Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

After a long absence from use, I’ve taken my 4001CS out of it’s case to find that it’s got a reasonable twist to it’s neck. Clockwise (and I’m guessing) of around 5 to maybe 10 deg. I’ll put some pictures up in the next day or two. It’s very noticeable.

I got it around 8-9 years ago, like new, still had the original Ric strings. The only thing I did was change them to Rotosound Swing Bass 45-105 (Nickel wound, Not Steel) and then started using the bass on and off for selected numbers in my band.

Since then it’s been In the case for around 4+ years, only really being taken out for the odd plonk. It’s been in the original case, upright position all that time. Centrally heated house although temperatures have probably ranged from say 10 deg C or so when leaving the house unheated for a week or so during winter, to summer 20 Deg C +.

Initially my heart sunk, however after spending a couple of hours reading relevant threads on the forums I reckon I’ve got a reasonable chance of getting it back in decent shape. I’ve ordered a tool to adjust the truss rods and just waiting on that before I get started.

Before I start i’d like to ask for some advice on what the best course of action would be, and secondly any nuances I should take into account with it being a CS?

1 – Just start adjusting truss rods – tighten up the G side, loosen the E side?

2 – Take the strings off, loosen truss rods and leave it for a couple of weeks to see how it settles out?

3 – As option 2, but remove the truss rods as well?

A bit reluctant to go for option 3 due to the extra potential for me screwing something up and I’m not really sure it’s necessary. I don’t think this is a guitar that has undergone any amount of excessive set up or abuse during it’s life to cause any sort of underlying problem.

Thank in advance guys

Edit - I changed the thread to a more apt title to make it more searchable.

I think I would start with #2, but I will let others chime in that may have more experience dealing with this. Pictures?

Hopefully this should give you a better idea. I taped a steel rule to the truss road cover hoping it would help extend the line of the twist and make it easier to say. I'm not sure it was successful. However you can clearly see the twist just looking at the headstock angle.

Starting with 2 sounds good to me.Bill are you in Aberdeen? or Glasgow? If you in Glasgow id be happy to help you out.
id start by taking the strings of and loosing the truss rods and leaving it in its case for a week or so then having a look at the neck after that.Hopefully it should Settle out and then you can put on the strings tune and adjust the rods a quarter turn at a time to straighten out the neck.

EDIT: i might be a good idea to take off the truss rod cover and have a look at the Truss rod nuts just to make sure they look ok a photo might help.

Ooh, Cheers Scottie. didn't know you could help on the technical side!!!

I'm in Aberdeen, but i get down to Glasgow every 4-6 weeks to see family. We'll see how it goes. If i can't get anywhere, or run into trouble with it perhaps we could arrange to meet up. Cheers for that.

I'll get a pic of the Truss Rod nuts up tomorrow.

No bother i hope it straightens out for ya. also if you do a quick search on Neck twists etc on the forum you might get some extra info on this.

scotty wrote:No bother i hope it straightens out for ya. also if you do a quick search on Neck twists etc on the forum you might get some extra info on this.

Got that covered, hence the reason I felt I could give it a go. I’ve got them all book marked.

Truss rod top pics. Would have been better with the strings off, but i'll wait till i get the trussrod adjustment tool before i faff about more.

I don't think you're going to need to loosen those rods very much To me they don't look like they've ever been tightened.

So youve not even loosened the nuts off yet? Cause they look as loose as my Mrs with my credit card on a Saturday.

Still id make sure they are loose by not touching the nut leave for a week to let the neck relax,but it looks as if your neck been relaxing more than a Student on a Sunday.

scotty wrote:So youve not even loosened the nuts off yet? Cause they look as loose as my Mrs with my credit card on a Saturday.

Lol. Ok, I gather the're loose I've not touched them, took the cover off and the smell of the rick factory hit my nose. It did cross my mind that most other pics i've seen had the threads sticking out the top. Didn't think it was that unusual though. I'm hoping that's good news then. Plenty available to draw up on the left hand side to try and bring it back if needed

First try #2. Give it a couple of weeks. Then tighten both rods until they just grab a mite. Tighten the E/A a full half-turn additionally, and let it sit for a week or two again. Check in again to keep us posted on results. At this point, you're not concerned with relief or action; you just want to see if the rod can straighten the twist.

We'll take it from there once we see if this works or not.

I don't think you're going to need to loosen those rods very much. To me they don't look like they've ever been tightened.

Something I find interesting is that you can see threads between the thrust plate and the nut; are the rods pushed into the neck a bit?

jingle_jangle wrote:Then tighten both rods until they just grab a mite. Tighten the E/A a full half-turn additionally, and let it sit for a week or two again.

Just for my education, could you explain this a little bit?
When the neck is twisted down on the E/A side, my first thought would be to tighten the D/G side more. But thinking about it, tightening E/A side, the rod puts pressure under the E/A side pushing it up...?