Long Time Coming

admin · Post by **admin** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 9:06 am

These beautiful photos come to you courtesy of Warren Long. I will twist his arm to get him to comment on his Model 350 project.

longhouse · Post by **longhouse** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 9:18 am

I never like the way the small body Rics felt while playing, but, BUT... this is STUNNING.

A true thing of beauty, this 350.

Ric's two-seater convertible!

melibreits · Post by **melibreits** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 9:49 am

Oh my..... that is incredible! I love the f-hole on the 350....and the checkered binding.....That is gorgeous--I'm jealous! What's the story on this guitar?

Wow....wow....WOW!

octagon · Post by **octagon** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 9:53 am

Yeah and those full length "crushed pearl" inlays.A regular 350 has dots,right?Is that a modified SH?

admin · Post by **admin** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 10:01 am

Some of the story on this instrument is here.

melibreits · Post by **melibreits** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 10:04 am

Wow....that is so cool.... I love seeing how guitars with serious issues can become things of beauty in the hands of the right person.....

That is amazing.

leftybass · Post by **leftybass** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 10:16 am

Beautiful job, and it reminds me of the Purple-burst 350 made for Mark Hudson and now owned by Mike Parks. Love the inlay material too.

melibreits · Post by **melibreits** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 10:35 am

Oh yeah....the Mark Hudson purpleburst.....

Can somebody find a picture of that and post it here, please?

I want to see it again....

admin · Post by **admin** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 10:47 am

Here it is.

melibreits · Post by **melibreits** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 10:52 am

Ooooh.... thank you, Peter!

You just made my afternoon!

tony_carey · Post by **tony_carey** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 11:15 am

I have always thought of the 350's as the 'prettiest' of all Rics, but that one is very special indeed. Truly beautiful. I'd LOVE an F hole in my burgundy V63....

ozover50 · Post by **ozover50** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 11:28 am

Others have said it before me, but.......WOW!!

My jury is still out on the purpleburst, however.

Scastles · Post by **Scastles** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 11:42 am

The 350's are great looking, and the F hole just adds to it! A fine piece of work!!

maizeandblue · Post by **maizeandblue** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:51 pm

It has been a long time coming... Larry Davis and I have been kicking around the idea of this guitar for a couple years now and it's finally singing like a bird.

The project began when we found a much abused 350 that needed restoration. I was always a fan of the Hudson 350 with the F-hole, so we decided to bring together a bunch of my favorite RIC features: chequered binding, full sized crushed pearl inlays, F-hole, toasters, etc.

Adding the F-hole was no big deal, but tracking down the chequered binding and a reasonable facsimile of the crushed pearl proved to be more of a challenge. We ended up locating the binding in Europe and the pearl from "Rescue Pearl." All and all, I'm rather pleased with the way it turned out.

One thing that probably doesn't immediately jump out at you is the cut of the pickguards. The bottom of the guards was actually cut and tapered to allow the chequered binding to show. The original 350 guards partially covered the binding and had to be modified.

The guitar was restored/customized as a birthday gift for my son James and he cherishes it like you wouldn't believe.

I really think Larry Davis did a terrific job on it and if anyone would like more specifics, they can drop him a note at davisguitarworks.com

Best,

Warren Long
Durango, Colorado

maizeandblue · Post by **maizeandblue** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 1:01 pm

I forgot to mention that this guitar was originally set to be burgundy (glo) when I decided to make it a gift for my son. He looked at it during restoration, wasn't partial to burgundy and asked that we do it in black (jetglo). I think he made the right decision - it looks sharp.

Lastly, I'd heard varying opinions on the reissue toasters and was a bit hesitant to go with them. IMHO they're fantastic. We've been running this guitar through a vintage '64 Bandmaster, a Marshall JCM 800 and several PODxt simulations and I haven't found a single tone that's not great. They're all good. This guitar sounds every bit as good as it looks and the playability is terrific.

By-the-by, I apologize for the quality of the photos, I'm far and away from the best digital photographer around.

Cheers,

WL