CrazyRick! Glad to see your post, thought I might have annoyed you with slow responses and Yanni references. I am packing up the pickup tonight or tomorrow and tying it to the back of an eastbound sea turtle, check all the beaches.

I know you do excellent pickguard work and I may take you up on it, although I'm spending money I don't have like a coke addict on a Peruvian holiday. I'd better hold off for now and see what comes my way in the states.

Is there any need/benefit of shielding the back of a Ric pickguard?

Good to have you back, Sergio!

Haha! You bet I'll check the nearest beaches.
Yes, shielding the underside of a pickguard sure helps reduce/eliminate noise.
If I can find the time, besides rewinding your pickup I'll build you one of my creations for you to review. Expect it to be HOT!

I'll have to agree with Sergio,Lyle...I shielded the back side of my 4003 pickguard,as well as the back of my '77 EH-1 lap steel pickguard,with self-adhesive copper tape,& it made it MUCH quieter,as far as 60-cycle hum,etc...just make sure everything (especially the bridge) is grounded to the ground lug on your jack.It will make a WORLD of difference!

Okay, self-adhesive copper tape. Stand back while I self-educate. Does it come on a roll, and you just line it up in even strips on the back of the pickguard? Could it be that simple?

Yes.Stewart-MacDonald Guitar Shop Supply,part #0028,2" wide by 180" long.Only $8.79 a roll;call 1-800-848-2273,they'll send you a catalog.Or,you can check out stewmac.com,their web site is excellent.And I overlap the tape by 1/8";the adhesive is conductive,as well.BUT...be careful;this stuff is as sharp as a razor blade!

Believe it or not, this project is still alive, just moving slowly. Sergio can attest to that, as he still waits for my pickup, arriving by sea turtle to Portugal.

I have dubbed this bass "Cinderella" because she is slowly becoming beautiful. There were some very gnarly dents that will not go away, and that chipped off headstock piece, but one of these days I will post a transformation picture...and though it won't be a Paul or Dale stunner, it will at least show that she was pulled back out of the gutter and back into a semblance of her original glory.

One question, and a stupid one: when the tone switch is in the "up" position, which pickup is activated?

I ask this because it is the only position that ever worked, way back when I didn't give a rip about what shape she was in. Now I wonder which pickup I was using, back when the band Uncle Was underwhelmed a generation.

The turtle is nowhere to be seen yet hehehe.
The neck pickup is activated when the switch is in the 'up' position.
I'm glad to learn your Rick is slowly coming back from the dead, as it were. Keep us posted, please.

I've said it before and I'll say it again- just make sure you ground it in one and ONLY ONE place. That means making sure that the pots don't touch the foil at the shaft if they are also connected with a ground wire.

If you don't do this, the ground loops that will otherwise result will make your bass even noisier under many conditions.

Hey Lyle-

I was just reading this thread and spotted some mis-information on adjusting your truss rods. Rickenbacker changed their truss rod design in 1984. Some of the advice given above would be good for a post-1984 Rick bass but WILL NOT WORK for your bass, and could result in seperating your fretboard from your neck and/or a neck crack.

See the following website for a very good description of how to adjust YOUR neck:

http://www.joeysbassnotes.com/

Your neck needs to be adjusted manually. IE loosen nuts, bend the neck to the desired location, tighten the nuts. See the website, and good luck.

Thanks, Ricaddict. You have pointed me to the website of Rickenbrother, who has already helped me out with some sage advice. I plan to use his site to guide me with the re-wiring. How's Chicago? I spent two years rotting in the Schaumberg area, managing that Rainforest Cafe in the Woodfield Mall...just torture...but I loved Chicago proper.

I managed to get my neck flat as a pancake without snapping the elderly truss rods, over the course of a few days, manually, all alone. However, I learned better afterwards from a post by Mr. Hall that I should have used a driver rather than a wrench. A lifetime of risky behavior. Fortunately, I got lucky.