Rickenbacker Neck disaster

[SteveV74]

I can see why the OP is mad though, for that much money the finish shouldnt come off, mabye if he contacted Rickenbacker they could help him, mabye re-finish it, in my opinion its the least they can do,for free,minus shipping, it wont hurt the bottom line.

 

[Jeff Scott]

I can see why the OP is mad though, for that much money the finish shouldnt come off, mabye if he contacted Rickenbacker they could help him, mabye re-finish it, in my opinion its the least they can do,for free,minus shipping, it wont hurt the bottom line.

It would be far less expensive for the OP to have someone local do any kind of refinishing work.

 

[Rio Haride]

Please just go away...........

I apologize if I offend many Ric lovers.

But for the price tag, I think we as a consumer deserve better quality.

I've seen thread like this on many forum. And what makes me nut is the Ric cost you $2000, and they have many major issues than the rest of high end instruments.

Edit: I've seen on some website and it says $2100 or more.

 

[Jay2U]

I think one is better off with a Rickenfaker than with the original. Too often lack of quality control is reported. An instrument with a Rick price tag HAS TO BE a quality instrument, no matter what.

 

[Aceonbass]

While bad Ricks get a lot of press, they're in the minority since RIC makes tens of thousands of instruments a year.

 

[Aceonbass]

The current Chinese Rickenfakers have fat necks, cheap wiring, and cheaper pickups. I know this because I've been selling some of their owners wiring harnesses and RIC HB1 pickups to replace their neck pickups. SD bridge pickups seem to be popular with them too.

 

[Ric5]

The bass has been played for 7 years and the finish is starting to wear. The are plenty of people that pay extra for faux vintagee relicing. You are earning the real deal mojo. Relax. This is not a museum piece, it's a bass guitar, made to be played and played hard. If it shows wear, its a visible sign of a well loved, and played bass. FWIW

Yes!!!

For some reason wear on a Fender bass is considered a badge of honor ... whereas wear on a Rickenbacker is considered terrible.

It is ok to have wear on a Rickenbacker ...

 

[Ric5]

Here's a 1978 4001 that got worn down to the wood and then repaired, then it get worn down again and repaired again.

 

[hsech]

I'm sorry, but this is just totally wrong. I'm no Ric apologist, and I would never say they don't have issues, but to say that people that own them don't play them often because they are so fragile is just silly.

If it can't take a little abuse, it's not worth having.

 

[SteveV74]

I never was able to play funky on my rick, know I know why. thanx alot.

The blood stays on the blade

 

[Ric5]

Here's a well worn famous Rickenbacker ...

Lemmy Bass Repairs

Tim Butcher (Lemmy's Tech) decided it was time for a bit of TLC on Lemmy's 2 main Bass Guitars.His main stage guitar is the Number 1 Rickenbacker Custom LK1 (shown on the left) and the number 2 back up guitar.
Both were is pretty bad shape having just completed a few hundred gigs between major servicingI managed to take a few pictures during the process for his Number 1 so for all you Lemmy Fans here is a breakdown of the repairs:

As you can see in the picture above, the back of the neck was pretty dirty - the finish had worn off and the Maple grain was full of dirt. After a very light sanding and scraping I treated the neck with a very mild solution of Oxalic Acid to burn out the remaining dirt from the pores in the wood.

The headstock on the Bass is made from 2 mahogany "wings" either side of the central neck core of maple - these wings were both coming detached so a bit of glue and clamping fixed this problem.

Clamped overnight using my Stew Mac Guitar Vice

As you can see, the body was also in pretty bad shape - again light sanding and scraping, plus more acid cleaned up most of the dirt.

The relief carving needed a bit of cleaning also - after cleaning out all the dirt the background relief was re-stained black.

The frets on the Bass had been worn down pretty bad - I used a sharpie marker to show the playing wear.

A few frets were to far gone, so new ones were installed

After installing the new frets a bit of dressing was still required (its nice to do fret work under string tension)

Lemmy had requested an extra fret (needs it for the song Metropolis) - this was achieved by removing the strip of neck binding and creating a brass raised binding piece on the edge of the fretboard.

Full rewire on the electronics, nice bit of shielding etc.

Tim Butcher installing the pickups - also note that the bridge has now been countersunk very slightly into the body.

The strap button had taken huge abuse over the years (I extracted 8 snapped screws and left in another 5)

The binding had completely disintegrated - I managed to track down some replacement checkerboard binding but it arrived too late to reinstall so faux binding was created to take off the sharp edge - we will install the replacement binding at the next service.

Finally finished - a lot of work went into these 2 Bass Guitars - really happy with the results - especially loved testing them prior to going back to Lemmy!

If you have a guitar or bass in need of restoration, please give me a call or email [email protected]

 

[Ric5]

I bet that is the ONLY Lemmy bass made that has got a lot of playing time ... I bet the rest are all played little at best ... I am not a collector ... I am a player ... basses are tools meant to be used.

 

[lfmn16]

But for the price tag, I think we as a consumer deserve better quality.

If you aren't happy with the quality then don't buy one.

I think one is better off with a Rickenfaker than with the original.

Then buy a fake one and don't buy a real one.

 

[Rio Haride]

If you aren't happy with the quality then don't buy one.

Thanks for the late information cause I've owned a Jazz for years.

 

[bwoodman]

I'd send the bass to Marty Bell in San Diego for a re-fin. Don't send to RIC so that can mess it up some more. I've never liked the finishes on RICs. I've only owned 2 of them - a 4001 back in 1979 and a 4003 a few years ago - sold both of them - love the body shape and overall look, but never liked the binding/hard edge/no arm contour. I want to get a 4004L (on my wish / GAS list), but will buy used and prolly end up doing a refin by Marty. The 4003 I had for a couple years dinged easily like lacquer. They SHOULD switch to poly for more durability.

Oh, I see you're in Germany, so scratch that idea of sending to San Diego, CA!

 

[AnalogKid4003]

How much would it cost on average to refinish a bound 4001/3?

 

[FunkHead]

There are just so damn many necks with the clearcoat gone. Down to bare wood. Any bass that gets played alot will be worn down to bare wood. This is just another very silly anti-Ric post. Look at any vintage Fender maple neck that has been played. The clearcoat will be worn down to the wood in the heavy traffic areas. A Ric is no different. Also, Sweat more than anything else can make Clear coat lift if left on the bass. I had a nasty spot on the upper bout of my Les Paul from arm pit sweat. My fault for not waxing/protecting it. 7 or 8 year old bass with clear-coat issues on the neck is just gonna happen. 30 years old rics are gonna have exposed wood if played heavily. It's fine either way....Refinish it or ignore it.

 

[IPA]

Threads like this are great, they always stop my Ric GAS dead in its tracks

 

[flashgod]

The OP clearly said he was wiping down the neck with his cleaning cloth. He didn't say he soaked the cloth in solvent or wrapped a chisel inside it or any number of other odd things that one could possibly do to a bass. If he says he used a cloth then just take it at face value that he "just used a cloth", its not really that hard to fathom. I've used my Fender supplied cleaning cloth to wipe down my basses before, nothing out of the norm there. Other than a solvent being applied to the cloth or neck as part of the wipe down I can't imagine how this would happen to a relatively new bass unless there was a flaw in the clear coat process. And I don't know anybody that would use a solvent to wipe down their bass.

As opposed to trying to blame the OP for messing up the neck how about focusing on helping him figure out what to do next. I'm sure he already feels bad enough about the situation without people piling on about how infallible Ric basses are and how its completely his fault this happened. Help a fellow player out here, give him some options or direction not grief.

Hello guys, I used the officially rickenbacker cleaning cloth and with that was able to rub soft and smoothly down the first layer of the finish. I guess it is not about the fabric of the cleaning cloth or the cleaning process itself. The problem in my option is, that the finish of the neck and maybe the whole bass is just too soft.

 

[flashgod]

The original poster is in Germany, and so for him the warranty will start at the date of purchase AFAIK (if bought new - which doesn't apply in this case). Consumer protection laws are rather different in Europe.

In America I probably could sue Rickenbacker for several billion US dollar, because I am now close to suicide and depressive moods.