Re: 1991 Rickenbacker 350 complete rebuild
Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2020 9:58 pm
Hello old thread! Long story short, I wanted to build my main guitar so any progress I made on this guitar was before I got my Red 350 which quickly became my main...to the point that I had to use 2 different tunings so as not to have my 370WB feel jealous. Anyhey, life got in the way of getting this one done but like all things, that is changing & I moved to a place where I can finally work & play.
The 350's body is bound but not fully sanded so this may still be a good point to hit reset...or upgrade. If you saw my German Carve post you'll know I got smitten with a rewound horseshoe a while back. That Carve guitar got a serious knock during our move that chipped the paint badly so it needs a sanding and respray...got me thinking...fill in the middle pickup of the 350 and add the horseshoe.
Talk me out of this! A 24 fret checker bound AFG 350 with an overwound freaking 1936 1.5" horseshoe...it keeps sounding awesome enough to do! Here, I'll start: The tongue of the neck goes right up to the neck pickup at a point where I may have to rout a notch at the very end for the pickup. True, but it doesn't look like it threatens stability in any way. What about just routing for the horseshoe alone in a chambered body guitar? Now you're cutting into areas that were once isolated. It may require adding maple blocks to keep the main chambers separate. We haven't even talked about plugging the mid pickup rout...OK, use a section of similar grain from the warped back & plug it...then veneer or not to veneer is the question...and it's kinda late for veneer since you already bound the thing. You could go vintage turquoise with a gold guard & call it a day or just not mind the plug & stick with AFG since you have a serious tone machine either way.
I had initially wanted a wider neck so I tried out a wider aftermarket neck in another guitar & even built one with a tongue extension & ultimately decided no, I prefer a Rickenbacker neck. This means I either find one out there in the Net or use the one from the scratched up 330. Committing to that means I will build a 27" or 28" neck for a baritone 330. The Universe craves one of those too. Anymeow...
The 350's body is bound but not fully sanded so this may still be a good point to hit reset...or upgrade. If you saw my German Carve post you'll know I got smitten with a rewound horseshoe a while back. That Carve guitar got a serious knock during our move that chipped the paint badly so it needs a sanding and respray...got me thinking...fill in the middle pickup of the 350 and add the horseshoe.
Talk me out of this! A 24 fret checker bound AFG 350 with an overwound freaking 1936 1.5" horseshoe...it keeps sounding awesome enough to do! Here, I'll start: The tongue of the neck goes right up to the neck pickup at a point where I may have to rout a notch at the very end for the pickup. True, but it doesn't look like it threatens stability in any way. What about just routing for the horseshoe alone in a chambered body guitar? Now you're cutting into areas that were once isolated. It may require adding maple blocks to keep the main chambers separate. We haven't even talked about plugging the mid pickup rout...OK, use a section of similar grain from the warped back & plug it...then veneer or not to veneer is the question...and it's kinda late for veneer since you already bound the thing. You could go vintage turquoise with a gold guard & call it a day or just not mind the plug & stick with AFG since you have a serious tone machine either way.
I had initially wanted a wider neck so I tried out a wider aftermarket neck in another guitar & even built one with a tongue extension & ultimately decided no, I prefer a Rickenbacker neck. This means I either find one out there in the Net or use the one from the scratched up 330. Committing to that means I will build a 27" or 28" neck for a baritone 330. The Universe craves one of those too. Anymeow...