Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I've just finshed setting up my new 330FG. It was made Jan 03 and appears to have spent it's life since then in the case tuned to concert pitch until it got to Brisbane, Oz. When it arrived it had a bowed neck which I've finally been able to correct after four 'set-up' sessions. It now plays well and the action is reasonably ok (I prefer super low). But I have a concern I'd like some advice on.

The 'treble' side truss rod is almost completely loose. The truss rod nut is only 'finger tight' and has no perceivable effect on neck shape or tension - when tightened further it produced a slight bowing on that side and caused fret buzz on two strings.

Effectively all the tension is held by the other 'bass' truss rod. Is this a problem? Can this cause the neck to twist out of shape?

I had a 1989 4003s5 bass that was the same way ... basically one truss rod was holding the neck in place ... it worked fine ...

thanks jeff, I'll drop the paranoia a tad

On my 4001 bass, the bass rod threads just clear the rod nut and the treble rod threads are not visible, all contained inside the nut. So its not even, but the neck is absolute bliss to play on with minimal relief, low action and no buzz!

The neck is extremely stable as it has not required adjustment in years until I had the frets dressed. I asked the tech not to set the neck relief but he did loosen the rod nuts to do the fretwork. I reset the relief back to my liking by removing the strings and clamping the body to the kitchen table with the neck hanging out in space. I put some weight on the headstock to pull it down a bit while I applied tension to the truss nuts (little trick I learned on this very forum!).