NBD: My first ever Rickenbacker

[Maude]

21 minutes ago, luckman67 said:

The Greco & Fernandes  Ric clones have, their name in the Rickenbacker style script. The one annoying thing that the clones do as good as the real 4001 & 4003 basses, is the dreaded tail lift.

 

Mine had tail lift and I much prefer heavy strings so something had to be done. I figured as the bridge was 'knackered' and would need replacing to use heavy strings then there was no harm in butchering it. I drilled two holes through the big rear flat area (OK slightly curved for the pendants 😉), countersunk them and put a pair of stainless steel screws through and pulled the tail down flush. It's been perfect for five years now. 

Rickenbacker started doing this themselves I believe, although somewhat more elegantly. 

[BlueMoon]

40 minutes ago, Maude said:

Rickenbacker started doing this themselves I believe, although somewhat more elegantly.

And all the while Rickenbacker refused to admit that tail lift on the classic tail piece was a problem. Fast forward and you have the Version 2 tail piece that eliminates the problem, but gives you a higher achievable action!

[luckman67]

1 hour ago, prowla said:

I can see that’s a faker from the one photo, without taking the TRC off. 
The faker truss-rods had different adjusters, so having two wasn’t necessarily the tell anyway. 

The machineheads on the Greco stick out more than the original. Plus there is a small pinstripe by the bin ding as well.

[prowla]

2 hours ago, BlueMoon said:

And all the while Rickenbacker refused to admit that tail lift on the classic tail piece was a problem. Fast forward and you have the Version 2 tail piece that eliminates the problem, but gives you a higher achievable action!

Yep - I put one on a 2010 4003 and couldn't get it low enough, so I reverted to the original V1.