Yeah, I design data networks for a living. I have one of those high stress tech jobs that can consume your life if you give it half a chance. It pays well but for several years I was literally living the job. I did little on a daily basis that was not work related. The best way to sum it up is to think of Jack Nicholson in "The Shinning". That is pretty much what was happening to me. All work and no play makes Ted cardiac case. Fortunately about 5 years ago I realized what was happening and decided to make a change. I needed balance in my life. I needed a creative outlet that did not involve switching matricies and dynamic routing protocols. I needed to get re-aquainted with a passionate pursuit of my youth. I was too old to get back into bicycle racing and my wife would not approve of me dating so there was only one thing left; my Rickenbackers. They had been lying in state under my bed and in the closet for about 12 years. I gave them up shortly after I started living a "responsible" life. Feeling the distinct need to be a little less responsible, I started playing again. I pretty much sucked because my chops were gone and my sense of timing was **** but it felt really good - really good. Not long after pulled out the Ricks again I remembered another passion from my youth. I almost went to lutherie school after high school. I don't know what stopped me but it very nearly happened. Tinkering with my Ricks always brought me pleasure. So I slowly got back into working on my basses. One thing lead to another and very quickly I was seriously caught up in it. I started buying trashed Ricks on Ebay and fixing them. Some required major repairs. A few are still in my basement waiting to be completed but I actually have plans for them and I will get there someday soon. Then this bass came into my life.
Yes, that is an ebony fingerboard. This 4005 belongs to John Minutaglio and may have belonged to Dane Wilder at some point. We don't know for sure. Anyway, it is '67 that had a very rough life. I had no idea of the journey it was about to take me on. John had acquired a 70's 4001 fingerboard and wanted me simply to install it and call it good enough. That was the plan anyway. Once the bass arrived passion took over.
I began to wonder if I could possibly approximate the look of the crushed MOP inlays and actually make a fingerboard that looked like the old ones. I put out the call here on the forum for pictures of MOP inlays as I did not own a single Rick (and still don't) that has them. Many people responded. I love this place. The mission was from that point to make something that looked like the pictures. I searched all over the place for weeks for material that looked even slightly similar. No luck. After a few months I stumbled across a post Dale Fortune made about the differences between the inlay types and how they were made. I emailed him hoping he could steer me in right direction. He suggested a supplier of inlay materials so I ordered this stuff.
It is not the right color but I was on the right track at least. This stuff is too golden but I did not know that at the time. Even it if was the right stuff there is much to learn before it can be turned into a proper vintage style Rick inlay. I was still totally ignorant of the facts.
Back to the bass. The poor old girl was wearing an ebony fingerboard that was fretted for a 34 inch scale. Ouch! Of course it would not play in tune very well. I also noticed that it had a single truss rod!
The filled channels were visible on either side of the adjusting nut so I was reasonably sure it was genuine.
I then began the long, slow, tedious, demoralizing, and intensely unrewarding task of removing the filler from the original truss channels. Let's fast forward about 5 days.....
It still looks pretty bad but as you can see, the old channels are restored and the middle channel has been filled in.
Right around this time a family crisis took me away from projects, the forum and my basses. I did not touch an instrument for about 10 months as the fallout settled. John was very understanding about this and never once pushed me to get it done. I am deeply indebted to him for that.
A little over a year later I resumed work on the project and figured out that I needed crushed MOP that was lighter in color. This became apparent after making some test material that was not even close to the right look. Once I got the right material I began to experiment but still could not get it right.
This shows test board #1 lying beside my second batch of MOP material. The test board looks OK but was not even close to right for this project. The particle size is way too large, for starters. The particles in batch #2 were closer to right but still not quite there.
Thanks Gary. Believe it or not but this stuff is pure joy for me. Anything that takes me away from networking for a few hours is better than good for me.
I planned and strategized and planned some more to no avail. The fact of the matter is you cannot make a fingerboard like this without making a few mistakes along the way. Here are some of the lessons I learned. Each of these boards took several hours to produce. Each has one, two, three or more flaws that made them unusable (IMHO) on this project. Either I did not distribute the particles right or a did not cut the "triangles" properly or I did not fit the material into the cutout well enough. There are a bazillion mistakes that can be made! I kept each one as I made them just to remind me of what I learned. When you put 3 hours into a work piece only to F' it up because your mind wandered it can be heartbreaking. This pic only shows about half of what it took to reach an acceptable board.
Here is the bass as it looks today. Nearby is the final fingerboard. I will show more of it later but as you can see it is fretted and partially bound.
I have to say at this point that I could not have done this without Dale Fortune.
We had a long chat over beer during the 75th weekend and he filled me in on some details I was missing. What he told me helped me fix flaws in my technique. Several problems just plain disappeared and others worked them selves out after a few tries. I can share some of what I did to make the boards but it would be wrong to divulge Dale's methods without his approval.
Ted....we are all grateful for your efforts! What a great learning experience! I remember that 4005...John and I had been talking about this one well before I had purchased any 4005's...he said it had some "issues" lol...
Great work on that fretboard...I'm sure you'll be getting a LOT of references for work when this is over....
