Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Another restoration thread is NOT what I intended to be doing!! Regardless, here I am!

Here is the quick re-fresher for those not up to speed. Purchased a 1968 horsie 4001 after it had been a link to the Craigs List advertisement was listed in the market place. I acted ral fast and got first dibs on her. Lucky me right?? Not so much!! The owner, a music shop owner in Denver listed her as a 1964 and posted a lousy foto of her. All my phone questions went quite well and I was reasonably sure she was exactly as she was described to me, an untouched 4001.

What I got was a late 1968 bass with a RIHS pup!!. Whiel nto happy, everything else seemed to be "right as rain". Aluminum cast tail piece, bridge, and saddles, short pole toaster, original Burgundyglo finish in nice condition, and the electronics looked correct despite being re-wired with speaker wire.

I pulled her apart, sold the RIHS on ebay for $150, got the seller to re-reimburse me a few hundred dollars and began to pull the bass apart.

I first sent out the loaded pickguard to Dane Wilder. Dane refurbished the electronics in my 1965 4001 and did such a great job, I knew he would do wonders with these.

After the guts arrived Dane verified the pots were all correct late vintage 1968!! I knew the Ajax .047 caps were period as was the tiny aqua .0047 cap! After measuring the values on the pots, he informed me that none would zero. They would have to be replaced. Bummer right?? No so fast!! here's where sending it to a craftsman who really cares about these instruments really pays off!! He removed all the pots from their dated shells and re-cased them with new close tolerance internals!! The 250k pots are withing 3% of spec and the 500k pots are within 1% of spec!! I now have the best of both worlds! New pots that are dated vintage to my bass!!

He removed all the wiring and used proper orange cloth covered wire. he took apart my toaster, cleaned it up and rewired the correct lead to it! The toaster measures 8.25k.

The harness is on its way back to me. Once it arrives, the pickguard goes to Tony at Pickguardian to be pattered and have a new one cut, to replace the cracked one!

Some fotos of Dane's handywork. I really cant recommend him enough for his electronic wizardry!!
Old harness before sending it to Dane.
Stripped of speaker wire.
Old shell, new pot!
Completed new/vintage pot!

Sepp

More progress!
Going back together! The elusive aqua .0047 cap!!
Done!!
Dane pulled the switch apart, cleaned, and re-bent a few leaves for flawless operation.
The short pole toaster measuring 8.25k

Sepp

One of the most difficult pieces to find was going to be the correct slotted pole green bobbin that's found in this vintage. I had one in the 73 4001 I owned and it was the meanest growling treble pup of all my Rickenbackers. I really got lucky when a forum member let this gem go out of his collection of vintage parts! Thanks again!!
Now I have to source a wide opening set of horseshoe magnets!!

Sepp

Nice update!!! I'm sure the shoes will turn up. Dane is the man! Especially when it comes to harnesses..... many happy customers out there!!!

I'm pretty sure it was me that bought your RISH pickup from ebay. Good luck with the restoration.

ibal wrote:I'm pretty sure it was me that bought your RISH pickup from ebay. Good luck with the restoration.

Dennis,

Why yes, you did! Thanks for that, since I'm using the funds to turn this instrument around!!

Sepp

The shoes are out of a late 50's lap steel. They have a wider opening than the 1963 shoes i have. Still I doubt it is wide enough. I'm going to give it a try since I'm using .098, .073, .055, .039 set of balanced tension strings.
Sepp

It was a nice day outside so I decided to wash my truck and buff out the original Burgundyglo finish with some Swirl X.
Now just waiting for the guard and harness to arrive so I can sent the guard out to Tony.

Sepp

There's not much room in that pickup so you'll need a really light touch on the strings. The bobbin looks too tall, perhaps get a shorter one made for the shoes, which look great.

jps wrote:There's not much room in that pickup so you'll need a really light touch on the strings. The bobbin looks too tall, perhaps get a shorter one made for the shoes, which look great.

Better yet, keep the original slotted pole bobbin and get a wider set of shoes!

Sepp

Maybe, but there may still not be a whole lot of clearance to play at all aggressively without the strings running into something.

Most of the photos I have of HS pickups have pretty short bobbins:

Kopfjaeger wrote:It was a nice day outside so I decided to wash my truck and buff out the original Burgundyglo finish with some Swirl X.

T.jpg

Sepp

That is just gorgeous! It is going to be worth all the bother,don't you think? That combination of that deep BG,binding,and fwi's is just gonna be a stunner!

jps wrote:Maybe, but there may still not be a whole lot of clearance to play at all aggressively without the strings running into something.

Most of the photos I have of HS pickups have pretty short bobbins:

And for a pretty good reason too. Clearance. That coil of Sepp's looks really tall.

I hate to say it, but I've all but given up on the HS in my '67. It's driving me nuts trying to get an even response on all strings without running into something. The A, D & G strings sound amazing, but I have to be careful how hard I hit the A. The E is way too over-powered, but I can't get it any lower. Couple that with the drastic drop in volume when combining the toaster and it forced me to put a Lollar re-wound '73 hi-gain in it over the weekend. It sounds really good (not as good as the HS), but all my problems went away.

That is unfortunate, Kevin; I have had no such problems with my HS pickup. It did take a bit of time to dial the height in but the string to string response is even on it, and there is no drastic volume changes when bringing in the toaster.