Mike Forrester: Guitar Repair Pics

Rickenbacker 4001 Bass Resto Mod

This old Rickenbacker 4001 bass was in desperate need of a makeover...
The bass has already undergone some significant modifications and a metallic blue refinish along the way...
The original routes had been filled with PINE!
While the owner wants to keep the aftermarket Bartolini pickups, I chose to fill the old amateur routes with fresh maple, and reroute the cavities nice and clean....
The maple plugs are epoxied into place....
The fretboard had popped loose when someone attempted to adjust the truss rods....THE WRONG WAY.....
I removed the truss rods for inspection and rethreading, and took that opportunity to reglue the fretboard separation....
The rods have been straightened and rethreaded, the adjuster nuts retapped, and the cleat deburred....
The truss rods are reinstalled while the glue is curing on the fretboard.....
The old fretboard seperation is history, and the neck is now rock solid....
The old refinish is sanded off, and the face of the bass is leveled....
The bass is receiving the initial clear lacquer sealer coats...
New routes....
The old stereo Ric-O-Sound hole was plugged with maple. The bass will have only one output jack....
The bass is now in white primer. The binding was airbrushed to camouflage the area where the second output jack once was....
The bass has been sprayed with white primer and will soon be ready for topcoats....
The owner chose these two green shades, and I custom mixed them using tinting pigments in nitrocellulose lacquer.....
The darker shade of green covers the back of the body, neck, and headstock...
An extra route was later added to accomodate a preamp, and the control cavity was deepened to allow room for push-pull potentiometers....
I've just finished buffing the cured lacquer......the small route in the back will house the 2 9v batteries for the active electronics.....
The shielding paint is drying, and soon I'll be installing the custom wiring harness....
I cut a custom pickguard that closely resembles the original Rickenbacker unit, but will allow the use of a Bartolini neck pickup and custom switches and potentiometers....
The guard has been cut to accept three slider pickup selector switches....
The guard is finished, and now the electronics are being installed.....
The Bartolini pickups will be powered by a 3 band EQ, a preamp and 18 volts....
The tuners and truss rod cover are the only original remaining hardware!....
The Badass bridge has a massive baseplate for sustain and improved tone. The entire unit was recessed into the maple body for a sleek look, feel and function....
The restoration/modification is officially complete. Now I'll move on to final setup....
Final setup has been completed, and the bass is ready for delivery to the customer....
Classy. The owner wanted the modifications to look 'factory'. I think I accomplished that....