Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

jps wrote:Looking good, so far.

Interesting trio of holes on the E string side for the TRC.

Oh for sure, they're only a few of the "random" holiness in multiple areas .....

Got Wings ... Part-1

In order to construct the Ebony wings I had sourced a piece of Ebony from a local hardwood supplier and shipped that to Larry.
Larry dressed that out to produce a finished blank in order to build the wings. Despite being sourced from different places the Ebony for the neck (which has a lovely grain structure) and the Ebony for the wings turned out to be a great match

Got Wings .... Part-2

Warning, some of the following images may cause Rickenbacker owners distress

Time to make big changes to the Headstock

Removing the old wings, you can see where the previous holes for the Tuners was filled in prior to cutting Here both new wings have been securely glued and clamped After allowing a suitable time to fully dry the new Headstock profile is laid out across the new Ebony Wings Here is a nice view of the whole body with her new Wings ready to begin shaping

Nice!

Jim: Thanks very much for these continued updates. Larry's work is amazing. It will be great to see the finished instrument. Don't try this at home!

admin wrote:Jim: Thanks very much for these continued updates. Larry's work is amazing. It will be great to see the finished instrument. Don't try this at home!

Your advise is well taken, I cringe seeing the shots of the headstock being cut, even though Larry had advised me in advance it was happening, it still felt like nails on a chalkboard looking at the pictures of the wings being cut off

Cool to see the process happening!

Last update saw the Eboony wings being attached to the rimmed down Headstock.

Now the Headstock has been shaped, using a period correct template: With the Headstock cut to its initial dimensions, next comes the addition of the location holes for what will be C-64 style Machine Heads Now it's starting to look like an actual Headstock Next up is slotting the Fingerboard, all done by hand.

Loving those ebony wings...

espidog wrote:Loving those ebony wings...

I'm hoping they're going to sound as good as they'll look

Now we have the Wings on and their basic shape and Machine head holes drilled we move on the the Ebony neck blank
These were the two Ebony blanks selected for the Wings and Fretboard Having trimmed the fretboard blank to a working size the next step is to cut (by hand) the slots for the frets Slot cutting made "easy", this is a new meaning of the word easy I was not previously aware of When I first saw this picture my immediate reaction was OMG, Larry's cut too many slots WTF !!!!
That thought was, I'm very happy to say in grave error on my part as will be revealed Lights going on for everyone, it took me a fractious few minutes to realise what was being done Having recovered from my near heart attack, "I can see clearly now the slots are cut"

loving the pics.

Thank you very much for letting us experience this with you.

Fretboard ...... Continued

As I had said, the lights began to click on and I could see what Larry was doing :
He was prepping the slots for the Mother of Pearl Inlays This is very precise work, you don't get a do-over if you remove too much wood.
Next up will be laying out and cutting the Mother of Pearl for the inlays

Mother of pearl for the Fretboard inlays Now we have the inlays in place the Fretboard can go back on the neck .....

That's looking real fine, Jim!