Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I've decided to wait and see how it looks before I go changing things - Don pointed out to me how much lower the pickups ride in the body compared to a 620, so a two level guard may be tricky to fit. Comments from those that did it?

I'm thinking a direct replacement in tort would look good, too. (Hey, I'm a bass player - we put tort on *everything*.)

Don is correct. With a two-level guard, the upper guard will sit fairly high in relation to the strings; making it prone to "scratch marks" from your pick. I'm spacing my upper from my lower with 2 rubber grommets. The upper still sits lower than the strings, but not by a whole lot. Obviously, using just 1 grommet for spacing would give you a little more clearance.

But, again, I'm usually playing with my thumb (Jeff Beck wannabe). Anchoring my pinky and ring finger on my upper guard suits me well. Your mileage may vary...

I'll e-mail Peter a pic, so he can post it.

I'd love to see detail shots, M'Lord...

Hmmm... well I don't think the pic I e-mailed Peter shows much detail; it's a full-length shot, not a close-up. Would you like something from an angle that shows the pickguard height in relation to the strings? Or...something else? Let me know... I play requests.

>>>Would you like something from an angle that shows the pickguard height in relation to the strings?

That would be perfect!

From Sir Andrew of Left Coast.

I like this a LOT. Now how about in Gold?

Ken:

Sorry for the delay. I've forwarded a couple of pics to Peter to post in here.

You know... taking pics ain't easy! What I could see with my eye wasn't so easy to capture with my camera.

Thanks for your help! I know you have a life - I figured you'd get to it when you could.

A couple of things, Ken...

1. When I take pics with my digital camera, the images always end up being over 500kb. I think Peter has to reduce them for this board, so I don't know how well they will appear. But in one pic, you should be able to see that the upper guard is *just* below the height of the strings. As I mentioned before, my guards are spaced apart by a height of two rubber grommets; using only one will lower the upper guard noticeably.

2. If you opt to go with this set-up, it might be better to have the guards custom made. The outer shape can be copied from any 325 pickguard. The problem lies with the location of the control cavity. With 5 pots/control knobs like mine, you'll have to do some routing to get it to fit. Perhaps gold guards for a 325V59 would be OK because it's has only 4 pots... I don't know for sure, though. If you have someone custom-make your pickguards, you can have the holes drilled so that they properly line-up with your guitar's control cavity.

Measure twice, cut once.

>>> Measure twice, cut once.

What's the fun of that?

;o)

Don and I have started talking about how to do this, if that's the way I decide to go. Some soul-searching will be involved first!

JH's comment above about having a stock (spare) metal scratchplate redone in black is tempting if I decide to stick with a single level scratchplate. I really need to wait and see how it plays when it gets here!

From Andrew.

Thank you, Peter!

I notice from this side shot 2 grommet spacers are still being used, and the height isn't too extreme. You could reduce the height a tad by taking 1 grommet out, and still have the "split level" effect.