Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

jingle_jangle wrote:That's my preference, too. However, this owner wanted 100% originality.

I recently completed shaving (a headstock!) on a JG 360/12. My own double-bound Ruby 360 had the widest canoe paddle I'd ever seen. It was built during the '80s transition from Grovers to Schallers and back again. It had Grover Rotomatics--which have to be the world's ugliest darned tuners ever, plugged into holes drilled for longer-shafted Schallers, so the tuning keys barely cleared the headstock. Result was badly-chipped paint around each tuner, to match the badly-chipped paint everywhere else. Badly-chipped so-called "glamor" colors look worse than other colors...

When I refinned it, I retrofitted it with new vintage Klusons and shaved the headstock about 1/4" each side, and shortened the headstock 3/16" to keep the proportions palatable. It looks 100% better. The 360/6 received the same treatment.

I love the canoe paddle headstocks! I also kinda like clownglo

That is one very interesting bridge! I've never seen anything quite like it. Cool guitar, and very impressive work.

The bridge is a standard part, too...

Gotoh sells one that's nearly identical, though this one is the original MIJ item.

I'm just finishing a 380/12 conversion, which uses the Gotoh version.

Egg on my face here re: the latest video I posted, which needed a serious fact check. I'll correct my misstatements in the next installment of the 4005 saga.

Just wrapped this 481 last week and got it strung last night. It's AZ, as you can see, and it took awhile because one sorely-needed part--a pickup cover--was tough to find. I finally found a used one in good condition (thanks, Tracy!) and was able to replace the old cracked and corroded original.

The bridge saddles will be swapped for original ones, as new Rick bridges have a radius to the saddles, and of course the 481 has a flat fretboard...

Hmm.... me want one!!

Nice work, Paul.... looks spot on.

Me too!

Gorgeous!

Wow Paul! It came out so beautiful! What an artist! Thank you...thank you...thank you!

For those who'd like to know what the guitar originally looked like:

Wow, another amazing 481 transformation, from jetglo to a gorgeous shade of blue!

Lovely work, indeed, Paul!

Kind of gives me a sense of deja vu.

I like the tuners that were on the JG more than the Grovers....

Thats Really nice, All it needs is a black switchtip.

Grey wrote:I like the tuners that were on the JG more than the Grovers....

I think that the Grovers are quite ugly, BUT they are excellent quality. They were originally on it, but somebody before Nelson replaced them with some terrible cheapo Japanese open-backed items. They were stiff and inaccurate.

Back to Grovers!

Another LS conversion, one that was completed a couple of weeks ago. I had a few minutes to photograph it this AM before shipping it to a repeat customer in Mexico, who bought a JG one from me last year.

The aim here was to get something that looked as close as possible to an original, in terms of color and trim, but was built on a newer carcass. This one, however, is a 340--the first 340 LS I've built, surprisingly. The color was matched to the original that now resides with Collin. The fretboard is also slightly ambered to duplicate the color of the wood on Collin's. The Schaller tuners on the original were swapped for new vintage Klusons, and a silk-screened TRC was sourced.













I've got a similar one in the works using original parts, but with a reworked new body without the "ramp" and with lenses that are the original shape. It'll be a slant fret 341/12 like McGuinn's. Solid state and LEDs, though.

jingle_jangle wrote:I've got a similar one in the works using original parts, but with a reworked new body without the "ramp" and with lenses that are the original shape. It'll be a slant fret 341/12 like McGuinn's. Solid state and LEDs, though.

I'm no fan of LS, but it will be interesting to see the finished product of that description, Paul!

341/12 slant fret light show?? ohh baby! i NEED one of those.

Wildberry wrote:

jingle_jangle wrote:I've got a similar one in the works using original parts, but with a reworked new body without the "ramp" and with lenses that are the original shape. It'll be a slant fret 341/12 like McGuinn's. Solid state and LEDs, though.

I'm no fan of LS, but it will be interesting to see the finished product of that description, Paul!

Well, maybe goldfish instead of LEDs?