Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Anyone know how the zero fret was added to Paul McCartney's original 4001? Since the zero fret has to be where the nut is, was the nut moved back and additional fretboard material added?

I have never seen it up close so this is just a guess. The easiest way I could think of would be to slightly extend the fingerboard and use a thinner nut. The TRC will have to be trimmed a bit to align to the original tip screw hole or new holes could be drilled. Another approach would be to move the bridge back slightly but that would also require that all of the frets be moved. Messy! I am doing a conversion like that right now. The extended fingerboard does not interfere with the adjusting nuts.

At one time I had heard that his zero fret was removable---a piece of wood with a fret that slid out when wanting it removed. Am I crazy, or has somebody else heard this?

I won't mind if you say I'm crazy!

That is certainly possible.

Andrew, I have also heard this...

All John Hammel did was remove the nut, glue on a sliver of additional fingerboard, cut a fret slot and add a fret on the lamination, and put the existing nut back.

It's permanent, not removable at all. It also makes the bass just as unadjustable as his Hofner, i.e. no individual string height at the nut.

Hate to bring up the past, but Mark Arnquist said, "the zero fret...was in a pouch in the case and was put on /taken off depending on his mood.Under the nameplate there are the added 3 holes so he can move the nameplate back and forth depending on nut situation ."

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Holy Smokes John. You went back a ways to find that thread. Nice Work!

If you look a little ways down the thread you'll see Peter predicting the 4001-c64s.

Peter McCormack

Posted on Friday, September 29, 2000 - 03:59 pm:

Hey another idea for a new Paul McCartney Limited Edition: complete with zerofret feature!

So Peter,
What's your thoughts on the 4001-v68 !!!!!

Whoa, John! How did you do it?
I just haven't been able to "go back in time" after the Forum's URL was changed.

Yes John, did you do your own "archiving" by saving to hard drive and then burning on cd's??

Why didn't I think of this?

Here's the DA 23. Can anyone see how it was done?



Here's a bigger image.

Paul, you beat me to it with that headstock pic!

Just as well as it looks a bit clearer than the one I was gonna post.....here's the body though out of interest:

Out of interest? Of course not!

Here's a bigger image for everyone's downloading pleasure.

Paul, you're the man when it comes to photos

I've had the headstock and body pics of DA 23 on my harddrive for ages and am always interested to see nice close-ups and clearer images of it.

Looks like my old slightly blurred and darkened pics have just been replaced