Fun with a Rickenbacker - troubleshooting and modding.

[StereoPlayer]

To bump my own post... zing!

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Nice!

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Wow! That looks worlds better than the factory finish. All that work was worth it. Spent half the day sanding myself, my hands ache.

 

[Axstar]

I was away for Christmas, so I left the finish to cure.

I wound up using a mix of Danish Oil, Boiled Linseed Oil (for colour) and mineral spirits. I wiped coats of this on, and wiped dry again after fifteen minutes. I had the bass touch-dry, and left it to dry over the course of one evening. I found that after a couple of hours the BLO had risen back out the wood, giving the bass a very sticky finish and feel (and strong smell). I wiped this all away with mineral spirits, and the bass was dry again. So simple!

When I got back from Christmas, I used fine steel wool to apply a coat of finishing wax to the instrument. The results are very good:

This is how I wanted the headstock to look. I'm still not happy with the nut however, and a generic brass nut is on order.

The wax is surprisingly shiny (spot the non stock strap button).

I love that the binding is now brilliantly white.

And that the figuring on the front and back of the body is now vivid and 3D.

All I need to do now are:

1. Make a custom 5-pot wiring scheme. I'm recycling the stock capacitors but replacing the switch, pots and all wiring with coloured cloth-insulated stuff (one colour per pickup channel).
2. Make a new pickguard from matt-finish white acrylic plastic, which will be a mashup of modern and '70s outlines with enough space to house the extra control.
3. Fit a brass nut?
4. Finish off the fretwork and fretboard polishing.
   

I have a set of TI flats on order as well. My plan is to get the Joe Barden/JBE pickup set for this at some point soon as well.

 

[saabfender]

Don't really understand the brass nut part. The rest is outstanding.

 

[StereoPlayer]

Don't really understand the brass nut part. The rest is outstanding.

Personally, I would put a white or an off white nut on it.
But, @Axstar , I love what you’re doing! Great job.

 

[Axstar]

Don't really understand the brass nut part. The rest is outstanding.

I've used them on a couple of Fenders and quite liked the aesthetics and that the open strings sound the same as fretted notes. I find them easy to dial in and to polish out, though the sparkly hold look might be a bit jarring against the rest of the instrument.

I have a white graphite one kicking around as well, that would need minimal modification, so it will be a case of auditioning them I guess. The white nut would give it a nice vintage look I suppose, but I'm wary of it looking dirty if I work on it with tools. I've built up the underside of the stock nut with a white shim to try and keep the aesthetics aligned at the bottom of the neck, but it isn't quite working for me.

I have a set of these on order as well:

These are RickySounds' own knobs, rather than the RIC set, which differ in that they have a brass insert. I'm hoping that I have room for a fifth pot inside the control cavity without interference with the back of the jacks. From tracing my pickguard onto a template of a 1974 pickguard it looks like the controls have moved back towards the bridge on the modern design, so maybe I can push them towards the neck a bit, bunch them up, and get away with it that way. 4005 basses and that 4001S/4005 prototype/mashup have five knobs.

I prefer the look of these knobs, their ease of interpretation (!) and they get me slightly closer to that RM1999 look that got me into Rickenbackers in the first place. I'm going with these knobs and a matt pickguard to give the bass a more understated look.

 

[Slidlow]

This bone nut has been on this bass for over 32 years now. Just bare bone with no finish or coating.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

That oil finish looks great! The maple figure popped nicely. I like brass nuts, except for having to polish them up occasionally, using one on my current Ric clone build. I had one on my 79’ Jetglo, always liked the look.

 

[Axstar]

That oil finish looks great! The maple figure popped nicely. I like brass nuts, except for having to polish them up occasionally, using one on my current Ric clone build. I had one on my 79’ Jetglo, always liked the look.

Thanks Gilmour! The oil finish was a massive risk, but sometimes I need a high-stakes scenario to force me into doing a good job. The walnut dust in the grain of the maple on the headstock was my little nudge not to mess it up!

I finally finished off the RWRP mod to the bridge pickup, but both pickups are pretty deplorable. I'm sick of those long, thin, fiddy black wires and weird screwed-down grounding eyelets. I'm not sure why one of the mounting bolts for the bridge pickup coil needs grounded. The magnet on the back of the neck pickup is warped and has sections flaking off of it.


So... a set of those JBE/Joe Barden pickups are heading my way. Spendy, but I've heard good things about them (which can't be said for most of the other options out there). Only John Hall himself seems to take issue with these pickups, asking pertinent questions such as "I wonder if they are encapsulated for moisture resistance and use mechanically bonded coil windings for minimized microphonics? Do they have rare earth magnets?"

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There is the Rickenbacker HB-1 pickups, but these are darker and hotter than the stock HiGains.

 

[Spidey2112]

Between the UV lamp and periodically dampening the top with mineral spirits I'm finding out where I still need to sand.

Sweet 'trick'!

 

[Spidey2112]

A six pack of beer and a belt sander?

Should be in every toolbox...

 

[Engle]

Nice work! I would use black corian for the nut. If you can get your hands on a countertop sample, the material is free

 

[Coolhandjjl]

Excellent work! I have an 4003 Mapleglo made in September of 09. That’s what...week 36?

Mine had a tiny bit of that same issue on the walnut headstock wings, but the rest of the bass’s finish is flawless.

I also sanded the top of the nut down, roughly 1/2 of the string thickness is now exposed above it, I guess that’s recommended. A bone white one would be cool though.

I’ve tried other pickups, but I went back to the stock ones. I also made a new wiring harness, 500K audio taper tone pots, 250K linear taper vol pots.

I moved the neck pup to the 1/2” position (some say it really should be 3/8”). Wood was removed only from the body wings, no neck wood or neck wood joined to body wings needed to be removed, so no structural integrity was lost. When I had a new pickguard made, it was made without the double hump.

I epoxy bedded the bridge. Reasons why and the process is linked here:
The Epoxy Bed Mod steps
Epoxy Bed Mod pics


Did you consider removing the finish from the fretboard?

I bought some sections of checkered and white binding, and someday want to strip off the finish, route and put that on. Some folks use a heat gun to scrap or peel off the finish, not sure which way is better. I was considering finishing with shellac via the french polish method. I like my maple to look more golden than it presently is. I might also be nuts for wanting to do all that work though.

 

[JJR58]

Thanks Gilmour! The oil finish was a massive risk, but sometimes I need a high-stakes scenario to force me into doing a good job. The walnut dust in the grain of the maple on the headstock was my little nudge not to mess it up!

I finally finished off the RWRP mod to the bridge pickup, but both pickups are pretty deplorable. I'm sick of those long, thin, fiddy black wires and weird screwed-down grounding eyelets. I'm not sure why one of the mounting bolts for the bridge pickup coil needs grounded. The magnet on the back of the neck pickup is warped and has sections flaking off of it.


So... a set of those JBE/Joe Barden pickups are heading my way. Spendy, but I've heard good things about them (which can't be said for most of the other options out there). Only John Hall himself seems to take issue with these pickups, asking pertinent questions such as "I wonder if they are encapsulated for moisture resistance and use mechanically bonded coil windings for minimized microphonics? Do they have rare earth magnets?"

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There is the Rickenbacker HB-1 pickups, but these are darker and hotter than the stock HiGains.

You'll love the Bardens. Great pups, and dead silent.

 

[JIO]

Nice work - Rics are too shiny for my tastes and your efforts uncovered a better looking (and feeling) bass. Personally I'd dull the fb as well - there more than enough clear-coat on it.

 

[Axstar]

You'll love the Bardens. Great pups, and dead silent.

I hope so! Joe's connection with Danny Gatton sold me on them. It sounds silly, but if Danny was happy with the singlecoil approximation of Joe's humbuckers then I figured they would sound ok on a Rick as well.

 

[JIO]

Also, as far as nuts go - I've done a few composite nuts using brass and ebony, brass and rockwwod, brass and maple and brass and tusk. Brass alone can be a bit bright, and the other material blends in a bit of warmth.

This one is rockwwod & brass -

 

[daveman50]

Nice work! I would use black corian for the nut. If you can get your hands on a countertop sample, the material is free

Home Depot gives away Corian samples that are large enough for bass nuts - where they sell kitchen counters. Personally, I hate strongly dislike brass nuts; they look like the wrong part of the 70's to me. For a Rick, I like white, but black would be my 2d choice.

 

[JIO]

Home Depot gives away Corian samples that are large enough for bass nuts - where they sell kitchen counters. Personally, I hate strongly dislike brass nuts; they look like the wrong part of the 70's to me. For a Rick, I like white, but black would be my 2d choice.

Well, regardless of the way it "looks" or what decade it was part of - it has an effect of shaping a tone that can work very effectively for certain basses. Not that I would bother, but one could always spray it 'bone' white or black if looks were so important.

 

[Slidlow]

I used brass once in 1982 and haven't since. Just saying.