Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi all.

I am new to the forums and new to Rickenbacker ownership. Took delivery of my 4003 Fireglo in October 2011 so it's not exactly "brand new" anymore. It was built the first week of March 2011. Absolutely beautiful in so many ways. I am very impressed with the sound, finish and workmanship. A real piece of art! I cannot believe it's mine everytime I take it out of the case.

So far I've removed the treble p'up cover, adjusted the pole pieces a bit and swapped out the old strings. Boy did this change the sound. I didn't realize how dead the old strings were. I've also tweaked the truss rods 1/4 turn so far. This was actually done in two 1/8 turn adjustments. Once when I first got it and once when I replaced the strings this past Saturday.

This brings me to a question. I've read everywhere that the neck needs to be COMPLETELY straight, no relief at all. After I added my new strings (Rickenbacker brand and gauge), I decided to check the neck with a straight edge. I still had some relief, maybe around 1/8 an inch at about the 5th and 7th fret area. So I added the second 1/8 turn on the rods. This was two days ago and I still have some relief. At that time I also had to raise the bridge on the E side quite a bit to get the E string to just a slight buzzing against the frets. I assume it was a combo of the relief being removed and the addition of new strings. Action is still acceptable and as of last night, no buzzing at all.

Should I continue to tighten the truss rods to pull out all of the relief? It plays well, the intonation is good and I am very happy with the sound. Just wondering if more tweaking will make it play/sound even better or if it will just make me have to raise the action even more to prevent buzzing strings. Oh, and thanks to the forum and Joeys bass notes. I would have never tried making adjustments on my own without all this info, even though I am quite handy.

I'll throw a few pics on here and add my bass to the register later tonight

Thanks for any suggestions, comments!
Barry

Congrats on the new bass and welcome to the forums!

Yes, welcome to the RRF!

What I've heard is that ideally, the neck should be dead flat. I've personally never bothered to measure it and mostly go by whether it feels/plays OK. I suppose that maybe I'm not as sensitive as some folks might be though...

Rickenbarry wrote:I still had some relief, maybe around 1/8 an inch at about the 5th and 7th fret area.

The straighter the better works well with the neck-through design. How are you measuring your relief? The recommended way is the fret at the first and last, then see what the gap is from 7~9. The string is now acting like a perfect straight edge. Gap equal to the thickness of a credit card down to a piece of paper is a good target to aim for.

Welcome to the forum Barry! Congrats and enjoy your 4003!

coolhandjjl wrote:

Rickenbarry wrote:I still had some relief, maybe around 1/8 an inch at about the 5th and 7th fret area.

The straighter the better works well with the neck-through design. How are you measuring your relief? The recommended way is the fret at the first and last, then see what the gap is from 7~9. The string is now acting like a perfect straight edge. Gap equal to the thickness of a credit card down to a piece of paper is a good target to aim for.

Yes, I did do it the string way after the first adjustment, Just a little plink at the 7th fret but I didn't try to measure. Then after the string install I actually put an aluminum straight edge (I'm in the auto biz so I have one for cylinder heads) on the frets and noticed the gap. Got this idea when I saw a tool for checking fretboards on the POTR website. I had tried eyeballing the length of the neck but, my eyes are so bad I could not notice any relief. My readers made this even worse (getting old sucks, except now I can afford a Ric ). I'm probably approaching the credit card thickness at this time. I'll double check tonight.

Thanks to all for the warm welcome!

Barry

Pics as promised...these are the day I got her!

In the case:


Front:


Back


Back closer


One More

Oooh! Pretty!
Congrats!

Welcome Barry. Very nice FireGlo! Read up on setup techniques on Joey's site then have at it on your bass and see if it gets you where you want it to be. I'm guessing yes.

http://www.joeysbassnotes.com/Rick_maint.htm

Congrats, Barry, on a great looking 4003! Those FGs are stunning, these days.

jps wrote:Congrats, Barry, on a great looking 4003! Those FGs are stunning, these days.

I agree! I want one real bad

Congrats! Beautiful FG! Between RRF and Joey's site you're in good hands, I can say it has helped me immensely

For me 1/8" relief is huge. I think if you keep working with the rods you can do much better. I like to be able to see a tiny bit of light between the bottom of the E string and 7th fret. Like the thickness of a sheet of paper. Congratulations on your new art piece.

VRICKY63 wrote:For me 1/8" relief is huge. I think if you keep working with the rods you can do much better. I like to be able to see a tiny bit of light between the bottom of the E string and 7th fret. Like the thickness of a sheet of paper. Congratulations on your new art piece.

Thanks again for the warm welcome everyone!

Yes, I'll probably continute to tweak it. If I document what I do and don't like it I can always return it to the same setup. Tried the string way of measureing last night. The E side is about right. The G side needs a little more help. That probably explains why the bridge is set so low on that side. I am less than a full turn from as low as it can go. I don't think I could get the G string to buzz if I tried.

At least I've gotten over the fear of working on it. I also had to tighten up the tailpice a few weeks ago. Wasn't loose but not very tight either. That and the new strings bought back a ton of sustain to the E. Sounds exactly like I expected it to now!

Congratulations on that FireGlo beauty and welcome to the Forum, Barry !