Viewing entries tagged
4001

Broken neck repair :: 1987 Rickenbacker 4001 [8.7 lbs]

July 23, 2016

Here's the jackknifed Rickenbacker that showed up to the shop in this condition. After the glue up, I ended up filling in the missing finish and buffed it out so the repair wouldn't be detectable by feel. The player was not concerned with cosmetics, only playability.

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Major heel break :: Rickenbacker 4001 bass

July 18, 2016

A pretty gnarly heel break on a 1987 Rickenbacker 4001 stopped in this morning. The player admits he's pretty rough on his bass but has no idea how this happened. He just opened the case one day and ~!!!BAM!!!~ found this carnage.

He did mention he left it in a hot car once, so extreme heat could have helped pop the neck apart. It came in strung to pitch and when I went to slacken the strings the neck immediately fell backwards. The neck was only held to the body by a thin slice of wood. Yikes!

That thin slice of wood ran up the neck like a wave, so the trick was figuring out how to clamp this piece down. The heel itself was straight forward, but how to go about that piece running up into the neck ...

I ended up wrapping a large industrial rubber band around the crack running up the neck first and then the clamps. The rubber band worked out extremely well and saved me from fitting a time consuming caul. Rubber bands to the rescue!