Moderator: jingle_jangle
Perhaps the owners will upload a demo of the sound timbre when they take delivery so that those of us whole have not heard, or are aware of hearing (!) a RIC acoustic.You know, I was wondering how difficult it was to do this. I tend to think yellowed binding looks better with blue but I'm not overly keen, as previously stated, on aged blue, which tends to go a bit too green for my taste.....jingle_jangle wrote:Only one tonight, but it'll make Alisha feel all warm and fuzzy...it's the bridge being glued--finally--onto her 700C/6.
Here's how I typically mount the bridge:
The bridge is located immediately after the body is sanded and before any sealing begins, and its footprint is masked off. After all finishing, varnishing, and buffing is done, the bridge is screwed down, a sharp knife cut is made around its exact perimeter, and the finish and masking tape footprint is peeled away. This leaves a perfectly clean and open footprint of spruce. The bridge literally makes a "snapping" sound when it's fitted into the opening and glued. The contact once glued is 100% of the area of the footprint. Most builders simply scrape away the finish approximately around the center of the bridge footprint. Usually there's only about 40% contact or glue patch. Obviously, the better the contact, the better the transmission of string vibration to the top. It's a lot of extra work, but worth it in tone. And it virtually eliminates any chance of the dreaded bridge lift that afflicts some Martins and Gibsons.
The binding (originally pure white genuine celluloid), left pure white, would have IMO looked too "cold" with the guitar in such a cool shade of blue. This would have left the fretboard, a really glorious piece of bubinga, all alone and a bit too orangey-looking. So, I masked off the entire guitar except for the binding, and tinted the binding only, to give the perimeter of the guitar a bit of warmth and soften the contrast between the blue body and the varnished bubinga fretboard. Note the red position dots...it's details like these that lift these instruments above other traditional and run-of-the-mill appearing handbuilt acoustics.
Simon, This is the only place on a Rickenbacker acoustic, where I cheat and use super glue. Both the white binding and checkerboard purfling are cut down in width to about .150" (4mm) and pre-bent carefully. Each is applied to the hole separately, "dry", until the fit is perfect, then glued in place and allowed to rest for a couple of hours before the next is applied. The seam of each piece is centered on the top, where the fretboard hides it when the neck is fitted into place. After the glue has completely cured, I carefully scrape the binding flush with the surface of the spruce top.37012player wrote:
Um Paul, Im wondering how you go about binding the sound holes, as you would have no routed rebate/ledge to support the binding material, as say you would around the perimiter of the body...? How to you keep it in place while the glue sets?
I can't imagine why on earth that would be the case.....except that it looks AMAZING!leesh wrote:= me
+1 Absolutely stunning work Paul pure Geniusmelibreits wrote:Fabulous.... Simply fabulous! What a lusciously lovely shade of Blueburst....!
Outstanding work, Paul!
Congrats again, Alisha--you know I'm jealous!
I imagine this guitar sounds Cataclysmic! Thanks all for the great compliments...you guys and gals all inspire me to take this stuff to "the next level". I do believe, as I told Alisha, that this could be the most photogenic of all the Rick acoustics I've built to date. It all just sort of came together in this one. BTW, the bridge on this one is my design, handmade from bloodwood. The ebony bridges I usually use were just too dark for this guitar.jps wrote:Paul, where can I get the ebony buttons for Schaller keys? I got a set from Larrivee to replace the original Gotohs on the LV-19 but they have chrome buttons on them.
