Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

hi everbody,

after hijacking somebody else's thread for information about black pickguards (thanks guys) I thought I might as well open my own thread about how to upgrade my new baby.

Side note: I'm new to this forum as I have been a proud Rickenbacker owner for ten hours now. A '98 jetglo 4003 found its way to my house:



And now I'm thinking about visual upgrades and playability. Already adjusted the pickups a little so it now actually has some output and the E string is as loud as the others. Also, I'll need a treble bezel thingie in order not to cut my right thumb.

Okay, lots of text. As to my question : Is there a source for black truss rod covers for a 4003 bass, or will I have to paint my white one? The problem is that I live in Germany ...

Congrats and welcome!

I wouldn't mod a good TRC. With a little patience you'll find a black TRC on eBay, either with white lettering (to match the binding) or a 4004L TRC with silver lettering, to match the chrome hardware. Keep the white TRC if you ever change your mind and want to restore the bass to original specs.

TRC's are very tightly controlled, short of finding a used one on eBay you're out of luck.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rickenbacker-Truss- ... 500wt_1156



no affiliation

ilan wrote:http://cgi.ebay.com/Rickenbacker-Truss- ... 500wt_1156

Is that legit? The 'made in usa' text looks off-center and crooked.

And Craig (the guy who's selling it) is a forum member and a good guy, so no worries about that auction...

cjj wrote:And Craig (the guy who's selling it) is a forum member and a good guy, so no worries about that auction...

+1

Welcome to the forum, Joe! Good luck with your black TRC search.

thanks for the welcome and help, guys!

woah, I didn't think these TRCs would be so expensive. It seems I still have to get used to the Rick league ... somehow, everything is cheaper if you're playing the likes of Ibanez, Fender or Musicman.

BlueHelmet wrote:woah, I didn't think these TRCs would be so expensive. It seems I still have to get used to the Rick league ... somehow, everything is cheaper if you're playing the likes of Ibanez, Fender or Musicman.

Not all Ric parts are expensive, in this case its a matter of avilability. The only way to get a replacement TRC is to send your old TRC into Rickenbacker along with however much they charge for the replacement so that they can verify you have a real Ric, and you can only replace it with the same model of whatever the one you sent in was.

So as a result there's not an excess of TRC's floating around (which is the point) due to how they're controlled.

So it works similar to real Musicman humbuckers ... hmm. Well, I'll keep an eye on eBay and the likes. Thanks