Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi all,

Bought a 4003S new in summer 2015. Seemingly nice bass.

Kinda messed around playing it a little over the last 2 years. Got into it again recently and wanted to do a couple of small tweaks...

It started out as a change out of the neck high gain for a toaster. At that point, I figured I should change the strings anyway and decided to try out a nice nickel-plated, round-core set: the DR Sunbeams NLR-40 (40/60/80/100).

And then it was: "I should go through a whole set-up" and started with getting a little relief out of the neck (as per Joey's Rick bass maintenance page) and then moving onto action and intonation.

I got the neck so I could slip a piece of paper under the frets and the strings (again, as per Joey's site) on the E and G strings. Set the action and it was buzzing (for me)...

I tend to dig into the strings a little bit and found that I had to put a tiny bit of relief back into the neck. Maybe 2-3 pieces of paper.

So now the action I settled on is on the higher side (0.1" - 1/8")... there's still very slight buzz but very minor.

Am starting to doubt myself and think maybe there should be less relief in the neck? And this will allow me to get my action down? Keep in mind I dig in to the strings a little regularly... should I just ease up on my playing instead?

Thoughts?

Cheers,
Chris

It's a feature, not a bug.

I lowered the action on my 4001 after listening to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRjAgl1dQBk

Relief meqasurements will vary from person to person and, as Bill exhibited above, what you want/can tolerate as to fret buzz.

Personally, I put a bit of relief into the necks of my basses, even though I play fairly lightly. When going at it one can tend to get more "involved" with the plucking hand.

Here is an example of my old March '73 4001 with a fresh set of TI Jazz Rounds (the lowest tension set of round wound strings in the known universe). Played fingerstyle through a VT Bass into an Avalon U5 to the recorder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZRjSD8y66I

That's awesome, Jeff! Great playing and tone!

I generally have relief on my necks and only want buzz when I dig in hard.

How are you measuring the action?

I find setting the action just a bit lower than the numbers recommended by Fender for their basses -- mostly by adjusting the neck's relief -- gives good results.

teeder: I think I am with you. Buzz while digging in may be acceptable. Right now, I am get slight buzzing while digging in with action at 0.10"-0.125". Thinking I can try to drop the action a little and see if it will only occur while digging in...

cassius: I am measuring at 12th fret top of fret and bottom of the string.

Otherwise, thanks everyone for the replies/validation/confirmation.

I have a separate post I will make wrt an intonation challenge I had on the G string...

Chris

I'll have to check, but I think I keep my 2015 4003S at 5/32'' for the E string and 3/32'' for the G string, and it plays beautifully. Compared to that, what you're describing sounds very normal if not a little low, unless you are depressing the strings while you measure it.

cassius987 wrote:I'll have to check, but I think I keep my 2015 4003S at 5/32'' for the E string and 3/32'' for the G string, and it plays beautifully. Compared to that, what you're describing sounds very normal if not a little low, unless you are depressing the strings while you measure it.

Is that at the 12th fret? I go for absolute max 3/32" E string 12th and approx 2/32" G; lower if the bass will cope.