Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

OK here goes, two days ago I was hell bent on taking Sniow White to my practice to giver her a good rock & roll/metal workout. As I was going over her, I noticed her action was a bit high and as I got up into the 14th fret on the G string I realized the string was clanking off the higher frets and muting the sound. This replicated itself up to the 16th or 17th fret where it returned to normal. A quick check of the neck flatness with my PoTR neck tool revealed a very distinct dip in the neck around the 12th fret. The E side of the neck was slightly less so.

I pulled off the TRC to give the truss rods a bit of a tighten and noticed they were already pretty snug. I gave then both a turn from flat to peak and was pretty concerned with the amount of force I had to put into it to get her that small distance.

The weather here on the mid Atlantic coast has been up and down. From temps in the 15 degree range to as high as in the 40's within a few days. Temps have been all over the map. My home temps have been pretty constant. I have baseboard radiators with no humidifier. I don't think it has been excessively dry in the home. My other Rickenbackers have fared really well as far as neck stability goes.

A day later the neck was nearly dead flat and the muting was only at one fret. I raised the G side bridge up a half turn and presto, she was perfect. I decided to give her a good cleaning and in doing so, I found something that completely wrecked my day. I found a crack I can feel with my fingernail on the G side of the fretboard at the nut.

Here is my dilemma, send her out to have the fretboard pulled and repaired, or lower the price a grand or so and blow her out as is, or pull her parts out scrap the modified V63 body and look for an early 70's carcass to replant her guts into?

To have her repaired sounds like the best way but It is not that easy. I'm hesitant to put any more money into a bass I', already attempting to sell for a thousand less than I purchased her for. Larry Davis had a hell of a time paint matching the chip on the headstock. He'd pretty much have a much larger issue painting the neck after the repair. It has those two small cracks on the body near the neck. While this joint is stable, it is a detractor to a sale, and I know it. Putting more money into her to take more of a beating does not make sense to me.

Lowering her price to $1,500. and disclosing the issues is the least intrusive and costly for me. Yes, potentially losing a thousand dollars on a sale stings but no more money will be leaving my pocket.

The third option is last resort but somewhat attractive option since her electronics sound so good that I'm sure I make a great old hull reborn with her top notch pieces. I'd be in no rush to do this and I'd wait until the perfect hull comes available.

I'm no luthier but I think slimming this neck has undermined it's ability to hold straight, somewhat. Is the neck weak? I don't think so but I'd bet it is weaker than it was before it was slimmed.

Opinions and suggestions on my current situation are welcome.

Sepp

What strings? Are they high tension?

FWIW there is a chance that the cracks on the neck are in the finish only - the finish may be less flexible than the wood at that point and any flexing the neck has undergone has stressed the finish to the point of cracking. I'm not sure how to verify this - but a decent luthier should be able to do so.

I'm running Circle K balanced tension strings on her. Have been since she arrived here. The cracks are only on the G side but I can feel them with my nail. The bothersome thing is the paint is so white, matching it is difficult. The white encroaches on the fretboard.

Don't throw good money after bad.

Bummer of a situation. IMHO selling it with full disclosure is the best option. And as much as you like the hardware (toaster/horseshoe I presume) and want to put it in another body I believe a bass or guitar is more than the sum of its parts. Some basses have mojo and others don't.

ilan wrote:Don't throw good money after bad.

Ilan, that's exactly what I'm thinking!

I would also tend to agree that it is possibly just the finish. I had a crack on my '78 4001 worse than that and I was assured by a Ric specialist that it was just the finish not the neck.

We are a bit luckier here in the UK weather-wise as we don't have the extremes in weather/temperature/humidity that you experience where you live, sounds like the paint and wood have a lot to deal with!

I think I would get it checked out professionally so at least you can tell any prospective buyer hand-on-heart exactly what it is.

If you're close to POTR, and I'm pretty sure you are, take it to Dr. Chris. It's not guaranteed, but he has been known to work near miracles before.

If that yields nothing, and it's fine below the 9th fret or so, throw lighter strings on it and gig with it, since there is no money above the fifth fret!

But seriously, yeah, looks like you may have to just unload it. Let me know if you need help with the gain/loss tax forms!
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4797.pdf

antipodean wrote:FWIW there is a chance that the cracks on the neck are in the finish only - the finish may be less flexible than the wood at that point and any flexing the neck has undergone has stressed the finish to the point of cracking. I'm not sure how to verify this - but a decent luthier should be able to do so.

+1

Is it for playing or collecting? As an investment this seems like a bad development but I don't know if it really does any harm if it's for your playing enjoyment. There are tons of 4001s with far worse cracks out there that are not only stable, they play and sound great.

If it were me and this was something keeping me up at night I'd either find an affordable way to fix it or I'd sell it and get it out of my mind.

Without having it in my hands I would bet it is just the finish. That is what takes the brunt of environmental changes. I see what appears to be two cracks that are not connected but do overlap.

My guess is that it's just the finish.

Sepp, my best advice for you right now, is someone that would know best should look at it in person. At first chance, bring it to POTR and have Chris look at it for you. Then you'd have an idea of how you'd want to go with Snow White.

...you might give it a X-ray if you have a Doc friend with such a machine. Not joking, maybe from the sideview X-R you could see if the wood texture is disrupted also deeper inside as well?

Thanks for all the suggestions. Jason, if you still have my address, please do send me a few gain/loss forms. I'm going to be taking a bath here!

I bought her to play her but never really bonded with her. She sounds and plays great, she really does, but she is just not for me. Is it her color. I do not know. while I did buy her to play her, there is a bit of an investment mindset. No one likes or expects to take a 66% loss on anything they sell. Which is precisely where I'm at now. I can take her to Chris and if he says the cracking is only finish then I may be able to bump up my sell price a little but still there will be two sets of cracks on this bass to explain. The neck cracks are right on the joint where the fretboard meets the neck. They radiate from where the nut is so I'm thinking slight separation. Fixable, yes but the cracks will still be there and if the neck does have stability issues, this issue will re-appear. The best fix would be to pull the fret board and re mount it. That will mean some finish work and that is not easy due to the paint matching I'm not going that route. I'm not putting even a hundred dollars into her. I've lowered her to 1.5k here and I'll wait a week before I put her on ebay. I'm done spending money on a bass I may never sell and I refuse to put more money into her on the hope that someone will buy her.

Sepp