Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Paul.

Couldn't find Dr Stringfellow here but I got a bottle of the Australian equivalent (I hope!!) - KwikFret Lemoil. It's a blend of pure lemon and organic oils. I checked out their web site (www.bme.com.au) - there's a couple of interesting 12 string guitars there (and I do mean 12 string - not 6 pairs!!) - never seen anything like 'em before - weird!!

Cheers

First wallaby guitars, now wallaroo 12 strings. Is it the sun or the diet back there in Alice?

Actually one of the "chlorine bearing susbstances" that I do warn about is PVC- polyvinyl chloride. This is the stuff cheap stands are covered with, i.e. almost all the clear tubing ones. Sheet PVC like packaging or raincoats, racks made from PVC, etc. can soften the finish if the guitar remains in contact with it for any period of time.

I should mention that the jury's still out with regard to orange and lemon oil as well, at least on a finished surface, as opposed to an unfinished fingerboard.

Finally, I don't believe I've ever recommended steel wool to burnish a finish, except as a last choice, and our manual says that as well. Scotch Brite or 1500 to 1800 sandpaper are much better alternatives for satin polishing as they don't discolor the finish or drop magnetic residue to collect at the pickups.

Yes, JH. Nice to communicate with you. When I picked up my 330 last week after a servce I also purchased a stand and I made sure that I asked them if it was OK to use with a Rick, given the finish on the instrument. They are well aware of the situation and assured me that it was OK. It's actually a rubber type of material but I think I might cover it with a thick padding of black cotton material to be sure, to be sure. Anyway, the instrument shouldn't be spending too much time on a stand anyway - you're either playing it or it's safely away in it's case.

Still can't come to grips with attacking it with steel wool, sandpaper or anything abrasive!

Paul: You'll notice that their major market seems to be the US. Wallaby guitars made in Australia for US rednecks (although it doesn't seem a redneck type of instrument, does it?). I hope 'redneck' is not a derogatory term!!

Cheers

John, you're of course right on poly vinyl CHLORIDE. A big DUH award will be arriving at my front door tomorrow...brain fade. Blame it on old age or sumthin'

My experience is with phthalates, yours with chlorine by-products, so let's just warn against vinyl and foamed vinyl in general. Evil.

In addition, don't bag your guitar to protect it in storage! Anything that retains moisture in contact with paint will do it harm. Paint needs to "breathe", and paint over wood needs to "breathe" even more deeply.

Tho (as you state) the jury's still out on lemon and orange oil, I still consider that as long as there's no finish-soaking going on, neither will be detrimental to a well-finished guitar. Rememeber: I counsel buffing to leave only the harder shell components. (Search me what they are--I'll have to research this one more--but the surface post-buffing does not feel wet or sticky or oily--just...fast.

It's the naphtha that concerns me, as would any petrochemical compound, around fine finishes or even old ones that we'd like to keep as nice as possible.

Steel wool: I misstated. Your posts have favored fine sandpaper and Scotchbrite. Steel wool does have that problem with leaving bits around for the pickups to attract.

Sorry if this was covered recently. I guess I don't come over to the vibrola section as often as I should. The solvent in the Goo Gone did the job very nicely. If the citrus component is potentially problematic, is a light application of straight naptha ok for problem necks?

In the 70's the Stick came out. It was 1st introduced as a 10 string touch/tap tone instrument using various tunings: F#BEADGBEAD or even the steel E9th tuning or what ever you fancy.
2 tones could be played with each string using the plucked note and fretted note combined with a tapped note at various harmonics. They are still being made. The Box Dbl.6/12 string is a take off on the Stick using 2 sets of independent string setups/1 neck/2 guitars with the same tap tone idea. IMO I don't see how these can be produced and sold for $900.00 and make any profit to sustain a business into the future. As for the sticky neck, starting off with clean hands is a good approach. Some players have very acidic body fluids which build up as deposits on the finish. When instruments came into my shop for repair, we would clean the crud off with denatured alcohol, it was inexpensive and worked very well.

Wow. Leave it up to Dale to come up with yet a new take on "sticky neck"! The Stick is nothing BUT a neck!

How many of us have ever heard one of these things played? Anybody who can master one gets my eternal admiration--played properly, it's an amazing, transcendant musical experience to hear! About on a par of difficulty with, say, the ol' contrabassoon...

Every so often I see one of these Sticks for sale. It occurs to me: either the owner has died, or he's given up trying to learn...

Anyway, now we've heard a whole raft of opinions and preferences on the topic of sticky necks and how to prevent same. Shall we move on to something less controversial like...Hilary Clinton vs. Condi Rice in '08?

On the other hand...NAH!!!

Actually, I can't honestly say I've heard someone playing the Stick. Does anyone know of a definitive song?

Here's a picture.

It was designed by Emmet Chapman in the early 1970s. There are some sound files on:

http:/www.cdbaby.com/cd/kollwitz3

I had something like that growing in my back yard but I cut it out last weekend!

Good One Howard! I'm still laughing.

The Stick is featured by Tony Levin so it can be heard on a lot of Peter Gabriel tunes. I believe one was used on Sledgehammer.

We do actually have a couple of 'stick' type instruments out here in 'Orstraya'.

One is the 'didgeridoo', a wonderful indigenous instrument that has been used to magnificent effect in some very, very good rock bands here (eg. 'Goanna'). Perhaps many of you will be familiar with it.

The other is the 'lagerphone', which may well be unique to Australia. A genuine 'stick' is used as the 'neck' and 'heaps' (a lovely quantitative term) of bottle caps are attached with 'nails' (I'm told that they should not be galvanized because rust adds to the 'tonal qualities' of the instrument).

Take my word for it, this is a genuine musical instrument, used in many 'bush' bands around Australia. Difficult to play, especially if you've just put one together after a particularly heavy 'session'.

Meet Larry and Sheila:



Note well the quality neoprene-based 'shock absorber' at the base of the finely crafted 'necks' - designed to reduce the chances of 'lager elbow' and the dreaded 'rocket wrist' syndrome.

....and here's Claude playing his!!



And you reckon we're not advanced down here.....!!

Cheers

Howard: Hee-larry-us!!!

I'll avoid comment about the length of Claude's er, equipment. Unfortunate angle on that photo, Howard...

One of my design students is a well-travelled "boere" (Afrikaner farm boy) from Durban. His name is Steven, but around here we call him "Pigpen" because we're always onto him to clean up his messes.

One night I was in my office, probably posting another inane remark about Pappas' 4005, when I swore I heard a didgeridoo from somewhere down the hall in our huge, echoey old building. Was it the ghost of Yothu Yindi? I wondered as I wandered through room after room in the pre-apocalyptic darkness--

It was Steven, playing a seven-foot length of 4" plastic sewer pipe that he'd found in the trash, and giving a demonstration of circular breathing to a wide-eyed, pneumatic young coed who probably thought he was nuts and that Australia was an archipelago in Sweden.

The true musician (or stand-up comic--it's a fine line we're walking here, after seeing Claude's photo) never lacks for opportunity or audience, I thought to myself.

Steve has since fashioned a sling for his pipe and carries it over his shoulder between classes. He's beginning to decorate it with tribal signs.

I'm beginning to be irritated. And I used to like Yothu Yindi.

Treaty now!