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Restoring a '76 Rickenbacker 4001

#61
That's normal for 4001 truss rods. Note that they should not be used (by themselves) to put the neck into relief. Rather, clamp the neck into position, then gently tighten the nuts. While the 4001 rods work fine, the 4003 system is somewhat more robust.
 
#62
hey 12bass, thanks for the heads up. So relieved now!

I know the difference between the 4001 and the 4003 system. The reason why I wanted my first Ric to be a 4003 ;) Just because it has more ease to it...
 
#65
Nou ik ben druk bezig, aantal halzen gemaakt maar niet naar tevredenheid. Ik krijg straks geweldig hout voor hals binnen braziliaans mahoney (swietenia mahony) met een hele mooie rechte structuur.
Maar wat een mooie Rickenbacker zeg, ze worden alleen maar mooier hoe ouder ze worden. Erg leuk projectje lijkt me!
 
#67
Well Beej, if there's anything I would trust it's Babelfish!

I'll continue in English, just so you don't feel all left out ;)

How many necks did you make? Where do you get all these types of wood?

And Rics do have the tendency to age beautifully.
Going to Rob tomorrow to pick up my JCS and Bird, you won't happen to be there, are you Diederik?
 
#71
Back from the luthier. I was there to pick up my Invalid Link Removed, which I also brought back to original condition :mrgreen: (I bought it, butchered from all it's hardware, no pick up, nothing! You have no idea how hard it is to find a JCB-1 pick up!)

Back on the 4001!

I took the Ric with me to discuss the refretjob. Eventually we agreed on removing the binding and tapping out the frets sideways. When that's done the top will be fixed. Filling the extra screwholes with maple, sanding it down to top level. The bridgecavity will be filled with maple.

I guess I'll even let the bridge screwholes get filled with epoxy as well and let the bridge be reset so it's not crooked anymore.
Knowing myself and my eye for details and my hatred for anything that's out of sync...

The top will be resprayed.

This things getting quite a budgetupgrade, but it will be worth it!
 
#72
Finally I had the time to visit the luthier. Last visit there was to drop off the 4001, so far; the frets have been taken out the fretboard, fretboard has been sanded and strip one of the binding is replaced. Second strip is getting back on there first thing tomorrow...

After which we can refret the beast and lacquer the fretboard for a nice coat of shine!

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Now that I see the battlefield I'm happy I don't have to do this part myself :mrgreen:
 
#75
Well, if it's possible to get the frets out with only the bottom binding I recommend doing so. The topbinding has the dots in it, which makes it harder to replace if they are placed all the way through the binding into the fretboard
 
#78
Ghehe, I almost forgot to update you guys a little :hiding:

The Ric is now at the Sandberg workshop in Germany. There it will get a refret (the fretboard was more mangled than I/we thought) and a new layer on the top, since it was damaged with a chemical. The holes also will be filled with little wood plugs and would hardly stand out under the new lacquer.

No pictures unfortunately, the workshop is like 250 miles away so I'm not really into a quick visit for some pictures ;)
 

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