hello, from the usa

my name is vince and I am new to the forum. I live in southwestern Pennsylvania, USA. I recently bought the rca-4 bass kit. I received the kit in 7 days and it traveled about 11,000 miles! I have been buying, selling, and trading music equipment for 45 years. I play bass guitar in a local classic rock band. I own several Fender "p" and "j" basses, several Rickenbacker basses, and assorted other basses, also. I have just finished a restoration of an Acoustic 370/301 amp and cabinet. several of my rick basses are vintage, and I wanted to build a bass of this style. there are a few changes I will make to this kit to improve the ergonomics to my playing. I did a mock set-up of the bass as advised and found that the neck sets too high in the body cutout. I set a straight edge on the neck and placed the bridge at its location on the body and found that the bridge saddles were about 1/4inch from the straight edge. this means I will have to sand about 1/4inch of wood off of the heel [the back of the neck that fits into the body] to get the proper alignment of neck and bridge to allow for adjustments. also, I plan on contouring the front and back of the body similar to a jazz bass and some other changes that I will post and perhaps pictures, too. this will be a slow winter project. thanks to adam for answering my questions about the kit and the prompt service!

Welcome Vince, good luck with the build.

Hi Vince. Sounds like you have a good plan for your bass. Hope the build goes well.

Hey Vince, welcome aboard. I think we communicated a bit on email, so it's great to see you made it here.

Now, everyone around here knows that I'm not the one to ask ANY build questions. As a guitar builder, I make a good administrator.

Your comment about the neck heel being too high worries me. I'm sure the gang will correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I have never heard of a neck heel being to high.

You sound like you really know what you're doing, however, these kits are all made by CNC, and they've made 10's of thousands of them. We alone are close to selling our 5000th kit. I just don't recall anyone having to shave down their neck heel.

Yours could be THAT ONE.

Anyhoo, my (completely unqualified) advice would be to clamp the neck, install the E and G strings (with tuners in place finger tight) and see how it all sits.

Ok, now I'll go back to administrating.

I agree with Adam ! ( on all points LOL )

Welcome Vince, There are a few people here with experience of that kit. Provide pictures so they can offer advice before you start sanding the neck heel.

Welcome aboard Vince, look forward to seeing how your plans turn out.

hey Vince. welcome, start a build diary and post plenty of pics, also try a dry fit and see how it all looks, the more pics, the more we can help. enjoy!

welcome to the forum Vince, good luck with the RCA-4 build sounds like you have a truckload of experience !

Welcome Vince.

Like the sound of your plans and presume the binding will have to go with all the contouring you have in mind? Absolutely love Ash timber for it's grain patterns and will be keenly watching to see how this develops.