Please can you help?
I have just bought my first Rickenbacker a week ago (381v69) in fireglo. It arrived with a ridiculous amount of relief on the low e side and lots of fret buzz. It was awful. I removed the truss rod cover to adjust the rods and found that the rod on the treble side was only finger tight. The relief on the low E side was too much. I adjusted a quarter of a turn on the low E side until it was .005, this made the high E side have a slight amount of back bow. I can't loosen this rod to give the neck any relief at all while the bass side is correctly adjusted as it is already slack. This caused fret buzz on the b and e strings. I have had to re-adjust the relief on the bass side to .010 just to get the most tiny unmeasurable amount of relief on the treble side. The action is 5/64ths on the low e at the 12th and 4/64ths on the high e. There is still fret buzz on the low e which is more noticeable above the 9th fret
I'm in the UK so I presume a change in climate from the US affected the factory setup. It was made this year.
Also I'm getting a metallic buzz from the bridge area on the b and e strings. I have made sure the bridge is level, all 4 screws tight and looked at the springs on the saddles. I hear this sound through the amp too at times. It sounds like I'm being very picky, but after spending a large sum of money I expected better. I played a 330 in a shop the other week that blew mine away for playability. I'm wishing I had bought it now at half the cost
I'm reluctant to send it back in the post for adjustment or possible repairs if it is something I can easily put right. Any advice would be appreciated
I have feeler gauges and truss nut tool etc
Thanks
