Rickenbacker 4003 neck problem

[alberobello]

Hi guys!

It is my first post on this forum.

I have a 99' rickenbacker 4003 and until now I have been adjusting the truss rods by myself when it was needed thanks to some web sources like joey's bass notes.

However this time I have a problem that I think I am not able to solve by myself. There is something like a small 'bump' between 5th and 7th frets under E string, that causes problems while I am playing on e and a strings. There is no problem G side of the neck tough. However I am not able to lower strings they seem so high now.

The main problem is that I don't know any luthier here in Istanbul that I can trust enough to leave my guitar.

I didn't want to ruin everything by doing something wrong, so the only thing I tried was changing the strings with lighter ones, I don't know if it was the right action to be taken, but I had rotosound strings with I guess the gauge of .110 on E, now I have d'addario cb80 that has a gauge of .095 in order to reduce the tension on the neck, also I am using unequal tensions on the truss rods.

So now considering that I don't have access to a rickenbacker master luthier, I'd really appreciate your comments about solving this problem, if I can do it by myself!

Thanks a lot!

[RickyBubba]

Hopefully folks with more experience will come along soon.

One thing I can add is that on some basses, when changing the strings, the neck takes a few days to a week or more to completely react to the change. How much time since you went to the lighter strings?

[alberobello]

hi, thanks for the reply..
actually it's been more than 10 days now with the lighter strings, my problem still exists. And after each small adjustment I do on the truss rods I wait at least 1 day to be sure about the reaction of the neck.. I turned the truss rod on the E side on CCW direction, I released it a bit, but it didn't solve the problem and even now I have unequally adjusted truss rods.. I really don't know how to solve this without doing something wrong.

[vax2002]

A repairer will just take the strings of, scratch plate off to check nothing is stripped and un-tension the rods, leave it over night and then start a fresh, pulling the bow out until they are near flat again then string it back up and fine tune.

[Kopfjaeger]

Like Mark said, loosen the string tension then the truss rod tension on both rods, wait a day, and start from scratch. A clean slate so you know exactly where you are with both rods.

Sepp

[alberobello]

Hi, thanks a lot for the suggestions. I did it as you said, I hope it will work.

[rickenbrother]

un-tension the rods, leave it over night and then start a fresh, pulling the bow out until they are near flat again then string it back up and fine tune.

This is how I corrected the neck problem of the 2008 4004Cii Blueburst that Tony C used to have. I completely loosen the strings and truss rod nuts. I left it like that for about a day, then set up his 4004Cii. It was fine after that.

[sloop_john_b]

'99 huh? Interesting...

[Kopfjaeger]

'99 huh? Interesting...

John, Let's not jinx it! Good thoughts, good thoughts!!

Sepp

[jdogric12]

'99 huh? Interesting...

My thoughts exactly, seeing only the OP.

[alberobello]

'99 huh? Interesting...

My thoughts exactly, seeing only the OP.

guys, please.. I don't want to kill myself, what's wrong with '99?

[Ontario_RIC_fan]

guys, please.. I don't want to kill myself, what's wrong with '99?

Nothing! It is just not as much fun as a 69...

[sloop_john_b]

guys, please.. I don't want to kill myself, what's wrong with '99?

I have seen intermittent wood issues with instruments produced in and around that year.

[cassius987]

A bump between frets 5 and 7 that is side-specific (kind of like a partial s-neck) requires an additional question:

*You're sure you didn't change the setup to "reveal" it and you just didn't know it was there before, or it definitely developed "overnight"?

If yes to those questions then I agree, it's probably some kind of extremely misbehaving seasonal wood change (any reason you may think this would happen?) and the good news is those are usually reversible;

If no to those questions, I think the simplest explanation is your fingerboard needs to be leveled and refretted. Fret job might also do the trick, but would just be masking the problem.

On the other hand, there are some problems that are cheaper to solve by just trying a different set of strings.

[alberobello]

A bump between frets 5 and 7 that is side-specific (kind of like a partial s-neck) requires an additional question:

*You're sure you didn't change the setup to "reveal" it and you just didn't know it was there before, or it definitely developed "overnight"?

If yes to those questions then I agree, it's probably some kind of extremely misbehaving seasonal wood change (any reason you may think this would happen?) and the good news is those are usually reversible;

If no to those questions, I think the simplest explanation is your fingerboard needs to be leveled and refretted. Fret job might also do the trick, but would just be masking the problem.

On the other hand, there are some problems that are cheaper to solve by just trying a different set of strings.

Actually I changed the strings with lighter ones, but it didn't work. I do not think that it happened overnight. I've been using the strings higher before, so I didn't realize that I would be this bad. But still I don't know how to solve it, definitely I need a rickenbacker master luthier!