Newbie taking on the RCA-4 challenge

[Swanny]

Glad your kit arrived! I think one way you could check the neck position is by measuring from the nut to the 12th fret, and then to the bridge. The 12th fret should be the halfway point.

[Dave UK]

Yeah as another newbie I have just got my RCA - 4 kit.
There is another thing I am new to as well which is these kind of websites!
Same issue with where the neck sits in the socket in the body. If I put the neck right down in the socket the pick guard and pick up don't fit as they are. I don't really want to start hacking the pick guard so what I am thinking of doing is setting the neck to suit the pick guard and pickup and then cutting some wood packing pieces and gluing them in place around the heel of the neck - therefore filling the gaps. This is a bit like one solution I have seen somewhere on the community where a filler had been used.
I know that with "real" Rics the neck extends through the body so there will be a lot of rigidity from that and I am hoping that by using wood blocking pieces I can go some way to building mass and rigidity at where the neck joins the body.
I measured the distance from the back of the nut to the crown of the 12th fret and on my RCA it's 17 inches dead so that's going to give me a scale length of 34 inches (2 x 17) and I will obviously position the bridge to suit. I am going to stay with the Pit Bull bridge - if things go well I can always change it later.
Apart from that I am going to get a shielding kit from Allparts and still making my mind up about colour.
Cheers
Dave

[wazkelly]

Good to know it measures up to a standard 34" scale and still leaves room for positioning the bridge.

[Paul C]

Hi, i am building the same bass at the moment, i have set the neck right into the cavity to give it more stability, the scratch plate can be trimmed /shaped to fit around the neck.
Paul

[gavinturner]

As Swanny said check the scale length. You can use the stewmac fret position calculator to work out exactly the distance between the nut and the bridge. If you take a look at the other finished RC-4s here you can see that the right hand side of the neck meets the top of the body below the last fret rather than on it.

cheers,
Gav.

[sansan]

Let me show you the differents types of neck setting i've been find online. Taking reference a real RC-4 below from Paul, if you please and let me use as example of course..) and then real Ricks around.



Depending the type of bridge you want to install, scale measure, use or not the stock pickguard, and the feel you want to achieve (the more you pushed down to the bridge, the more stability unless you glue some reinforcement around the tenon) I personally like it a little pushed up to the headstock but always keep the eye between 20 fret and 21.

S!

[Julozoy]

Hi guys!
Thanks very much for the replies and insight. Good to see that 1) this is the case with other kits and not a defect in mine and 2) there are options based on personal preference and feel as long as the bridge is positioned correctly (thanks for the fret position calculator tip, I had no idea).

Sansa, i think i'll push it up a bit and not go all the way and then see about reinforcements. I have a long way before i get there anyway, as my kit was back in its packaging due to moving house and not having space for it. Now that i am settled i'm hopping to get into it this weekend.

Thanks again

Jul

[wazkelly]

From Sansan's pics the only authentic Ric is the Jetglo in the bottom right corner. Suggest searching for more images and it doesn't take long to pick the real deal from all the fakes. Here are some more photos to look at.

The Blue burst is a fake as the fretboard is too dark, the pickup cover too square, and neck pickup looks nothing like it should, bridge is all wrong, mono output socket, and if you look harder you will find many other indicators too.

[sansan]

HI, I took the pictures from authentic rickenbacker basses restorations, at least the two bare wood basses are reals, im not a expert in the RB different models, but at this time, i've noticed that theres no two are alike..

[wazkelly]

Ric's have a neck that runs the full length of the body with wings glued on. This is easiest to see when looking at the back of a mapleglo version or this fireglo.

That being said, most examples do seem to have some variation in where the frets line up with the body and best to measure nut to 12th fret and then same to bridge should be the same length. Official Ric website has scale at 84.5cm or 33.25" whereas Fender P & J long scale is 34".
Probably more important to get the scale length right rather than how the frets line up with the body otherwise it will be a nightmare to intonate and higher notes will be out of tune.