ebay vintage 4001 import horror
Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 9:02 pm
A 1979 Rickenbacker Jetglow 4001 bass arrived at my workshop some time ago literally smashed to pieces. The center section comprising the neck and body center beam was bent at the 11th fret and the timbers had shattered just below the headstock to about the 5th fret and delaminated at the butt. The wings luckily had popped off cleanly. To make things worse a couple of the major fractures had been clumsily glued with epoxy around the 1st to 3rd fret.
The project brief was to salvage what I could and build it into a useable bass. I had the wings, bridge, tuners, nut, a bunch screws and springs and the electronics. The entire center beam was toast so with the budget allowed I decided to rebuild the center beam including the neck and headstock and attach what I could salvage.
The budget disallowed a full restoration so the job brief was to make a playable bass using what could be salvaged from the original. First thing to be dropped was the distinctive "sharks fin" fingerboard inlays which were replaced by the dots used in the 60's models. [see the McCartney Rickenbaker bass] It was decided to use a standard preslotted 34" scale 12" radius fingerboard. The 33.25" x 10" radius Rickenbacker board would have to have been radiused and slotted by hand
Wiring is the original 79 with original pots and caps and knobs. The jacks were dodgy so I replaced those. It got a new guard, bass pickup and the rest is original from the 79 4001.
If you are interested there are more pics and a detailed log of the building process available here
http://www.carltonguitars.com.au/resources/html/gallery/ric_4001.htm
After a good deal of work the following rebuilt "customised" 4001 emerged from the workshop
The project brief was to salvage what I could and build it into a useable bass. I had the wings, bridge, tuners, nut, a bunch screws and springs and the electronics. The entire center beam was toast so with the budget allowed I decided to rebuild the center beam including the neck and headstock and attach what I could salvage.
The budget disallowed a full restoration so the job brief was to make a playable bass using what could be salvaged from the original. First thing to be dropped was the distinctive "sharks fin" fingerboard inlays which were replaced by the dots used in the 60's models. [see the McCartney Rickenbaker bass] It was decided to use a standard preslotted 34" scale 12" radius fingerboard. The 33.25" x 10" radius Rickenbacker board would have to have been radiused and slotted by hand
Wiring is the original 79 with original pots and caps and knobs. The jacks were dodgy so I replaced those. It got a new guard, bass pickup and the rest is original from the 79 4001.
If you are interested there are more pics and a detailed log of the building process available here
http://www.carltonguitars.com.au/resources/html/gallery/ric_4001.htm
After a good deal of work the following rebuilt "customised" 4001 emerged from the workshop
