truss block isn't it? I think it's my best one! Sure would be cool if someone would get a machine shop to stamp out a few hundred just like it. Maybe in brass though. I'd buy a few.

Mine is very similar to this photo (but without the part evidenced), maybe a few wider.

in my experience, all '60's to early '80's rods and thrust plates were painted over as they were installed prior to the paint booth. all mine had the colour of the instrument on them. i did, however notice a lot of mine were hand made, meaning drilled according to the pattern that the rods protruded into the adjustment cavity. some were off center, crooked, one up/one down, not an exact science at those times...lots of variations ! probably, whatever it took to get the rods to function properly, especially the fact that the rods were flattened bar stock, folded over and threaded on one side. problem with that was the area needed to be threaded now had a flat area on two sides meaning the threads were weak or non-existant on those flat sides. my '64 thrust plate was the worst of them (one rod up/one down). hand filed or ground and beveled to the curved shape of the cavity on each side of the string nut. (you may notice the truss rod cover screws had no wood to anchor into as it was routed too much on the sides on some.)

Mattia, yours looks correct and in good shape. Remember with those rods, loosen, move the neck, hold the neck, tighten the truss nuts. Tightening the truss nuts alone will not move the neck.

johnallg wrote:Mattia, yours looks correct and in good shape. Remember with those rods, loosen, move the neck, hold the neck, tighten the truss nuts. Tightening the truss nuts alone will not move the neck.

I will add to this important info by John, with you will get much better results, being able to tighten the nuts quicker with a 1/4" nut driver. You also have the risk of breaking the rods by using the tool in the picture.

Good point, Joey. I was leery of that tool, but didn't comment. Mattia, can you get Xcellite tools in Italy, or something similar?

http://www.amazon.com/Cooper-Hand-Tools ... 000ZUK398/

The long handle offers torque, but more importantly it gives clearance so not to mar the headstock.

Yes i have a complete kit of nutdrivers, various sizes so i guess between them there is the one who will fit correctly. I will pay attention to give the nut only hand force and not more.

By the way i've found an interesting page (maybe done by a forumite) who gives another two cents on Rick truss rods ...

http://www.tseint.com/4001project/index.html

and yes, i guess that since interest on "old style truss rod" rickenbackers is growing, an instructional video could be done (even if the operation is very simple di per se) ...

This site has a decent amount of fairly accurate info on Ricks.

http://www.joeysbassnotes.com/Rick%20maint.htm








This is our own Joey Vasco's excellent site.

^^^

Yes, Joey's site has become sort of a bible for us Rick owners ...

Thanks for the kind words, fellas!