They were the only company with removable truss rods .
Although it’s funny how so many people that were not familiar with Rickenbackers said such awful things about their truss rods .
The hairpins work perfectly by all accounts, but having to manually flex the neck then adjust the hairpins to match is a fairly inefficient way of doing things. I've seen a good number of old Ricks on Reverb with the fretboard showing signs of having popped off at the lowest frets. Designing something where benign user error can cause this much damage seems slightly foolish.
The Rickenfanatics I've seen on Facebook are always very keen to slap down any new owner who asks questions about setups etc. "Take your Bass to a qualified tech with a good reputation for working on Rick basses, don't attempt anything yourself".
Fair enough if these were lovingly hand-built instruments from a renowned luthier who turns out a half dozen pieces a year, but plain daft for a production line instrument assembled in the main by unskilled labour.