Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi guys, thought i best ask about this here

Recently ive noticed that my 4003 sounds hollow, with some kind of rattling sound coming from the neck. Its never been set up and arrived from a dealer well packed but very cold... I wonder if he maybe released the tension on the rods because of is time in transit? The strings were prtty slack too.

How can i tell if my rods are setup wrong? Thats probably the $6M question i guess...

Cheers!

Steve

Steve,

Is the neck bowed forward or backward? If you are getting buzzing, I'm, thinking you have a bit of back bow going on but you need to check it to make sure before messign with your truss rods.

Sepp

Hi Sepp... Nope, cant see any bow in the neck at all. its really weird.... It *sounds* like something clacking...

Steve,

Is this rattle heard on all strings?

How much relief does the neck have? If you fret the E string at the first fret with your left hand and the E string at the 19th fret with the pinky of your right hand, is the E sting dead flat against all the frets in between? If you stretch your right hand, while keeping the position mentioned, and lightly thump the E string with your right thumb near the 9yh fret, is there any deflection of the string, or is it pinned to the frets?

Has the humidity been consistent in the area the bass is stored? Did this issue crop up with any temperature/humidity change?

Sepp

CatHead wrote:Hi Sepp... Nope, cant see any bow in the neck at all. its really weird.... It *sounds* like something clacking...

Do you hear this when tapping the back of the neck with your fingers?

Sepp : Relief-wise, you could probably fit a cigarette paper between the string and the frets on the E all the way across, so you can tap it but really not very much.

Jeff : if you tap the back of the neck you can hear the rattling a lot. Playing whilst fretting the A string seems to be the most affected.

Thanks for the help guys

Yep, its definitely the most audible when you tap the back of the neck, anywhere on the neck. I havent tightened any screw anywhere, perhaps I should try that... But im sure its rod related given the sound from the neck tapping.

Pull the TRC and just snug the truss nuts. I'll bet at least one is loose.

Me again!

Ive had a go at trying to find the cause along with Joey's excellent setup vids. Both the rods are quite happily secure, the nuts dont appear to be doing aything untoward. Bridge is fine, in fact everything seems fine... Except...

The D string appears to dause the vibration sound the most, particulary open or at the top of the neck. One way i can reduce it is by pressing down on the string the other side of the fretboard (TRC side). Any ideas what's happening, and how I can stop it?

Thanks once again, and of course top thanks to Joey for his videos!

How big (wide) is the slot in the nut on the D string? It should fit snugly.

Fits perfectly snugly there JA!

I think im gonna have to take it to a luthier... Well one wo kows something about Rics, anyway! Its really annoying, you cant hear the rattle thru amplification at all but acoustically (depending on how / where you hold it) its there most of the time.

Still say a rod is loose. Make sure the tech knows Ricks.

johnallg wrote:Still say a rod is loose. Make sure the tech knows Ricks.

+1

Before you take it to a tech, I'd try raising the bridge a half turn on each side, and possibly changing strings to see if a string let go internally. On another bass I own, I thought my truss rod was letting go, with similar symptoms you describe, but after double checking the setup and changing the offending string, all was well.

Ok, got this fixed eventually!

I took it to Pete Lister in Lowestoft (if you have a Ric problem in the east of England go and see him as i havent met any other guys in the area that have any experience with Rics). Problem was the truss rod on the treble side, it had broken free of its moorings and was clattering about in the neck - the bass side rod was doing its job fine though... So your assessment was correct, John! He also solved another problem i had with it... I thought i was getting low output from the neck PU and I was right, he found that the connection from the stereo to mono output was shorting out, hence the low output. Pete also did me a nice low set up on it as well.

Its all fixed and back to being brilliant again, hurrah

Thanks for confirming my suspicion. Best thing about your post is you have a knowledgeable Rick tech and it is all working as it should. Rock on!