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Rickenbacker cii neck problems

T

ttekulve

Mar 24, 2003
47
1
Cincinnati, OH /N. Ky area
#1
I have a Ric cii and although it sounds great and generally plays well, the neck seems to need adjusting every few days. It always pulls right into adjustment, but a few days later it will be out again. Never the same way. Once it will be to much bow, the next week it will be overbowed and back and forth. Is this normal for Rics/ I've heard they have neck issues. I had a 4003 years ago, but don't recall ever having to adjust it once I had it set. I keep all my basses hanging the basement (finished basement). I have about 10 and the others seem fine so unless it's overly sensative I don't think it's environmental. Any thoughts?:help:
 
#3
I have had it looked at by local guys who have good credintials. They all say it's fine. And it does play great.. neck is straight and true.. just goes out to often. Rickenbacker won't respond to my over 115 email in the past year (nor one response). Never experienced a company with such terrible customer service. I'll try them again.
 
#4
ttekulve said:
I have had it looked at by local guys who have good credintials. They all say it's fine. And it does play great.. neck is straight and true.. just goes out to often. Rickenbacker won't respond to my over 115 email in the past year (nor one response). Never experienced a company with such terrible customer service. I'll try them again.
Click to expand...

Have you tried the forums on the Ric website, or RickResource.com? Lots of knowledgeable folks hang out there. That's where I go when I need help.

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http://www.rickresource.com/forum/

Good luck!
 
#5
ttekulve said:
I have had it looked at by local guys who have good credintials. They all say it's fine. And it does play great.. neck is straight and true.. just goes out to often. Rickenbacker won't respond to my over 115 email in the past year (nor one response). Never experienced a company with such terrible customer service. I'll try them again.
Click to expand...

Geeze... I had Rickenbacker CEO John Hall email me because I said they should use graphite in their necks to prevent these very issues!

The least he could do is answer one of your 115 emails!

I played mid 70's Ricks for many years. As long as I didn't put high tension strings on them, then everything was fine.

More recently I had an Ibanez SoundGear that needed adjusting every few days. It drove me to design my own bass!

I took everything I learned modifying my Rics, and that Ibanez neck, and did the opposite!

It's possible the neck is slow to respond. So an adjustment that seems right, is to much, and will over shoot the mark a day later. A good practice to do is to not use the truss rod to move the neck. Bend the neck the way you want by hand, and then tighten or loosen the rod to hold it there.

Thin fast necks like these really need some help to keep them stiff.
 
#6
this is my first post here, but i have been a guitar tech since 1973 and have owned (and still own) lots of Ricky basses. IMO, the wood in ric necks themselves isn't stable at all, but are extremely adjustable. if you remove the truss rods completely they are like rubber. however being the fact that they have a dual truss rod system (each one comprised of two rods), it is pretty easy to adjust them to offset the tension of the strings. so it is the steel trussrods that are giving it its stability.

the worst case scenario is to replace the rod(s) which is actually a fairly simple thing to do and i have had to do it a few times on my custromers basses that were constantly overadjusted. if you environment changes drastically and often (i.e. hot/cold or dry/damp), i think that that would be the only reason that you should have any movement, or ofcourse, if you are not tuning to the exact same pitch all the time.

2 cents......

johnk
 
#7
johnk_10 said:
IMO, the wood in ric necks themselves isn't stable at all, but are extremely adjustable. if you remove the truss rods completely they are like rubber. however being the fact that they have a dual truss rod system (each one comprised of two rods), it is pretty easy to adjust them to offset the tension of the strings. so it is the steel trussrods that are giving it its stability.

johnk
Click to expand...


I must agree w/ Johnk. I bought a basketcase project 1976 Rick 4001 off ebay. It had "banana'ed" from nut to bridge. In other words the WHOLE neck all the way to the strap pin behind the bridge (Ricks are neck-thru) had bowed into a banana-shape. Curiously the small-town violin repairman I took it to, had seen and knew of Rick basses doing this! So, it must be common. Unless you're a luthier, you can't fix this issue. And there's no way to play in tune w/ a neck in this condition!

But, getting to my point... I had loosened the truss nuts and the neck WAS like rubber, very flexible.

I REALLY love Ricks (I've owned and sold 2) and unfortunately the fear of neck issues keeps me from buying another :(.
 
#8
I have a Rick 4001, which I bought in 1973, and it has the most stable neck of any of the many basses I've owned over the years. It has never needed adjustments except for the few times that I've made big changes in string selection, and it has always held those adjustments perfectly. I guess I got lucky.
 
#10
Same here, I've had a total of five Ric basses. Only one of them ever had neck issues, (a 76 4001). The two I currently own are rock solid, no problems of any kind, and one of them is a 77 4001, which is the most trouble free bass of any brand I've ever owned.
 
#12
I had a typo... not 115 emails.. just 15. I think I was getting filtered out as spam however because I received a very fast response from my latest email and they seem very willing to help all they can. So that issue is taken care of. The bass was made in 2006 so the neck should be stable by now. I'll return it to Ric and see what they think. Thanks for all the help.
 

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