BlueTalon
Junior Member
- Messages
- 182
This isn't a Warmoth build, but I thought people here might be interested. A friend of mine is an old luthier who is retiring in a year or so, and I talked him into doing a couple of builds for me. I think only one of them might get done before he hangs it up, but that one is going to be spectacular!
He has done hundreds (thousands?) of guitars in his lifetime, but few basses, and never a Rickenbacker style. I have a 4001 that he used as a template to make his own templates. One obvious difference between this one and any other Rick bass is that mine will have a bolt-on neck, with a standard Fender-style neck pocket. It turns out that a Fender Jazz neck is only 1/4" wider at 2 1/2" than the Rick neck is at 2 1/4" at the neck pocket. (Part of the goal was to have an exact reproduction of the Rickenbacker 4001 neck dimensions, but that was an easy compromise.) Since it's not going to be a neck-through, if it's going to be detachable, I want it to be standardized in case I ever need to replace the neck.
The neck's construction is laminated cherry wood-bubinga-cherry wood, with a figured bubinga fretboard and no inlays. It will have a veneer on the peghead to match the body. The body will be chambered mahogany with a zebra wood top. It will have a tummy cut, and all the edges will be radiused 1/4" except for the areas where my arm and fingers will come in contact when playing -- those will be radiused 1/2".
The humble beginning:
He has done hundreds (thousands?) of guitars in his lifetime, but few basses, and never a Rickenbacker style. I have a 4001 that he used as a template to make his own templates. One obvious difference between this one and any other Rick bass is that mine will have a bolt-on neck, with a standard Fender-style neck pocket. It turns out that a Fender Jazz neck is only 1/4" wider at 2 1/2" than the Rick neck is at 2 1/4" at the neck pocket. (Part of the goal was to have an exact reproduction of the Rickenbacker 4001 neck dimensions, but that was an easy compromise.) Since it's not going to be a neck-through, if it's going to be detachable, I want it to be standardized in case I ever need to replace the neck.
The neck's construction is laminated cherry wood-bubinga-cherry wood, with a figured bubinga fretboard and no inlays. It will have a veneer on the peghead to match the body. The body will be chambered mahogany with a zebra wood top. It will have a tummy cut, and all the edges will be radiused 1/4" except for the areas where my arm and fingers will come in contact when playing -- those will be radiused 1/2".
The humble beginning: