Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Cleveland's Finest!

Here's a suggestion: Buy a new Rick bass, and have the wings replaced with wacky maple.

Once there was a lowly Combo 1000 that had shiny Jetglo paint when it was new, but over decades of use and misuse, ended up looking like a fence plank...

Then its new owner decided to have it re-done. Being a left-handed player, he wasn't happy with stringing his guitar upside-down, so he asked for the body wings to be cut off and replaced with new lefty ones. Not being a JG fan, he requested a Mapleglo refinish.

I have lots of curly maple, and surprised him with this:







This would look outrageous on a 4001, 4003, or 4004...

...or a 4003/5!

SquireFan91 wrote:I only suggest veneer because I've heard so much about how flamed maple is becoming hard to find.

Don't believe everything you hear. What's really being said is that they want higher prices.

SquireFan91 wrote:I think the dark on light of ebony on maple would be quite nice, and while MOP on the inlays would be great abalone would really make a smaller inlay like I want POP right off the fretboard.

Use of both is environmentally unresponsible. Ebony would have been banned in trade 15 or more years ago, except for certain cultures needing time to transition away from wood carving to another means of making a living. Abalone populations have been decimated, which has also destroyed the habitat for other animals that feed on them, like sea otters. My front yard used to be a veritable otter factory but now there are none whatsoever, my dad Hall certainly being partially responsible for the total lack of abalone that caused this.

My mustang bass has some really nice flamed maple on the neck and headstock. I thought it was just normal until I saw some on ebay, and they had nothing...it makes it all the more cool!

jingle_jangle wrote:Cleveland's Finest!

Here's a suggestion: Buy a new Rick bass, and have the wings replaced with wacky maple.

This would look outrageous on a 4001, 4003, or 4004...

That's an idea. It is however more work than I'd like to go to the trouble of having done on anything short of a V63 or CS (I really want the smaller inlays). By the way, those guitars are absolutely stunning, and if/when I do get my v63/CS, I will as likely as not go this route.

johnhall wrote:

SquireFan91 wrote:I only suggest veneer because I've heard so much about how flamed maple is becoming hard to find.

Don't believe everything you hear. What's really being said is that they want higher prices.

SquireFan91 wrote:I think the dark on light of ebony on maple would be quite nice, and while MOP on the inlays would be great abalone would really make a smaller inlay like I want POP right off the fretboard.

Use of both is environmentally unresponsible. Ebony would have been banned in trade 15 or more years ago, except for certain cultures needing time to transition away from wood carving to another means of making a living. Abalone populations have been decimated, which has also destroyed the habitat for other animals that feed on them, like sea otters. My front yard used to be a veritable otter factory but now there are none whatsoever, my dad Hall certainly being partially responsible for the total lack of abalone that caused this.

Hadn't thought about the scarcity of Ebony or that there might be extraneous reasons for it's still being available despite that fact. Perhaps a stained fretboard would be the way to go, since it is for strictly aesthetic purposes anyway. As to abalone, is there no way to harvest responsibly? Old shells from shores and seabeds, that sort of thing? Akin to repurposing the ivory from an old piano, or perhaps more like taking it from an animal that has already died of natural causes. I'd NEVER condone hunting for ivory, but if it's already there and nobody has to get hurt to get it, why not use it?

SquireFan91 wrote: I'd NEVER condone hunting for ivory, but if it's already there and nobody has to get hurt to get it, why not use it?

I think it is still illegal to buy, sell or trade ivory or anything containing ivory regardless of when the ivory was harvested. Am I wrong?

Guess I'd better not try to sell my 1893 piano...

SquireFan91 wrote:[... but if it's already there and nobody has to get hurt to get it, why not use it?

That's why there are no remains of the nearly 60,000,000 North American bison in its original range . After the genocidal slaughter of the bison (which took only a little more than a century), the skeletons were picked up and sold to factories for making bone black. The removal of that much biomass, in addition to the replacement of all native grasses with European grasses, had ecological consequences that are still being felt today.

Future paleontologists who would not have knowledge of these events would likely conclude from the fossil record that the bison, like the mammoth and other Pleistocene megafauna, became extinct at the end of the last ice age, about 12,000 years ago.

There is another story about "it was there and I just picked it up": back in Illinois not too long ago, a woman artist visited the Peoria Wild Animal Park (or whatever it was called at the time). When she went by the American bald eagle exhibit, she saw a feather lying outside the cage. Being an artist, she picked it up and subsequently used it in a show piece. After exhibiting the show piece, Federal agents moved in, confiscated the piece, and arrested her for illegal possession of an article from a protected species. IIRC she actually got jail time and a hefty fine after losing the original case and a number of appeals.

doctorwho wrote:...There is another story about "it was there and I just picked it up": back in Illinois not too long ago, a woman artist visited the Peoria Wild Animal Park (or whatever it was called at the time). When she went by the American bald eagle exhibit, she saw a feather lying outside the cage. Being an artist, she picked it up and subsequently used it in a show piece. After exhibiting the show piece, Federal agents moved in, confiscated the piece, and arrested her for illegal possession of an article from a protected species. IIRC she actually got jail time and a hefty fine after losing the original case and a number of appeals.

And, crackheads get to run free. There is a story to go with this comment, one that I will not tell, here.

doctorwho wrote:

SquireFan91 wrote:[... but if it's already there and nobody has to get hurt to get it, why not use it?

That's why there are no remains of the nearly 60,000,000 North American bison in its original range . After the genocidal slaughter of the bison (which took only a little more than a century), the skeletons were picked up and sold to factories for making bone black. The removal of that much biomass, in addition to the replacement of all native grasses with European grasses, had ecological consequences that are still being felt today.

Future paleontologists who would not have knowledge of these events would likely conclude from the fossil record that the bison, like the mammoth and other Pleistocene megafauna, became extinct at the end of the last ice age, about 12,000 years ago.

There is another story about "it was there and I just picked it up": back in Illinois not too long ago, a woman artist visited the Peoria Wild Animal Park (or whatever it was called at the time). When she went by the American bald eagle exhibit, she saw a feather lying outside the cage. Being an artist, she picked it up and subsequently used it in a show piece. After exhibiting the show piece, Federal agents moved in, confiscated the piece, and arrested her for illegal possession of an article from a protected species. IIRC she actually got jail time and a hefty fine after losing the original case and a number of appeals.

Excellent point!

doctorwho wrote:

SquireFan91 wrote:[... but if it's already there and nobody has to get hurt to get it, why not use it?

That's why there are no remains of the nearly 60,000,000 North American bison in its original range . After the genocidal slaughter of the bison (which took only a little more than a century), the skeletons were picked up and sold to factories for making bone black. The removal of that much biomass, in addition to the replacement of all native grasses with European grasses, had ecological consequences that are still being felt today.

Future paleontologists who would not have knowledge of these events would likely conclude from the fossil record that the bison, like the mammoth and other Pleistocene megafauna, became extinct at the end of the last ice age, about 12,000 years ago.

There is another story about "it was there and I just picked it up": back in Illinois not too long ago, a woman artist visited the Peoria Wild Animal Park (or whatever it was called at the time). When she went by the American bald eagle exhibit, she saw a feather lying outside the cage. Being an artist, she picked it up and subsequently used it in a show piece. After exhibiting the show piece, Federal agents moved in, confiscated the piece, and arrested her for illegal possession of an article from a protected species. IIRC she actually got jail time and a hefty fine after losing the original case and a number of appeals.

Touche. I suppose the risk of "if one person can do it more will" still makes it difficult to justify.

jps wrote:

doctorwho wrote:...There is another story about "it was there and I just picked it up": back in Illinois not too long ago, a woman artist visited the Peoria Wild Animal Park (or whatever it was called at the time). When she went by the American bald eagle exhibit, she saw a feather lying outside the cage. Being an artist, she picked it up and subsequently used it in a show piece. After exhibiting the show piece, Federal agents moved in, confiscated the piece, and arrested her for illegal possession of an article from a protected species. IIRC she actually got jail time and a hefty fine after losing the original case and a number of appeals.

And, crackheads get to run free. There is a story to go with this comment, one that I will not tell, here.

I agree that as often as not the government's priorities are perhaps a bit confused. Though this may not be the best place to talk politics.

SquireFan91 wrote:this may not be the best place to talk politics.

This is definitely NOT the place to talk politics.

I agree that as often as not the government's priorities are perhaps a bit confused. Though this may not be the best place to talk politics.

Its against the forum rules. Off the record...I agree with you.

I saw a letter in a recent guitar magazine stating that certain guitars were being confiscated at customs for using restricted timber in their construction.
Could be worth checking out since theres so much confusion with some of these government agencies.
Maybe when people scrap old and broken instruments they should be stripped (the instrument not the owner) and recyled to extract any precious timber.
I am all for a clean environment but tell me...
If everyone is so worried about the carbon footprint,how come you can still get those odour eating carbon insoles at the chemist shop?