1976 Rickenbacker 4001 Electric Bass Guitar

Ricki 4001s are classic basses and pretty desirable in the market. They look great, feel good in the lap, and have their own particular sound. I find that I don't really enjoy them as much through a cheap bass amp (in the way I'd still enjoy a Precision Bass) but, just like a Jazz Bass, they come absolutely alive when plugged into a nice amp with lots of headroom. They just make you feel... cool.

This one was dropped-off for just a setup but needed a bit more to make it playable. The bridge was, unfortunately, installed in the wrong place and so intonation was out. I was lucky-enough to have enough "original rout" under it so that I could move it back a a little over 1/8" and get the intonation and action adjustment I needed.

It also had the usual "ski jump" problem in the last 5-7 frets. As the instruments age, the neck kinks-up in that area because of normal tension-plus-time on the neck where it meets the body. I leveled/dressed those down as compared to the rest of the frets and that allowed it to play up the neck without fret buzz.

The biggest problem is that the neck has become essentially "non-adjustable" even though it features two truss rods. Like about half of these that I see in for setup, someone has cranked both of the rods so much that they've bent down into the headstock at the ends. Releasing the nuts or attempting to tighten further just means the chances of stripping or breaking the rods at the threads is very likely. Fortunately, the neck was almost dead-straight up to the 12th fret, so it's sort-of a non-issue as far as playability goes. I'm only mentioning this because, should you be interested in buying a 4001, check under the truss cover! It's a known issue

Aside from that, this bass is in great shape cosmetically/playing-wise. If I ground-down the saddles a bit more I could get slightly-lower action on the treble side, but at the moment it plays with 3/32" overall action at the 12th fret and that's plenty good-enough.