My RickenWarmoth project guitar

Telenator said:
Super Turbo Deluxe Custom said:
Telenator said:
Sorry guys but I just can get with 12 string guitars. A 12 string electric is kinda cool but 12 acoustics sound like banjos to me!

Since these were based on the 360, I think they were getting at a 360/12.  Has Ric approached you with a cease and desist yet?

In my opinion it was very well made but suffered from poor ergonomics, archaic features, and a niche focus which relegates it to collectors and the occasional player brave enough the to weild one on stage. Seriously guys, when's the last time you saw a 360 on stage?.

Well, the last time I saw one on stage was this summer when I was using my 360/12 at the Ron Kolbus Center here in Ottawa.  Perhaps I'm an exception.  :headbang:
 
Those are amazing!!! Can't wait to see this next one you're gonna shell out!  :rock-on:
 
mayfly said:
Telenator said:
Super Turbo Deluxe Custom said:
Telenator said:
Sorry guys but I just can get with 12 string guitars. A 12 string electric is kinda cool but 12 acoustics sound like banjos to me!

Since these were based on the 360, I think they were getting at a 360/12.  Has Ric approached you with a cease and desist yet?

In my opinion it was very well made but suffered from poor ergonomics, archaic features, and a niche focus which relegates it to collectors and the occasional player brave enough the to weild one on stage. Seriously guys, when's the last time you saw a 360 on stage?.

Well, the last time I saw one on stage was this summer when I was using my 360/12 at the Ron Kolbus Center here in Ottawa.  Perhaps I'm an exception.  :headbang:

You're a better man than I am! I tried using my Ric 360 at a couple gigs and quickly became disgusted with it. Sure wa s looker though!
 
I've got a 360/12.  I've gigged with it once.  You've got to get it to the place where it's going to be played and let it aclamate awhile before tuning it.  I don't see how Roger McGuinn does it.  You've have got to commit to that one instrument and play only it, and it will be fine.  It's impossible to switch between that and another guitar mid-set.  The string spacing and wide neck make a transition to another guitar darn near impossible. 

The 12 has major balance issues too.  Two truss rods, 12 tuners, a hollow body.  A recipe for disaster.  The hardware is fine on mine ('99 model), but the pickups, while nothing really wrong with them, they're not what I'm used to.

 
First off, I love what you have done here.  Those are some incredibly beautiful instruments.  The neck on the first one is just too cool, and I bet it was no easy task.  As far as Ricks go, I love their unique sound, but I have only played one that I truly enjoyed playing.  It belonged to a friend of mine and it is an older one, not sure the exact year, but it's older than me.  I did nearly buy one once though, and damn was it beautiful.  Looking at it sitting there in the case was almost enought to get me and my cash to part ways.  Luckily I picked it up and tried to play it for a few minutes.  The near steal of a price was not enough  to make me buy something that I knew I would love to look at, but hate to actually play.
 
Mine was a gift from my father, something I would have never bought for myself.  He's a picker from the 60s, and probably it was more of his ideal guitar.  I'm kind of cursed with it.  I can't get rid of it because of the sentimental value, but don't play it regularly. 
 
The Ric 360 is (and I know the Ric faithful hate this), better at rhythm than anything else. The skinny fretboard and vintage frets make it nice for jazz chords and such but, as a modern day rock machine, I look elsewhere for my thrills. Still, they do look cool.
 
bpmorton777 said:
I take it that this sentiment does not extend to the 4001 bass..I love those and always wanted one.

Brian

Right on!!! I've always loved the 4001!!! But could never see spending the money on one.... :tard:
 
Wow, considerable amount of kudos for all that work building your guitars from scratch. :icon_thumright:

I owned a Ricky 1997 (like a 360 but less adorned and had standard f holes), that was 21 years old when I bought it. It was only a six string model but it was not the most robust of instruments. Loved that Ricky sound tho.

I am amazed you built that body as well as it looks. You must have  just about the same machinery as Ric uses and use the same manufacturing techniques to get the bodies to look like that.

Shame that Rickenbacker are less forgiving about the patents, otherwise I'd be enquiring about your costs!

I sold my 1997 to a pro muso who's main claim to fame was using the Rickys in his band. When I delivered the guitar to him, he showed me his main stage Ricky and man, was it held together by nails and repaired joints - or what  :sad: ?

He then told me, that under the spotlights and the sweat, the Rickys didn't hold up well. He had bought mine, because it was similar vintage to his main guitar but his was a 12 stringer, and he wanted to be able to play 6 strings in the studio and not have to hold up a recording session by taking the 6 octave strings off (which is what he had been doing).

 
Thanks for the kind comments Ozzie Pete.

I actually built the body by making plexiglas templates, (which takes forever!), and then using a Porter & Cable hand held router to trim the shapes. The tools I have are pretty basic and fundemental. It is VERY labor intensive to build guitars this way, but it's also very rewarding as they take shape beneath your own hands. No CNC machines here!

For the neck on the black walnut one, I laminated 5 pieces of maple and black walnut together and then laid a 1/16" thick black walniut slab on top and capped that off with a birdseye maple fret board. Then I roughed out the back side of the neck on a band saw. The rest was shaped by hand. I made three neck profile templates of my favorite Fender neck contour. One template from the 1st fret, 6th fret, and 12th fret. As I shaped the neck, I used these templates to check that I was forming the right shape. The result is a custom neck that plays like my ol reliable Fender.
 
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