Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Looks real nice!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2371435577&category=4713

At least this time he described the neck repair which he so vaguely alluded to the last time he listed it. I could live with this! If only I had a winning lotto ticket...

Hmm, theres more...
"Re: Question For Seller
The neck repair was due to a bad truss rod adjustment sometime before I owned it. It's actually visible in the picture of the back of the headstock. It started as a separation of the fret board then it split the maple about two inches. It was repaired long before I got it and I know how to adjust those things without breaking them so it's just fine and dandy now. The worse of the break was on the bottom of the neck. The reason I put it in stereo was that the guy who had it before me put Bartolinis in it and when I put it all back decided to try it in stereo. The previous owner is a professional guitar builder and in the process had to route a slightly deeper hole under the neck pickup to fit the Bart. I forgot to mention that as well. It's about 1/2 a centimeter deep. It's very clean and follows the original routing lines of the neck pickup. When I put the original pickups back in I had to do a little re-wiring. Some of the old wire I re-used. The toaster pickup is still very nice sounding, although slightly quieter then the new one. The toaster was dead. I stuck some magnets underneith the pole-piece screws and it livened up a lot. There's been a lot done, but most of it to keep it as great a player"

"Truss rods both work exellent and neck is very straight"

I thought 4001s had only a single truss rod?

pretty much all Ric basses have 2 truss rods ... even my 2030 with a bolt on neck has 2 rods ... Ric might have made some single rod basses but I am not aware of them ...

I found this on http://www.epinions.com/content_63584505476 and I've heard it elsewhere as well:

Originally, the 4001 basses were built before modern roundwound strings were developed. Electric basses used flatwound strings, which were lower tension. When roundwounds started getting popular for their brightness and players started switching over, the necks on the Rics would warp under the increased tension of the strings. To correct this problem, Rickenbacker designed the 4003 with two truss rods in the neck.

No the vast majority 4001s have two truss rods, but a different design was put together for the 4003s. But both have a very well-designed double truss rod system...
I've never been to that site before, and it sounds like the writer just used some misleading language, or didn't know. I wouldn't go to epinions.com for the best info on Ricks, this place however can give you far more information. Even RIC CEO John Hall posts here, so you can get the info you need here. Check out the Vibrola tech forum on this site for more, the technical person that answers questions there can give you a far more definitive answer than I can...
And welcome aboard!!!

my 1968 4001 has 2 truss rods ... the newer truss rod system is easier to adjust ... and you won't pop a fret board with the new truss rod system ...

I couldn't tell you what year everything was switched to dual truss rods but probably all 4001s's were dual.

That article is flawed in that the 4003 reflected a redesign of the dual rod system in use on the 4001, not the addition of a rod. Actually someone added a comment to that posting correcting the misinformation.

Well I stand corrected. Thanks.
Very nice looking bass, by the way.