Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

John Bolin, who makes Bolin guitars made me the gold guard. The chrome pieces were replated gold by one of my clients. The knobs came from a 4004 Cheyenne and the TRC came from RIC. Persoanlly I like the gold, but not so much with the chrome pieces. Which is why I replated.

I'm with you Brian....love the gold hardware....I imagine it would get extremely costly, though.

wittyair wrote:I'm with you Brian....love the gold hardware....I imagine it would get extremely costly, though.

I don't recall exactly what is cost, but I don't believe it was to terribly expensive. I'm not a big fan of Ed Roman, but if consumers feel his services have value then what the heck.

wittyair wrote:Case in point, Bill
Just did this today.
Not bad, eh??

Craig.....Not bad at all is right on, brah! What a sublime-looking 330 ~ very cool tailpiece, too. I used to have a 660/12 MB trimmed with gold pickguard and TRC. The gold renders such a warm, organic look to it. Nicely done, Commander. Is this one headed for eBay at some future date? Best regards....Goofyfoot.

David.....this one is most certainly not headed for the bay as this is my "Go To" guitar. It's a 340 with a professionally installed B-5. A very nice, comfortable axe. You will be seeing less and less from me on ebay in the future as my collection is reaching the "content level". It's taken me a few months and I have obviously upset a few people ( which I totally regret) but all I've been trying to do is put a personal collection together.....that has entailed buying guitars, trying them, and then keeping or selling them. As you can see by the signature below......I do keep guitars!!!

simer4001 wrote:I'm not a big fan of Ed Roman, but if consumers feel his services have value then what the heck.

I tell you, a big part of why I didn't end up getting one through him was the attitude of the salesman I dealt with. He was telling me how Ed could replace this and replace that and shave down the neck and blah blah blah and make it "playable". I told him that I was pretty happy with the way they come from the factory so they had me play one with all of Ed's "improvements" and I really hated it. I don't like a super-thin neck, for one thing. It also just didn't feel right to me. It didn't have the same jangle and strum. And I told him that it wasn't really my thing, and he said something to my aunt about how some people don't appreciate craftsmanship, and I said "Yeah, really." I just didn't care for their customer service or the fact that anything Ed builds or customizes is instantly better than anything else.

jingle_jangle

Ed sells gold guard, calls Tony at Pickgardian, receives gold guard, removes white guard, installs gold.

Gold guard: Tony's price, doubled.

Installation: $150/hr.

Presto, "factory option".

Word. Tony's the Gold Gard Man.

I have one of Tony's that I haven't installed yet, but the one that John Bolin made me was brighter and more lively. Not that I don't like Tony's, I do, but John's has more presence. Does that make sense?

It has to do with the paint mixed for this use. NOTHING is brighter than Rick's own lovely gold. Application is also important. Tony's looks very nice, until something brighter comes along Gosh, we're fickle...

jingle_jangle wrote:It has to do with the paint mixed for this use. NOTHING is brighter than Rick's own lovely gold. Application is also important. Tony's looks very nice, until something brighter comes along Gosh, we're fickle...

I beg to differ Paul. The gold in John Bolin's pickguard is golder and brighter than RIC's. Not better, but brighter. Maybe it doesn't appear this way in the photo, but it is in person.