What the hell am I going to do with this thing?

[mayfly]

moving right along...

I bought a bone nut from NextGen guitars without really measuring anything. The description was 'fits Gibsons', so I tried it and it works perfectly!


Got myself a Rick knock-off bridge!!



Where the original bridge screw holes were, and where I think they should go. I'm thinking the original bridge was not well centred. Just a feeling...


Bridge on the body...

 

[Spud]

I stand corrected

 

[mayfly]

I'll be damned. The thing intonates:



The 'tailpiece' has about 30 seconds before it goes 'kaboom!'


Plenty of room for 1/2" high rick pickups in there:

 

[mayfly]

I was considering stripping off the body finish but I decided to give it a polish (with genuine carnauba wax) before deciding.




actually looks pretty good for a faux-fireglow finish. I'm impressed!

But now how to finish the neck?

 

[Rick]

Orangey Amber dye followed by tru oil?

 

[aarontunes]

 

[mayfly]

More stuff arrived: the pickguards are genuine Rickenbacker:



Pickups and tailpiece are Guitar Fetish. Too bad about those annoying 'kwik-plugs' on there - going to have to remove them and splice the wires to get them mounted close to the body:



Doesn't look to bad!

 

[mayfly]

Time for an update. As it happens, guitar fetish lied on their website about the height of these pickups. The website says they are 0.5". Turns out they are actually 0.6". Don't think that 0.1" matters? Think again buck-o! For the bridge pickup I had to remove the backing plate to get it to not 'fret out' against the pickup body. No, I have no idea how this will sound. :-/





I shaved away the top of the neck to make it flush with the body by using the same drill press planer that I used on the back of the neck. Very happy with how this turned out. You can clearly see the lack of a backing plate on the pickup there...


Doesn't look to bad!



Now to wire the thing.

 

[mayfly]

Been playing this thing for about 1/2 an hour. Verdict: It sounds great! Different from an actual Rick though - this one has a lot more chambering and is a lot more resonant. Oh - and removing the back plate off the pickup did not seem to bother it. In fact, it's a bit louder than the other one...

More to do, including finding some knobs that I like for it and finishing the neck.

 

[Hodgo]

Awesome job @mayfly! Way to make the most out of an oddball project

 

[mayfly]

Been playing this thing all day. It's rapidly becoming my favourite guitar!



This little project has convinced me of two things:

1 - it's all about the neck.
2 - you CAN make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. As long as you apply a generous portion of silk....

 

[Scab Pickens]

@mayfly, I am seriously impressed by what you were able to do with what I initially thought was a steaming plie of poo poo! Well done.

 

[mayfly]

Time for finishing touches....

 

[aarontunes]

Time for finishing touches....

View attachment 66687

That would be killer.

The thing that makes me chuckle the most is that CAN is punctuated C.A.N.

LOL

 

[TBurst Std]

I figured you’d name it Mayflybacker.

 

[mayfly]

I figured you’d name it Mayflybacker.

Nah - does not roll off the tongue the same way. Also, the Rickenbacker company is pretty litigious - didn't want the Mayfly name anywhere near it!

 

[TBurst Std]

I get you Trevor. Diversify risk.

 

[mayfly]

Allons-y!!

 

[Steve_Karl]

Bravo!