Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

It's resurrection is 99% done so I figured I'd post it and let everyone enjoy it as much as I am! I purchased this former Burgundy 1973 4001 (ME2027 May of 1973) on ebay from a dealer in England. He came down quite a bit on his price so I pulled the trigger and bought this baby back home to the USA!

When i got it it had a bit of tail lift, early style all black knobs, and two straight Grovers. It has a bit of a hum upon plugging it in to my amp but it was not big deal. The neck was flat and straight and it had a set of light fender flatwound strings on her. She had been changed to Autumglo at some point and refretted.

I purchased a newer tail piece assembly from Jeff (JPS) and swapped it out to get rid of the tail lift. I found a set of wavy Grovers and replaced the two straight Grovers. i also found a set of vintage chrome top knobs that came off a 73 4001 to replace the earlier knobs. The Flatwounds came off and on went a balanced set of Circle K's that closely matched the stock size. I removed the treble pup cover and added a bezel from Tube Ampology.

I'd like to swap out the black nut with a white one but for now the black will do. I need to replace the selector switch. That will be done in the winter.

When swapping out the tail piece I had to lengthen the ground wire. After soldering the splice and adding shrink wrap. i put her all back together plugged her in and was greeted by a deafening hum. I took the pick guard off and found the ground to the tail piece had come off at the pot. When I fixed that connection, the buzz went away completely. it must have a had a bad ground to start.

She is extremely comfortable to play and she had a great sound. She is by far my favorite of all 3 of my Rickenbacker's! I want to thank eveyone that offered assistance in bringing her back to nearly stock!

So, how did I do??

Sepp

Looking great, Sepp!

Why do you want a white nut, I think black is correct for that month. I have been known to be wrong, though.

Jeff,

The black nut is most likely original to the bass but it seems quite grooved. I had a real tough time getting the intonation close. I thought the white nut would "pop" a bit more. The registry says this was made in may of 73 so this must have just missed full width inlays. It seems like 1973 was the beginning and end for a few features like the aluminum tail piece, the inlays, checkered binding, and a few different types of treble pups.

I think anyone would be hard pressed to tell that there is a newer style tail piece on this. I kept the old one just in case if I sell her sometime down the road, the original one is still able to be put on.

Sepp

The tailpiece looks great, really.

Spring '73 was quite a transitional period, for sure.

jps wrote:Looking great, Sepp!

Why do you want a white nut, I think black is correct for that month. I have been known to be wrong, though.

The original nut on my May 73 fireglo was white.

Okay, good to know. Go for it, Sepp!

I looked at the foto data bank and 73 is a mixed bag. There were many May 73's with white nuts so that is most likely the direction I'll go. Thanks all.

Sepp

...the white nut sounds a bit brigther than the black nut!
No joke: I think your intonation problems have some other cause than the nut? Most likely it is the bridge.
For the nut, it only has to have a clean cut at the end towards the fretboard, if you check for this.

It looks terrible; you better send it to me.

johnallg wrote:It looks terrible; you better send it to me.

mmmmm checkered binding.......

Looks amazing. Love it!