Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Welcome back, Paul!

(Will read about the cars later.)

Thanks, Ron!

It is great to see you once again posting on the RRF Paul W. - Welcome back!

It is great to hear from the Curmudgeon once again. Welcome back, Paul!

Jeez! You'd think Italy would be happy to get back one of their own cars built to better emissions and crash standards.This makes me wonder if it wouldn't be better to just sell your car domestically, then just buy another one once you're in country.

I had enough trouble getting all of my household stuff to New Zealand, glad I didn't try to bring any cars. 'Course, driving on the "wrong" side of the road made the decision somewhat easier...

aceonbass wrote:Jeez! You'd think Italy would be happy to get back one of their own cars built to better emissions and crash standards.This makes me wonder if it wouldn't be better to just sell your car domestically, then just buy another one once you're in country.

I did first consider this. Both cars are rare examples, with less than 100 of each ever made (if you include color, which is inportant to me.) They're also dead reliable and the result of long searches.

I checked the InterWeb in Italy to see if any of each was available. Very uncommon, as in "nada". So I decided to brong them with.

I'm three blocks from the Maserati factory. I saw many more Maseratis in SF than here, by a factor of 20:1 or more...

Holy moly. I just got here and my head is spinning from all of this news...

Great to see you back! FB is an uncivil train wreck. Are you in Modena? Due bicchiere di vino Lambrusco!

Welcome back Paul!
I haven't been here for a long time myself....

In Italy? Now we are lucky!

Welcome back Paul! I've missed your wisdom.

Great that you are back here on the forum.You have been one of the biggest reasons that this forum is such a great 'Rick Resource' .

'

IF ANYONE'S INTERESTED (there are at least two...), here's an update on the cars, guitars (yes!), and life in general.

Step TWO--the inspections of the cars--has not happened yet. At this stage, I'm not sure when it will happen. Last post on this was October 12, nearly 3 months ago. The Ufficcio Provinciale della Motorizzazione in Milan has rejected the EU Certificates of Compliance that cost me nearly 500 Euros, telling me that these must come from the manufacturer, not a third party service. Back to square two and a half. Maserati is no problem, as it's less than a mile from the house, and Ducati is a 30-minute drive, but Jaguar must be approached, and I understand that a 2006 car might be difficult to certify. Additionally, a 1995 Ducati is in a gray zone, being too new to qualify as a vintage cycle, and too old to be certified under EU regulations. We'll see how much of this is true.

I had hired a service in Milan to handle the registration red tape for me, but it appears that they did not have the chops to accomplish this; in fact, my contact at the agency seems to be using me as a paid beta tester--she should have known that the Milan Ufficcio would only accept manufacturer's certificates, on sight, the second she opened the envelope I sent her back in October. As I've completely lost confidence in their abilities to resolve this, I have asked for all my materials to be returned so that I can pursue the two-pronged attack of investigating this myself, locally, and trying to find a service that I can trust. This was waiting in the dark, with vague answers to my occasional specific questions about where we were in the process.

So far, it's been 13 months and five days since I've driven my cars, 14 months and 20 days since I've ridden the Ducati, and eight months today, since they have arrived on these shores and we have begun the registration process.

Of course, I investigated this before committing to move here, and the Automobile Club of Italy made the process look only a bit more complex than USA registration. Seven "simple" steps, but we're still on step one.

Meantime, renting a new FIAT 500 Hybrid (which we did for TEN MONTHS while waiting on the registrations) got to be a constant drain on our finances--we could have bought one and had it half paid off with what we were charged for the rental. So, with the assistance of an ex-car-design student of mine who now works in Ferrari's design department (the new Portofino was his project), I was turned on to a sales site like Reverb, but for cars, and began perusing the listings from all over Italy. Two hours' searching located a gorgeous Jaguar Model X less than four miles from my house. (Yeah, I know it's a Ford Contour mechanically) It's a 2003 with only 42K miles; nary a scratch on the paint nor a crease in the leather, from a dealer who bought it from a 91-year-old doctor in Bologna, where it was serviced by the book, garage-kept and seldom driven. Price was on the high side, but it presented as new, so we bought it and turned the FIAT back in--a happy day.

The Jag is my fourth Jaguar, and high-end equipment-wise, but low-end for power and taxation. Deluxe EU-only trim, and a one-year-only 2.0L V6, but 5-speed stick. (Try finding a stick shift Jag sedan in the USA...). Tremendous gas mileage and "only" 900 Euros a year in road takes. It isn't 400 HP like the "S" Type R, or the QP, but quite sufficient for daily transportation, and drives like new, too. A "bargain"...
OH, YEAH--GUITARS. Isn't that why we're here?

My workshop has been up and running for several months, and was finally getting up to speed and beginning to reduce the backlog of projects, when I had a setback from November 1 through mid-December as I recovered from an ankle injury that I sustained while in Brussels attending Juliana's graduation from Maastricht University's Law School. I returned from Brussels unable to walk unassisted, and it was early December before my cane and boot began to show results. I have seven steps and a steep driveway to walk down in order to get to my workshop, as it's under the main loft space. Impossible to do with a cane and a boot, so I was house-bound for a number of weeks, which did zero for my mental health, as I LOVE working in my element.

As therapy, I have been updating my website at www.studio-california.com; adding a lot of pages and unlinking the non-guitar pages in order to focus content. I'm going to be doing another site which covers my other professional work, which I'll provide a link to sometime in the future.

For those who were not aware of this, after about a dozen years in part-time development and dealing with the legalities of intellectual property protection, my solid body light show guitars are finally nearing release, under the PULSTAR brand. These have a novel, patented body and headstock that I designed, and proprietary three-channel PCM LED light show technology that is powered by an onboard 9V battery. There are 30 LEDs. A few have been distributed so far and response is positive. Here's a look at them; available in four colors. I have fifty in stock, but since each one is inspected and set up by me personally, I am not going to officially release them until they are all ready to ship. They come in a gorgeous hard shell wood case with silver-gray "poodle" crushed velour lining.
Last Fall, I wrapped up an unusual new Rickenbacker bass concept, to a customer's specifications: A vintage 1960s 360 body paired with a scratch-built 30" scale bass neck with a paddle headstock. Vintage tuners, a Dane Wilder harness with stereo output (Dane's are the best!) and HB-1 pickups. The finish was Vintage Ivory. This was shipped to London and is part of the arsenal of a young, up-and-coming band called Silvertwin. For those who haven't seen this instrument:
Now, I'm completing a second 360-style 30" bass for them in Fireglo. Photos when it ships.

I also have in-house a Madeleine acoustic and ukulele, and a vintage 4003 that's stripped and ready for a "Mink" finish. Then there are another even dozen projects awaiting completion. Hang in there.

Again, any Rickenbacker tech questions that I can help with, here I am!

Replying to myself and to those few who might still be interested--

The Maserati is now legal and I'm waiting for the title before I can finally hit the streets with it. Thanks to a great lady, Silvia Sanremo, who shepherded it through the reams of paperwork, my certification that I am who I say I am, my registration for an Italian ID card, arranging a flatbed tow from Modena to Imperia, on the border near Monaco (350 miles round trip) to receive its inspection--it passed, and to my mechanics, Angelo and Simone, who got everything working properly, as I was too busy with guitar work to do what I normally would have.

The cost? Don't ask. Rickenbacker people, and especially my customers, understand that it's the emotional connection with an inanimate object that animates it and gives it a value exceeding the monetary. This will probably be my last car, so there.

On the topic of Rickenbacker and Madeleine work--I'm wrapping up the re-restoration of a Mango Green factory-built 700C body with a newly-fitted "Batwing"-headstocked neck. Photos when it's completed. Also, a Cowboy Burst 700C Madeleine will go into my paint booth today.

Over the Thanksgiving to Christmas period, I restored a 4003S, a 4003 and a 4001, all in Vintage White, the two latter with original black binding and trim. The 4001 had a thoroughly shattered and split neck (weaponised, I wondered?), so it needed a new one. I shipped a Greenburst '68 360/12 that's been hanging around for years (this customer, a good friend, kept giving my other projects that pushed his 12 to the back of the pack.) I have to say that when it arrived in my old shop in SF, it was the sorriest excuse for a '60s 360/12 that I'd ever seen. I reconstructed the body and built a new neck, then swapped over the old hardware after replating, added new knobs and plastic, installed a Winfield vintage bridge and one of Dane's harnesses, and set it up to yield the sweetest-sounding and easiest-playing Rick 12 I can recall in memory since that golden day in '65 when I played my very first one. Part experience, and lots of good fortune. The owner is over the moon and recorded a song he wrote and sent my the mp3, which I'll somehow find time to put onto my website. This song features two guitars that I did for him, and he does the guitars great justice.

My one-year absence from this thread is mostly due to health issues--ankle, knee, and kidney stones, my first extended time in the hospital since I was 5 years old, and my first encounter with the Italian health care system, which is excellent once the bureaucracy is accepted. I have yet to receive any bill for anything, including ambulance rides, and they wanted to keep me incarcerated beyond my recovery time out of an excess of caution...

But, just like the Maserati after the mechanics' ministrations, I'm in better shape coming out than I was going in.

A couple of months ago, Stootsie and I finally reconnected, as he drove down from Salzburg to pick up the 360F that I restored for him over a multi-year period. He was thrilled seeing it and playing it once again and has plans to feature it once again in his club gigs. Turns out we are both Jaguar enthusiasts (he has an XJS). We had a pleasant lunch with our delightful ladies.

Currently waiting their turns are three F bodies (one to be fitted with a bass neck), a McGuinn 12 and a 370/12OS both needing new necks and refinishes. I'm now turning away most refinishes unless they are part of major restorations or reconstructions, as the numbers don't add up anymore.

Photos on all this stuff coming up; have to reformat stuff and separate the good from the chaff.