Stag Posted August 11, 2009 Share Posted August 11, 2009 Evening chaps... Its taken me a long time to admit it, but the action on my Rick is a bit high, and makes it not as easy as it could be to play. How do i go about getting the action less high? Cheers - Stag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarnacleBob Posted August 11, 2009 Share Posted August 11, 2009 First stop is to check the neck relief surely, set that properly and take it from there. Ricks are thru necks, aren't they, so can't set the pitch. Must be a few Ricky owners out there surely - I also believed Ricks to be famous for their super low action but never actually played one - more fool me BB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robocorpse Posted August 11, 2009 Share Posted August 11, 2009 Should be a piece of cake. Once you have set the bow with the twin truss rods VERY carefully and slowly (1/8th turn at a time with a little backwards pressure on the neck), just turn the 2 allen screws on each side of the saddle to drop the action, theres nothing else to it on a Ricky, unless one of 2 rare but nasty Rick faults show their face. a ) The tailpieces sometimes warp, this isn't usually a problem, but it can throw the break angle of the strings as they hit the saddle, and the only way to compensate is to raise it, therefore raising the action. Remedy: replace tailpiece. Easy but expensive. b ) Pray it isn't this one: Look at the back of the bass where the body wings join the heel of the neck "joint" (so to speak). Check the finish for two parallel cracks in line with the neck blank. If they are present, it means the wings have started to separate from the neck, and it has just lost 30% of its strength, and can now bow forward more than the truss rods can adjust. Bass is now firewood unless you want to pay someone a ludicrous amount of money to fix it, which might involve removing the wings and a refinish once its back together. I have had two 4001s do this to me now, it is not funny. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stag Posted August 11, 2009 Author Share Posted August 11, 2009 Splendid stuff there chap, it isnt option B thankfully! Bit of taillift going on as is the case with these things but otherwise I thnk a bit of saddle fiddling should do some good. Many thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starless Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 [quote name='Stag' post='566316' date='Aug 11 2009, 10:09 PM']Splendid stuff there chap, it isnt option B thankfully! Bit of taillift going on as is the case with these things but otherwise I thnk a bit of saddle fiddling should do some good. Many thanks![/quote] Thing to remember about Rics is, with the strings tuned to pitch, the neck should be dead flat, no bow (back or forward) absolutely straight as a very straight straight thing (from Straightown). Next thing to watch for is the year of the bass.... if yours is an 82, then the adjustment is done differently from more recent Rics (I think post-85). The rods need to be loosened off, the neck pulled into position by hand (with the help of a friend to hold the bass down, and another friend to sight down the neck - you need a lot of friends) and then the nuts tightened up again. Early Rics don't do the 1/8th, 1/4 turn, leave it for a day, procedure. I think doing that will either have no effect, or pop the fretboard off. One of the two, not sure which. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starless Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 ...and the next thing to do is buy a Hipshot replacement tailpiece, so that you can adjust the saddle height INDIVIDUALLY, and then re-intonate after the neck adjustment without having to loosen off the strings, and then be able to palm mute the strings without knocking lumps off of your hands courtesy of the useless damper adjustment bolts, and finally marvel at a piece of engineering which doesn't actually bend (tail-lift) when put under tension (which is what bass tailpieces tend to be most of the time).... etc etc. You guessed it.. I had Rics once, and that damned bridge assembly is the biggest waste of scrap metal ever to appear on a 'high-end' instrument. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrcrow Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 (edited) ric truss rods will flatten the bow...i have set mine really flat in the past...with normal gauge strings if you mean action....then the blacksmith style saddle assembly should go down or up far enough if you want real bridge adjustment swap out the thing for a badass II and to hell with the looks part Edited August 12, 2009 by mrcrow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonsmith Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 I cannot recommend this site enough for anyone doing any maintenance on Rickenbackers: [url="http://www.joeysbassnotes.com/"]Joey's Bass Notes[/url] (In the maintenance section under Rickenbackers.) It's got all the information you need and it's correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odub Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 [quote name='jonsmith' post='568321' date='Aug 13 2009, 07:29 PM']I cannot recommend this site enough for anyone doing any maintenance on Rickenbackers: [url="http://www.joeysbassnotes.com/"]Joey's Bass Notes[/url] (In the maintenance section under Rickenbackers.) It's got all the information you need and it's correct.[/quote] Thankyou! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassmachine2112 Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 hiho,All you need is a hipshot and a look at joeys bass notes.That,ll do the job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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