Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Does anyone here know the radius of the fretboard is on a 1985 4003FL? I looked on the rick website and it says Crown radius on 10 inches, i have also seen 12" radius for Rick basses elsewhere. I want to sand the neck with a radius block and bought a 10" block but it seems a little too curved.

I measured a radius of 7.5'' on my '76 4001FL. My 2008 4003FL has a radius of about 12''. So it varies...

cassius987 wrote:I measured a radius of 7.5'' on my '76 4001FL. My 2008 4003FL has a radius of about 12''. So it varies...

Thanks my bridge measured seems to be about 12" so i guess I'll try one of those.

Download and print out a set of these radius guages, don't guess by the bridge! Get the longest radius sanding block you can find too.
http://www.pickguardian.com/free-tools/ ... us-gauges/

Gilmourisgod wrote:Download and print out a set of these radius guages, don't guess by the bridge! Get the longest radius sanding block you can find too.
http://www.pickguardian.com/free-tools/ ... us-gauges/

Thanks I did print out some on another sight last night, the problem is that I have already sanded it down flat with a sanding block. I was following directions from an online tutorial and the guy said he used a sanding block but neglected to specify a radius sanding block, so in my ignorance, haha guess what I did? I'm in the process of super gluing it which sounded great the first time I did it by hand sanding but I had a couple of divots in it hence the sanding block. I only sanded off the superglue not the wood itself so if I have to I'll take it all off but I'm hoping to get the curvature back by sanding the superglue layers with a radius block. This is why I checked the bridge, it fit perfectly in the 12" radius, 10" was a little too curved. i have a 10" block now (8" long) and have a 12" block on order. I tried the 10" block already and it just seemed to be too much.

The radius did turn out to be 10", what a PITA it was getting it back to that radius from being flat. Luckily I hadn't sanded down to the wood, only the covering glue. I finally had to get some sticky 120 grit sandpaper from Stewmac fro use with my radius block, 220, 320 etc. I coated it many times and took it down to the radius again with the 120. I was using 320 but it was taking forever and I had enough glue on it to safely use the 120. I used progressively finer and finer sandpaper ending up using fine pads I bought from Stewmac all the way up to a 12,000 grit pad. The surface looks like glass now and it plays great. I've got Rickenbacker round wounds on it and they have not even scratched the surface in my limited time playing it. It sounds very growly. I've had fretless necks covered with epoxy (4001FL) which changed the sound for the worse or the stuff that pours on bar tops before ( P bass) which felt like plastic and is not real hard. I can not tell the difference between the original finish now playing it or by sound, it sounds like the original finish with round wounds on it. I originally had plastic coated round wounds on it but they sounded kind of dull and I don't like the feel of them, I tried flatwounds and they were very dull. I had a set of Rick strings hanging around from a new bass i had bought some years ago and threw them on before I coated it and they sounded great but I had buzzes all over the place within a few days and one place actually went right through the finish. I was not willing to compromise with the sound of the bass so I researched and found that a few people were using super glue with great results so I bit the bullet and tried it and I've very happy with the results. The stuff really smells bad though and I think it's probably poisonous so I used a fan blowing out the window and held my breath the best I could. I also bought the super glue at Stewmac in fact I got everything there. I ended up spending more than 200 bucks and probably could have had a luthier do it but I know know how to do it and have the tools but... I'm not in a hurry to do another one, haha!This whole process took me about two months but mostly because of my own stupid mistakes.