Oh, baby! Mint '72MG on the bay:

[rickcrazy]

No, keep the cap on and replace the original, rather weak treble pickup, with a... Do I need to go on?

[gibsonlp]

Thanks guys, it sounds great.

We couldn't play that night due to slumbering family members

high-res pic of the baby: http://gil.disatnik.com/rick/4001/IMG_3346.jpg

Closeup on the body:
http://gil.disatnik.com/rick/4001/IMG_3348.jpg

[lars]

Beautiful!!!

[rickaddict]

Beautiful old Rick, Gil. Thanks for posting the photos. What's holding the bridge pickup in?!

I vote for bypassing the cap!

John A- the subject of the split in the tailpiece has come up here, but maybe it was before you were a member. One or more of the former RIC employees (Dale, Mark A?) chimed in. The part was made of cast aluminum in-house at RIC. IIRC(and I'm not a metals guy, so I'll probably get something wrong here) the mold for the part was a two-piece mold. The split is where the two parts of the mold came together. So the split was there for manufacturing rather than functional or aesthetic reasons. Whomever it was that told the story said that making the aluminum tailpieces by hand like that was a HUGE PIA, and he was very glad when the decision was made to go with the new tailpiece.

I personally (with hindsight knowledge of 30 some odd years of tail-lift problems) wonder why RIC didn't stay with Aluminum but refine the manufacturing process somehow, or outsource it to someone that could refine it.

[johnallg]

That is one beautiful MG Gil! RIC sure had access to great grained maple back then.

Jeff, thanks and it makes a lot of sense. I couldn't see a functional reason for it. It had to have been covered before March 06 because I would have seen it. Never thought of doing a search...... doh!

[wints]

Some good wood from '72. Ken's old bass was killer. '78 seems to be a good year for maple too.

[gibsonlp]

Jeff: what do you think holds it? 2 small screws into the body
I will take it out of course but that really sucks...