Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Paul, I just saw this description of how G&L does their current truss rods and it seems, to me, like an interesting modern design based on the old style Rick rods. What say you?

Ain't that the cat's meow! Yeah, same principal as the earlier rods, just re-engineered. Pretty clever. Hmmm, I wonder if they would fit..........

This is a Chinese truss rod design that's been available for decades. Most of them have blue shrink tube but some suppliers are now using black.

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/22669 ... image.html

http://www.alliedlutherie.com/truss_rods.htm

http://www.dhgate.com/electric-accousti ... 93cb5.html

Thanks, John! Still, it looks like a reasonable design; have you experimented with these at all?

ahhh ! i remember it well...pulling out the truss rods from my '73 just for the halibut ! noticing that it made from flattened round stock, folded over on itself with a strip of electrical tape on the inside surface to quiet any rattling that may occur. the weak spots to this design in my opinion was the threaded portion was not fully threaded on the circumference as the round bar was flattened, thus only having threads on the rounded sides of the bar which could strip, and as the thrust plate was aluminum, the nuts would dig in as there were no thrust washers installed to protect it. still a good design and it works !

obviously, it has been modified now to better the design application. great job.

I know that lots of people--especially the uninitiated--would ***** and moan, but I would sure think it would be cool if the "old rods" came back in some way or other. My 1976 is so stable it might as well be a graphite neck, and yet it's paper thin too.

Then again with the recent return to two-piece necks, my 2010 4003 is almost as stable. Maybe the laminations are just as key.

jps wrote:Thanks, John! Still, it looks like a reasonable design; have you experimented with these at all?

Not that i am John ...but i tried to modify this style rod to fit 4001 by grinding the bottom the result was not that great since that job would require proper tooling, so i am looking for blacksmith that would do the whole thing from scratch. i like the nut on that g&l rod - no more problems with trying to fit 1/4 driver in place ... i wonder how well would it work in ric 4001 neck though..i think that it would require four hands to adjust the neck and work on those rods - all at the same time...

Here is a similar item that Stew Mac has sold for years. http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Truss_rods/ ... es#details
I owned a G&L years ago and it had a totaly differ type of truss rod in it.