Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Ted is trying to help save my signature bass which had some lower fret buzzing issues. When I saw these photos it looked like my poor guy was in surgery.





Head on a pillow, held together by bandages.. (sobs)

As it turns out, I left a few of Marc's frets a bit to tall. The cause was that the fret slots were not cut deeply enough. The taped frets were pulled and the slots were deepened then new fretwire was pressed into the slots. I could have used the old wire but the puller left some marks on the frets that I did not want to file off. The old towels protect the finish from tool mishaps. It does look like surgery, now that I see the pictures. The white tape is there to protect the fingerboard and finish from the fret file. The oddly shaped tool near the 4th fret is a fret rocker. It is a flat piece of tool steel that is used to locate high frets. It is laid over three frets at a time to check for level.

"Scalpel!...scalpel !!"
"Suction!...suction !!"
"Fret rocker!!....fret roc...what the..?? "

There are guys who call themselves luthiers with less tools than you have. I still believe they should go through a certificaton process before they are allowed to touch Rickenbackers. Especially mine.

I hope Ted used anesthesia

Calling Dr Howard-Dr Fine-Dr Howard...

No, it was a minor procedure - a bit like removing a hangnail.

Wiseguy!

Some of the tools........

Here is the fret rocker. This one make the job much easier.


This one makes the job possible. It is used to level the fingerboard and can be used to level the frets.

party on Wayne, fret rock Garth