Rickenbacker Baritone?

[(cmuk)]

Paul, Could you e-mail me off-line to discuss costs and options. Thanks.

[(jingle_jangle)]

Clive, e-mail sent.

Your baritone will be done tomorrow.

JOKE!!!

[(cmuk)]

Ah, thanks - I've just received the baritone from the courier. Plays great and sounds awesome. Beautiful!

Shall I post a picture? Do you think the Rickenfolk would like to see it?

Now, where's that camera?

[(jingle_jangle)]

What took them so long to deliver it?

I'm going to have to change couriers.

[(dale_fortune)]

In 1980 I sold a Rick 800 series single H.S. p-up guitar to a very famous singer/song writer from Los Angeles who turned it into a Baritone by simply changing the strings to a heavier guage of flat wounds. This guitar can be heard on the World In Motion Album and later recordings also. As for removing the back from a Rick to pull the neck, that's not necessary. Changing the fingerboard to a scale between 26 and 27 1/2 inches would require that the bridge only be moved back between 1 to 1 3/8ths inches. A shorter version of the fingerboard would not hang over the body either. To go to all the work of removing the neck or removing the body wings...and building a new neck, you may as well build a whole new instrument from scratch and save the original one.

[(beatlefreak)]

Wouldn't you have to refret the fingerboard with proper distances for each fret in order to maintain intonation?

[(dale_fortune)]

Just make a longer scale F.B. and replace the original one with it.

[(jingle_jangle)]

Good stuff, although I still shy away from the idea of moving the bridge back. 1" is a big difference to me when you're talking about the face of a Rick...

Re: Making a new instrument from scratch and building neck...

...we're going with plan "C".

[(beatlefreak)]

Oh no!!! Not plan "C"!!!

[(jeff_ulmer)]

I'm not sure where you are getting your numbers from Dale, but the scale length on most Rics is 24.75", so a 27" length would mean moving the bridge 2.25" - or less than an 3/4" away from the R tailpiece. Obviously a 26" scale length would be shorter, but not as good IMO.

[(dale_fortune)]

Jeff you divide the scale length in half when calculating bridge placement...plan C hummm..punt

[(jeff_ulmer)]

I'm not sure where you got that from Dale. I dont' see how you can shorten the distance from the saddles to the nut and keep the scale, since the scale length is defined by the distance from nut to center of the bridge.

Just to be sure I hadn't completely forgotten my guitar building days, I verified this by using a measuring tape on my 27" scale Fender baritone, which places the bridge saddles 27" from the nut. The Ric bridge (center) is 24.75" from the nut. A 25 1/2" scale Fender strat has the bridge saddles 25 1/2" from the nut. Halving the scale length places the twelfth fret.

The Ric bridge needs to move 2.25" if you want a 27" scale guitar, there is no way around it.

[(dale_fortune)]

Lets see...using a 26 inch scale minus 24&3/4 inches leaves 1&1/4 inches...that's somewhere between 1 and 1 and 3/8ths inches that the bridge could be moved back to compensate for intonation. If you want a 27&1/2 inch scale then move the bridge back 2&1/4 inches.

[(jingle_jangle)]

Yeah, Dale, the math is right, but I still think it would look like hash.

I know, plan "C", BFD. But it should be an interesting project. I've got some new approaches. That is what makes it plan "C'. We'll neither build a new guitar nor use an old body and build on that. Hence plan "C".

[(dale_fortune)]

Paul I'm sure that whatever you decide to do for this it will turn out fine. The difference could be split by making a fretboard that would be 3/4 inch longer toward the peg head and then only move the bridge plate back 1/2 inch. Heavier strings tuned from a wound low B to a high plain B on a stock 24&3/4 scale works well also. So many possibilities, I just keep things simple...