LOTS OF PROJECTS NEARING COMPLETION...

[manta]

All beautiful. Love the F-holes on the BBs and amazing restoration on the 365. Magic Touch!!

That's quite a collection of guitars in and around the featured models. Are some of those your surf guitars?

[tristanbacker]

Lastly, here's a '68 365 NS that got a neck reset. It was in cosmetically excellent condition. I removed the back (managed to keep the checkerboard intact) and neck, cleaned out the pocket and neck mortise (the part that fits into the pocket), and reglued the parts after setting them up on my granite surface plate. (I know that's overkill, but it was cheap and is super-accurate!). Then I reglued the back, rebound it over the old checkerboard, scraped and sanded the sides, and sprayed tinted and clear varnish on the sides and back, to match the original finish on the top and neck. The new binding was also tinted to match the neck binding. It was critical to the owner that the patina match all around, so the reset would be undetectable.

Nothing else was touched or modded; every last screw went back into its original hole. Restrung with new Rick strings.

This was a similar project to the 360 that I did for a customwer in Australia earlier this year, but the Australian one had much more patina!

I think the patina give the guitar sustain!!

[cassius987]

You can check out the sound of Paul's 5-string conversion here. The bass is direct into GarageBand so not the best audio quality, yet I still think it sounds good. B string after 00:35. Pickups are HB-1s wired in parallel out-of-phase.

http://soundcloud.com/cassius987/dollar ... mming-4003

[aceonbass]

That sounded petty cool Joshua. What is the difference between the way you had the HB's wired and stock, and why did you have it done that way? Also, are you using a stock 4003 harness?

[cassius987]

That sounded petty cool Joshua. What is the difference between the way you had the HB's wired and stock, and why did you have it done that way? Also, are you using a stock 4003 harness?

RIC wires them series out-of-phase*. This leads to an impedance of 14 k. Parallel out-of-phase* means you get half of one coil's worth of impedance, or 3.5 k. I find this pairs very nicely with the stock 4003 harness, which is indeed what I am using. I came to like the low impedance sound from playing Scott Pope's 4002, i.e. the bridge pickup. Although one would think output would be a lot lower, I do not notice that, but the character of the tone is much more like a single coil while still being humbucking. The low impedance means it doesn't load down as badly in certain poor audio environments (like the way I recorded that clip).

*Out-of-phase: with respect to the two coils. A series link is coil end to coil end, and parallel mixes a start with an end for hot and the other start and end plus shield for ground. Because the magnets are also in reverse polarity the signals come into phase but the hum, which is not affected by the magnets, cancels due to the out-of-phase coils. Wiring the coils in-phase produces some thin, non-humbucking sounds.

[aceonbass]

Since HB1's are 15K pickups, then you mean 3.75 for 1/2 a coil, right? Either way, I would think that replacing the tone pots with 500k units would make the tone a bit fuller. Not sure what the best volume and tone cap values would be.

[cassius987]

I'm perfectly happy with it as-is. Also, my HB-1s are 14 k in series, depending on temperature.

[Chrome Aardvark]

Lastly, here's a '68 365 NS that got a neck reset. It was in cosmetically excellent condition. I removed the back (managed to keep the checkerboard intact) and neck, cleaned out the pocket and neck mortise (the part that fits into the pocket), and reglued the parts after setting them up on my granite surface plate. (I know that's overkill, but it was cheap and is super-accurate!). Then I reglued the back, rebound it over the old checkerboard, scraped and sanded the sides, and sprayed tinted and clear varnish on the sides and back, to match the original finish on the top and neck. The new binding was also tinted to match the neck binding. It was critical to the owner that the patina match all around, so the reset would be undetectable.

Nothing else was touched or modded; every last screw went back into its original hole. Restrung with new Rick strings.



This was a similar project to the 360 that I did for a customer in Australia earlier this year, but the Australian one had much more patina!

You mean this monster: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=401550

That '68 looks a lot cleaner than my '66. Nice to see someone else keeping the original finish, especially when it looks as good as that one. A job well done!

[Hornbrille]

Wow, this Blue Boy is the the most elegant 4001 I've ever seen.

[Hotzenplotz]

Wow, this Blue Boy is the the most elegant 4001 I've ever seen.

Yes, reminds me of my old '67 Volkswagen Beetle - light blue (but the Volks was with red faux leather seats!!! )

[wints]

Wow, this Blue Boy is the the most elegant 4001 I've ever seen.

What a great looking bass...

[8mileshigher]

What a great looking bass...

Indeed ! ! !

[electrofaro]

Nothing been finished since last year?

[cassius987]

Paul's mom was sick recently, that certainly can't have helped.

[tristanbacker]

Nothing been finished since last year?

His mom is sick but don't worry Paul talk me my Rickenbacker 700/12 acoustic is ready to paint this weekend and will be finish in a 2 o 3 weeks. I think he will post pics of my guitar and others soon.