Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi. I have a '64 4001 that needs help. The neck has bowed backwards and the fretboard is coming ungled from the neck. I need to ind someone to whom I can trust this job. Does anyone have any suggestions? I really appreciate any help you guys can offer. Take care and have a safe and happy New Year!!

javier

Happened to my 75 4001, but I caught it pretty early. I took it to a good string repair guy near me at the time (this was 20+ years ago in the northern NYC metro area), and to this day you have to look hard to see the crack. It's probably stronger there after the repair than the rest of the neck!

Look for someone who works on violins/cellos/upright basses in addition to guitars, IMO these folks have better skills than the "luthier" at the local superstore. It's not that unusual of a problem for Ricks (someone with a lot of Rick experience will probably have fixed this problem before)...

And I recall a thread here about a Cheyenne that had a really bad case of detaching fingerboard...there were some pics posted and it looked like bad news. The end result was what looked like a pretty fine bass. If I'm not mistaken, Jeff Rath had a hand in fixing it, so there is certainly first hand experience here.

Good luck.

Welcome Javier! Ted Staberow is your man, I have a feeling he will be chiming in here soon.

Calling Ted, calling Ted!

Any pics?

Thanks for the uick responses. Ted's already contacted me via email. I am having trouble with my computer and can't get my digital photos into my computer right now. I will get some done as soon as I can and get them here on my brother's computer later. I really hope this is a fixable problem. There are some other issues with the bass, but right now the neck is the most important. Even if I can't get it back into playing condition, it is still an important instrument for me. My Dad bought it in San Francisco while stationed there while in the Navy in the late 60's. It holds a lot of sentimental value. Thanks for the help guys!

Javier, I hope you are able to get the problems with that 4001 taken care of. Ted's the man to know what to do. I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of it.

"It holds a lot of sentimental value."

Understand. I felt the EXACT same thing when I discovered the crack in my Rick's neck. If that Cheyene could be fixed then your bass should be repairable.

Can you describe the separation? Exactly where is it? Is it a clean separation along a lamination or is it a crack?

After I bought my '89 4001V63 two and a half years ago, I found a crack in the neck going down from the 6th to the 13th fret on the G side of the neck that had been just halfway repaired.The finish shortly started cracking over the area. So I had to have the neck re-repaired and refinished by my repairman. Now the bass played fine before, with no other neck problems, but now I know the bass has been fixed properly. The scar still shows, but that dosen't bother me. And the bass works and plays like a charm. It's an example of how strong Rick necks are these days. Anyway, that '64 4001 should be quite fixable. I understand the sentimental value aspect of it too.

Most neck problems on 4001's are fingerboard pop-offs from improper neck adjustments. The best case is a clean delamination from the nut down to some point below. The worst cases are when the maple and the fingerboard do not separate cleanly. The maple almost aways looses. These usually appear as a fairly straight separations near the nut but quickly turn into lightning-bolt cracks that wrap around the back of the neck and stop at or near the skunk-stripe. Sometimes it is even worse. The wood can actually explode and splinter along the grain. I have one that suffered this way. I was able to get it to stablilze but it is definately ugly.

No, The neck started to bow backwards and the fretboard is de-laminating from the nut to about the 5th or 6th fret. The woods seem to be intact, but the neck is just separating from the fretboard. It has some other issues. My Dad bought the bass ina pawn shop in San Francisco when he was in the Navy in '68 or '69. The guy that originally had it did a hack job and cut out the front pichup and put in this big, usgly *** Gibson(I'm assuming) pickup in the neck position. That can be covered up with a new pcikguard and neck pickup. I want all the circuitry checked out and maybe have the bridge re-chromed. Have any of you had any experience with having hardware re-plated? I was thinking of taking it to an auto body shop to see how much it would cost (or if they would even do the job). Anyway, thanks for the comments and any help you could offer.

Oh, yeah...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Hope everyone had a safe and happy time. we had a good gig. if all goes well I might put some pics up of my '79 4001 in action...

This discussion brings me to another question. I keep getting referrals to Ted and I really am excited to hear that this may very well be a salvageable situation, but (with all due respect, Ted) how do you know who to trust here. Do you guys get references when working on each others' stuff. How do you all approach this?

Ted's a pretty good guy ... his work is not the quality of the Rickenbacker factory ... but he knows some stuff about working with wood ... I had a bass where he repaired the neck ... he did a pretty good job ...

Javier: Let me say up front that I am no expert. I am not a luthier. The fact is, I design data networks for a living. I have owned and played and been facinated by Rick basses for about 26 years. In that time I have tried to learn as much as I could about them. The first thing I learned is that Ricks are simply not normal guitars. Far from it. The Rickenbacker way is not always the same as the common and understood way used by most luthiers and repairmen. That is what makes them what they are. Many otherwise qulified luthiers don't take the time to properly understand Ricks and end up doing something stupid like popping the fingerboard off. When working on Ricks, a little understanding goes a long way. I really enjoy finding trashed Ricks and making them playable again. It is very gratifying for me. Each one has been a challenge and a valuable learning experience. Jaymi Millard is the proud owner of one of my completed projects. Today the bass is a gig-worthy 4004C. I am pretty sure that your bass would not require nearly as much effort as that 4004 did.

This is a very friendly place and as new members become regular contributors trust natually develops. There are at least a dozen people here that I would trust with any of my basses even though I have never them face to face.

Without seeing it I can say for sure but it sounds like your bass has a cleanly popped fingerboard. As I said earlier, bad trussing technique is usually the cause of this. Other conditions could also make that happen. I have a 4001 here that was stored in a wet basement for about 20 years. Every lamination is cleanly separated. The fingerboard delaminated down to the 8th fret from the moisture. I could probably push each lamination apart with my fingers.