Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I have a lovely '72 4000 that I'm trying to get back to stock, or close to. I was investigating the nut, and found a strange condition.



Notice that on most Ricks, the nut butts up against the flat end of the truss rod cover, but there is clearly extra space here (taken up by a brass nut sitting on a small wooden block). What's going on?

Thanks,
Seth

The reason for that is the original nut was thicker than what is on there now.

That is a non Ric replacement nut with a shim underneath it ...

You can get a new replacement nut from Mike Parks for under $5 ... I restored my 68 this way ... it had a professionally installed brass nut I replaced it with a Ric nut ... I also put a new Ric nut on the Ric I sold to Steve Cooper ...

No, that's the thing...the nut and shim that are currently on there are thicker than a stock Rick nut...I guess what I'm asking is: Is there any reason my 4000 would have a slightly longer headstock or truss rod cover? Doesn't make much sense I know....

Is it possible that the fretboard is slightly shorter than it should be?

Maybe whoever put that brass nut on ,for some reason sanded or sawed away the end of the board and brought the nut closer to the first fret.

The edge of the shim looks to be about where the edge of the stock nut would be.....in which case it would be unusually thick for a Ric nut.

On my 4003, the distance from the inside of the nut to top center of the first fret is 1 54/64" as near as I can tell. How does that compare with yours?

That's a wee bit shorter than fret distance calculators figure for a 33 1/4" scale, but then again RIC may be compensating that distance slightly.

Jeff, do the nuts fit 4001's? I need a new one and the current 4003 nuts are a little too big for the old 4001's.

I put a new nut on my '68 4001 ... I had to do a little grinding ... but I sort of figure that will happen with any nut replacement ... there is always some grinding, filing or shimming going on to get it right ...