Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

My question is: Would long-term use of heavy strings (say, .012s or .013s on a full scale) make the guitar need a neck reset sooner?

Thanks. Sooner or later, I'll be able to afford a Ricky, and I'll probably want to string it heavy, like Peter Buck.

NO !

The problems of old Ricks and the reverse neck angles ,seem to be solved .The 1960's guitars generally are the era that this occurs in.

These have bodies that 'warp'.The bridge ends up all the way down to the face.On some of these .rather than reset the neck (which is next to impossible ) I remove the plate that the bridge sits on .
I then possition four Hex headed screws where the bridge feet would sit,drill and thread the face of the body and mount the bridge to these screws.The feet of the bridge fit inside the Hex screws and it allows for variation in heigth.It's not stock ,but should you ever want to 'return' it to stock you can.All holes would be covered.

Mark: Just curious. Would drilling and tapping holes for the insertion of helicoils be a good idea in this situation?

No ,you won't need them .The strap buttons are drilled and tapped into the maple bodies.You won't need to do anything but that .I would suggest using a drill press however .By hand is a bit spotty and it won't be as accurate.

This should all be layed out ,to be on center of the neck and.....make sure the saddles get centered in the chassis before you do any of this.

Use the compensation measurement of ;
Nut to the 12th fret plus 1/16" for the high E string
and nut to the 12th fret plus 5/32" for the low E saddle .
Mark those two points off and then locate the bridge.
I realize that this is the angle of the saddles and not the edge of the chassis /bridge,but these are time proven measurements used by every shop worth it's salt and nearly ALL the makers in the world .