Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi

My new 4003JG arrived last week. This is my second 4003, the other one was a 2010 model.I did a setup, adjust the neck almost flat, and I adjusted the bridge almost bottomed, to have a low action, approx. 1.5 mm, at the 12th fret E string. My 2010 model was more or less the same, used with almost bottomed bridge. Is it normal on newer 4003s? I'm really afraid of the negative neck angle, I read about it many times. On my other Rick, a 79 4001, if I adjust the bridge to lowest position, the strings lay down to the fretboard. Is this the way it should be? Or they won't lay on the fretboard on new 4003s. If I watch photos or videos, newer ones can be seen with bridges in very low, maybe bottomed position, so maybe mine is normal.

How does the height of the nut slots compare between the newer basses and the '79? I never tried to lay the strings down on my basses, but I was able to get a lower action on my '83 than on my '15 because the nut was cut deeper. I understand that Ric purposely leaves the nuts cut a bit on the high side to allow for personal preference. I had a luthier cut the slots a bit deeper on the '15 (told him to match the '83) and I'm much, much happier with it.

I don't know, if my nut slots are high, but nut slots can make only the open strings higher, if I push down the strings to the first fret, only the bridge and the neck angle that counts. If I change the bridge to my 79's bridge, which has deeper saddle cuts, the strings are almost touch the fretboard, so I can set the bridge higher and I don't run out of adjustability, so maybe deepening the saddles slightly will be the solution.

Yes, deepening the saddles will help some, but keep in mind that since the saddles are triangular in cross section this will change the intonation a bit making it go sharp some. Just something to keep in mind so you will know to readjust the intonation, which you will probably have to do anyway when lowering the height of the strings as that, too, affects intonation some.

As Robert mentioned above, check, and adjust if necessary, the nut slot height for each string as that does affect overall string height a bit, too, but not intonation in this case. I play with a pretty light touch so I can get away with setting the nut slot so that there is barely any space between the top of the 1st fret and the bottom of the strings; basically, I set it so that the distance is about the same as that at the 2nd fret when holding the strings down at the first fret.

Hope this helps.