(We now join this RM 1999 restoration already in progress)

[Lefty4003S8]

Well I for one, (but I'm sure I'm NOT the only one), applaude you Mark for what you're doing!!!!!!

If you buy a vintage Mustang, and the water pump craps out you replace right?????? Does that impact or change the integrity of the model??? Does it turn it into a different car altogther????? NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!

An RM1999 is EXTREMELY difficult to find....we all know this. SO WHAT if you have to change a part----especially if the part was beyond repair in the first place. IT IS STILL AN RM1999!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are one of the privelidged few to own such an instrument.

Wish I was in your shoes!!!!






Do not drink from the toilet when taking Lyrica

[BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS]

i would love to have a bowl of strawberries that tasted like a plate of dried onions !!! then warsh it down with a pint o' smithwicks !!!

[lucky]

Looking forward to seeing the finished bass, the top horn looks great.

[Grey]

Are people really sitting at their computer thinking "someone I don't know is doing something I don't like, time to tell them how wrong they are!". C'mon guys let's have some perspective here, it's his instrument.

In my opinion I think it was beautiful before you started. Wether or not someone thinks you're restoring it "correctly" isn't my concern, I just think it started out as a gorgeous instrument with character and dosen't need fancy wood to cover up all of those battle scars. But that's me, and if I ever get one like that I can do my best to keep it that way.

[Seans]

I think also Mark could have kept this to himself and produced a finished RM in a few months, all or most of us would have been non the wiser as to its original state, I think Mark may have foreseen some other opinions on his approach to the project and all credit to him and as said it's his bass and it's going to survive.

The one thing I would be worried about is the fact that it may loose some of that 64 tone, which I know is just so special, but it's not as if the wood used is the side of an old Jazz.
I had thought recently after comparing a 64 to a 67 RM that the upper Neck Volute has a great deal to do with the sound, just my opinion though.

[ken_j]

Try restoring an old boat without replacing any wood. If I recall correctly up 95% is acceptable. TEB?

[ram]

I think we need to talk about the old pieces here (the removed wings, old nut etc.).... I think they need to be saved and mounted like in a picture frame or made as part of a sculpture!

this is a very cool project... I'm still hoping for the TransBlack look!!!!

In the antique world these are pretty much the definitions used:

• Repair: To fix (best possible outcome) a damaged or worn area on an object.
• Restoration: To either make an object or damaged area on that object look new, or to make it look its age without any noticeable damage or repairs.
• Conservation: Primarily dealing with cleaning an object, doing the least amount of harm to its original finish.
• Preservation: To stabilize an object from further deterioration. This may entail using an archival wax to maintain the surface finish.

argue amongst yerselves....

[johnallg]

[opinion]

I was not going to weigh in on this, but I guess I just want to add my observations (yes, my OPINION).

Will this RM be a shining example of a mid-60s RM1999? Yes. Will it be original? No. Are there ANY instruments from 50 years ago that are all original? Maybe, but EXTREMELY rare. I doubt many exist today. Does a RM from back then that has had the frets expertly and not noticeably replaced count as all original? No, yet it would be easy to pass it off as so. Will this bass still be an RM1999? Yes.

As I remember, Mark had to do something with the middle neck wood because of previous wood removal compromising neck/body integrity. To quote: "The pickup cavities had excess routing which weakened the neck piece and resulted in the neck pitching forward at the body intersection under standard tuning string tension and caused separation between both body wings and the neck from the heel inward about 3 inches."

This bass will never be a collector's piece because of the work and wood replacements. Mark never said it would be. He is returning this bass to be a reliable and beautiful working bass that can be relied on. His intention is to make it appear as close to original as can be done given the alterations made to it years ago. Being it will be FireGlo, maple plugging the holes in the original upper wing was an option he chose not to want. He IS trying to make it look great. The alternative was to hang it on the wall.

It is his bass.

[/opinion]

[walker]

Great input, guys.

There are going to be those who will feel that the value and integrity of the bass has been compromised, and I anticipated that when deciding to take this whole process public. Obviously if my main concern was protecting the bass's provenance, I would have kept this whole repair process to myself and presented it completed as some have suggested. But I've accepted how it's been compromised by damage, and of course know that when I'm done repairing it I won't be able to say "all original." And I'm fine with that. It will still be a great bass, and in my mind vastly improved over what it was in 2006. But regardless of the restoration process, it will always be a 1964 RM 1999, of course... in my mind, at least. I don't care if John Hall himself decrees:

"THIS BASS IS NO LONGER A RICKENBACKER PRODUCT! DUE TO IT'S ALTERED STATE, IT IS NOW... ~THE ANTI-BACKER~ AND SHOULD BE CHASTISED AND VILIFIED!!!!"

I'll always know it to be my 1964 RM1999, DH156. But man - don't ever try to suggest that one's perspective is wrong or dishonest. "Let's be honest..." Sh*t... OK - I'll stop lying now and trying to pull the wool over everybody's eyes. Yeah right. I think the phrase: "Let's be honest" is going to be a bit of a running joke for awhile.

And nay-sayers aside, I'm glad I'm sharing this process, and I'm glad that most people here are enjoying seeing it play out. There's part of me that's in the same boat, too. Before I took this on, I for one had never seen THIS view of an RM 1999:



Did you know that Rickenbacker put pins between the body wings and neck wood?




Hell, I never knew that. And it was fascinating to discover. How did they do that, anyway?

[walker]

And because of those pins, I wasn't able to just pry apart the body wings from the neck wood like I originally attempted. But I didn't want to go the bandsaw route and lose a possible ⅛" off each wing, so I used a hacksaw blade ½mm thick and sawed it by hand ~WITH GUIDES~, of course. It would have been a bloody disaster without them.

[cjj]

Interesting. I always wondered if they put dowel pins in to make the joints more stable.


So, now that you've gotten it hack sawed apart, how are you going to plane/surface the edges to make a good tight glue joint? Especially with the remains of the pins there. Are you planning on using pins when you put it back together?

[johnhall]

Interesting. I always wondered if they put dowel pins in to make the joints more stable.

They're not dowel pins. Back then they just hammered in a small wire brad and nipped the end off with an end cutter, leaving only a little sharp bit sticking out. It keeps the parts from wandering when clamped, before the glue dries. Same thing under the fingerboard. It's a woodworker's trick as old as the hammer.

As far as whether this is still a RM, I have no opinion. However, as far as "restoration" or "authenticity" is concerned, it went south for me when carbon fiber was mentioned. It still doesn't mean that it couldn't be a wonderful instrument when completed, so what does it matter?

[cjj]

Hmm, now that you mention it, I seem to remember the subject of the brads to hold things while gluing being discussed before...

[walker]

It still doesn't mean that it couldn't be a wonderful instrument when completed, so what does it matter?

Works for me.

I'm leaving the prep of the connecting surfaces to the capable hands (and tools!) of either Greg at Gurfein Woodworking or Jeremy at Rudy's guitars. Greg already prepped the new top wing with a nice clean table saw cut. The same will be done to the neckwood after the new block is put in. A tiny sliver will have to come off each side of the neck wood to get it perfectly flat. I think wooden dowels (vs brad wires) under the 20th fret space on each side will be good for stability. Maybe I'll dowel by the tailpiece, too, but it might not be necessary there. Another thing that will help the neck's strength is not going the full 1" deep on the HS pickup cavity, too. I can probably get away with only going 11/16ths.

[jdogric12]

Mark, nice work on the bass so far. But I think you blew Wints' comment way out of proportion. Just because the word "honest" was used... it's just a figure of speech to start a paragraph, like "Look..." or "Let's face it..."

I don't see anything in his post that makes me think he was actually calling your character into question, since you're going to keep and play it. If you were going to sell it, and represent it as "original" or simply "restored" without detailed explanation (which we all know you wouldn't do), it would be a different story. It looks like he was just commenting, like several others in this thread have, that it's not really "original" anymore. And there is nothing wrong with that either. The same could even be said for the state you received it in, pumpkin-glo, and you shouldn't be offended by that.