Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Well, yesterday and thus far today I have invested a total of 9 hrs into the SnowGlo mods. The nut will still need to be filed to tweak it and I need to adjust/balance pickup height.
The installed strings are nickel R Cocco rounds - .045 .065 .080 .100

I placed some heat shrink on the toaster and HS wiring for added protection. Loctite purple (light duty) was used on the HS screws and on the toaster. Dane Wilder's replacement harness loom is crafted extremely well,(his soldering is better than mine - super clean and accurate...he must have three hands) with CTS 250K/500K pots and switchcraft jacks and pup selector. I went without the 0047 cap. That's an easy install anyway, and I have several flavors to select if desired.

I did not change the shorter switch bat with RIC's custom longer one. The shorter one is fine, and I placed a white tip on it for fun. The stereo jack went into the body well, but the mono was a true pain. An interference fit, and the original RIC mono assembly was challenging to remove. I ended up removing the exterior jack plate to aid in the process.

RIC's replacement toaster(7.32K) and HS (10.88K) were easy to solder into Dane's perfectly arranged harness. RIC leaves plenty of ground wire from the bridge to re-attach to the treble volume pot. I placed hex flathead 4/40 screws into the bridge (thanks Jeff) to ease intonation. I discovered by playing the bass earlier, that I dropped the bridge all the way down (Hey, I'm used to Lakland!) and guesstimated using my normal tuning strobe Sonic Research ST-200, how much the saddle movement I would need to intonate once I got started. So, I was saddle cutting springs in advance. After applying Zymol while working and finishing up, I placed the new strings on to sit overnight, tuned to pitch. This morning a gave the neck rods a slight tweak. A few hours later a pulled the Peterson tuner out of its case.

One of the advantages of having the bridge bottomed out (other than the attendant low action) is that to gain access to the hex heads with an Allen driver, I just raise the bridge up, lift the string clear and move the saddle, and drop the bridge all the way back down. I had to cut more spring from the G string saddle to compensate for its 12th fret sharpness to gain more aft travel. The E and A saddles had to be reversed and more springs cut as they ran very flat. ( I surmised this back when I was just playing it out of the box). In playing position, I simply do a harmonic at the 12th fret, and then fret the note at the 12th. That said, regardless of the value of this method, I strive to intonate it, perfectly. It would be interesting to have a bass Plek'd and then check the fretboard.
I have decided I don't file string nuts often enough these days to be comfortable, so I'll call Joe Glaser and hopefully he'll dress those tomorrow and then I'll re-intonate. Lastly, I have been chatting with Jeff here and Tony and Pickguardian about a white pearloid pickguard that matches the fretboard material. But, I'm not so sure the RIC guards haven't been altered as of late, at least according to Tonys online template. I'll place some photos of the SG pickguard over his template. Anyway, it's starting to get there....

The pickguard alignment pics are here... If a .0047 cap was to be installed, any suggestions from these three? One of which is RIC's current cap. The West -Cap PIO is 10% the others are 5% tolerance.

Really surprised nobody has commented at all!

We're all just speechless...

Yeah,that is a beautiful bass,and what you're doing to it is exactly what i would do if i were buying a 4003. I like the idea of the neck inlay-matching pg,too. Looking forward to seeing the outcome!

woodyng wrote:Yeah,that is a beautiful bass,and what you're doing to it is exactly what i would do if i were buying a 4003. I like the idea of the neck inlay-matching pg,too. Looking forward to seeing the outcome!

Yeah, I like that idea, too. Kinduva snow-and-ice motif! Should be even more gorgeous than it is now!

RickyBubba wrote:Really surprised nobody has commented at all!

cjj wrote:We're all just speechless...

Snow Glo Mods envy

Thank you, guys. It is a nice bass. The pickguard will be done around the second week of Oct. Kudo's to Jeff Scott for making me aware of that material. Jeff had placed it on a JG 4003 he used to own.
On Monday, I had an incredibly experienced tech friend here in town dress the nut properly. Widening those slots and filing the proper compound angles made a huge difference. He wanted the neck straighter than I had adjusted too as well.
A guy like him, who for 30 yrs. has worked for the likes of GnR, Kiss, Ozzy, Tool, 'Rage', and for the last several years, Linkin Park, just looks at the geometry of an instrument and goes to tweaking it in a matter of minutes. It was a 'night and day' awareness when he handed back to me to play. All that was left to do was re-intonate when I got home....and then play it for an hour.

Rob,

You Snowglo reminds me of Paul Boyer's "Snow White". I imagine it also reminds Paul the same way. I've never played a re-issue horsie, sorry but I'm spoiled by the real thing , I hope it sounds just as awesome! The toaster is a very nice touch as well!

Filing nuts is a mystery to me. I under stand the concept but other than trial and error, I really have no clue as to what I'm doing! I suppose I can be really dangerous with my newly acquired set of nut files! I suppose I need to take a tutorial on this art form. Any suggestions? I've filed saddles and nuts but I really need to learn how to do it properly. Any suggestions on where to learn?? I do like to be self sufficient with my instruments. At this point in time I need to send the medium duty stuff out to be handled. Outside of setting up, soldering and butchering nuts and saddles, everything else is out of my "realm".

Here is foto of Snow White, which is no longer with me.
Sepp

Captain Bob wrote:On Monday, I had an incredibly experienced tech friend here in town dress the nut properly. Widening those slots and filing the proper compound angles made a huge difference. He wanted the neck straighter than I had adjusted too as well.
A guy like him, who for 30 yrs. has worked for the likes of GnR, Kiss, Ozzy, Tool, 'Rage', and for the last several years, Linkin Park, just looks at the geometry of an instrument and goes to tweaking it in a matter of minutes. It was a 'night and day' awareness when he handed back to me to play. All that was left to do was re-intonate when I got home....and then play it for an hour.

Excellent!

If you have not seen the photo of my old bass here is one that shows the pickguard material along with the inlays.

That looks awesome, and you had a lot of fun making the changes. Well done.

Kopfjaeger wrote:Rob,

You Snowglo reminds me of Paul Boyer's "Snow White". I imagine it also reminds Paul the same way. I've never played a re-issue horsie, sorry but I'm spoiled by the real thing , I hope it sounds just as awesome! The toaster is a very nice touch as well!

Filing nuts is a mystery to me. I under stand the concept but other than trial and error, I really have no clue as to what I'm doing! I suppose I can be really dangerous with my newly acquired set of nut files! I suppose I need to take a tutorial on this art form. Any suggestions? I've filed saddles and nuts but I really need to learn how to do it properly. Any suggestions on where to learn?? I do like to be self sufficient with my instruments. At this point in time I need to send the medium duty stuff out to be handled. Outside of setting up, soldering and butchering nuts and saddles, everything else is out of my "realm".

Here is foto of Snow White, which is no longer with me.

02.jpg

Sepp

Yes Sepp, when I was lurking over the years I recall watching this bass underway. That is, if your talking about the bass Dane initiated with Arnquist. I pulled the trigger on the SG firstly, because it replicates, to a large degree, the 4001 which I custom ordered in '80 (my avatar stage pic). Interestingly, they both came from the same retailer....33 yrs. apart.

Yes, I do my own set ups, amp biasing, etc. Back in the 70's, I worked part time for a luthier while in college. So, I learned some things. If you have time, you may wish to offer free assistance to a luthier in exchange for instruction. That said, I won't touch a nut, since I don't do it often enough to feel comfortable. I carry no blanks....Fender, Lakland, Rickenbacker, so if I screw it up, I have to take it to the real talent anyway. I use the same string guages on everything, bouncing between DR and R Cocco. If I were to string flats, I prefer TI JF344's. I keep one set of those on hand.

Ever since I settled in the Nashville area, one discovers a plethora of manufacturers, techs, players, you name it. The best of the best. Very talented people. So, it becomes easy thru the friends one makes to get these things accomplished with a second set of eyes. Coupled, with a high level of skill, knowledge, and ability. Originally, I was going to take this over to Joe Glasers,(I wanted to see their PLEK too) but they had no time for a couple of weeks, and I'm too spoiled by getting it done as I wait and watch. Luckily, a tech friend had an early break from studio babysitting a bands gear, and was able to fit me in his schedule.

Real Horsehoes.......You'll find it interesting that while my bass is getting the nut tweak on Monday, I'm told the story of how years ago, a guy who had an already modded '63 4001, now wished to have EMG's installed. This fellow still had the original toaster and HS pups from the previous work, and used them as a $50 partial payment toward the EMG work. These were offered to me, and I'm headed over there in a bit to look at them. Now if RIC would only place into the US market, those RM's.......

Bob

jps wrote:

Captain Bob wrote:On Monday, I had an incredibly experienced tech friend here in town dress the nut properly. Widening those slots and filing the proper compound angles made a huge difference. He wanted the neck straighter than I had adjusted too as well.
A guy like him, who for 30 yrs. has worked for the likes of GnR, Kiss, Ozzy, Tool, 'Rage', and for the last several years, Linkin Park, just looks at the geometry of an instrument and goes to tweaking it in a matter of minutes. It was a 'night and day' awareness when he handed back to me to play. All that was left to do was re-intonate when I got home....and then play it for an hour.

Excellent!

If you have not seen the photo of my old bass here is one that shows the pickguard material along with the inlays.

Hi Jeff! After aligning his template on the SG guard, as depicted in those pics, Tony and I decided it would be best to send the original too him, to get it right the first time. If his template is accurate, my SG guard is different.

Thank you once more, for your kind help,
Bob

Also, with respect to intonating the 4003, one can't beat the those hex flathead 4/40's that Jeff Rosenkranz (milo) has access too. It make's the task that much smoother and faster using a 1/16 allen ball end driver. Thank you for all your effort in getting those to me Jeff!

Bob

Rob,

Jump on the toaster and horsie if they are legit!! If it's a short pole toaster, it's worth some money. The horsie, well, they aren't worth anything. Send it to me, I'll "take it off your hands"!!

Sepp