Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Yeah, much better!

It's looking great Dale!

At this point you must be more then 50% done?

Man, that's sweet.

Looking forward to seeing what you do with the electronics.

Er..... WOW!! More great stuff, Dale.

Beautiful stuff, Dale! I'm particularly impressed with the graining of the wood on the through-neck and its contrast with the body.

I didn't notice if you mentioned the fretboard radius, Dale, so if you did, pardon me, but what are you using?

Will you be using the same conversion varnish as Rickenbacker does, or do you have your own preference?

Dale, it's really starting to look like a "whole guitar." The grain on the rosewood fingerboard is rich looking.

BTW, are the PUs Ric highgains? Looks like the poles have slotted heads.

Are you using bone for the nut?

What kind of rosewood is the fingerboard?It looks very nice.I am amazed by your talents.

Totally fascinating stuff!
I'm into knowing more about the pickups myself, as those certainly are not Rick hi-gains.

Paul: the F.B. radius is 12 inches and it's a 25 inch scale, a little longer than Rickenbackers. The C.V. I use is made by Sherman Williams, if you want the part numbers for the C.V. and the catalyst let me know. It reduces with toulene and uses a 3 percent catalyst ratio. Totaly dry to sand when sprayed at 70 degrees, in 2 hours. It's a high build C.V. 1 coat= 4 coats of lacquer.
Bill: the pick ups come from Europe and are distributed by Allparts out of Texas. They are a nice copy of a High Gain with the looks and all, but are only 7.4K ohms. That'll give em' that nice bright tone. What I have been using you years for top nuts is Corian counter top material. I get the left over pieces from the factory here in the Portland area. It has a very nice density, like bone, but without the health effects. It also comes in just about any color you want. It's a composite material, Paul could probably tell us what it's made of, some sort of resin and fill/bonding material I suppose.
Jonathan: the F.B. is East Indian Rosewood. Heavy,dense and moderatly oily. I use acetone to dry it out/remove some of the oil.
Sergio: The pick ups are very nice copies of a high gain pick up. They are bar magnets, with a 7.4K ohm out put.[ allparts.com ] and you will find them.

The more I look at those C.P. Inlays the more I realize these are and were the best ever fingerboard inlays. So different and so original. Mesmerizing to say the least....... LY DL

Dale, I would be interested in the paint type info that you are using if you don't mind?

BTW, the RIC 230 series used a 25 inch scale, which is the only RIC guitar I know of that did. I have an '89 230, and there is a nice '91 230 down at Old Town Music in Portand, but he wants $200 too much for it.

Thanks for answering the questions Dale. You are right on about the inlays and nice to see you step back and "admire" the work.

What is the plan for the tailpiece? Any thoughts about a vibrato?

Dale,
Watching this process has been absolutely fantastic and inspiring. You have a great talent and it is unreal that a person from Brisbane, Australia can witness the work you do in your shed. I'm a musician four gigs a week and a biology teacher during the day. I have shown your posts to the manual arts teachers (with whom I have been procrastinating for years about making a guitar). You have inspired me and them to finally have a go at making some guitars. A couple of students are also interested as well.
Can't thank you enough for sharing your knowledge with us all. It is truly priceless and has answered just about all of my questions on guitar making.
Cheers
John Stephensen

Welcome to The Rickenbacker Forum John. Nice to have another member from Australia. Please say hello to "Howard" for us when he stops by to order a guitar. He is on a roll these days.

Hi, John. Nice to have another Australian member. Seems we are an expanding group - there are at least three of us in Melbourne, one in Launceston, one in Adelaide, one in Perth and another in Brisbane - Lee Kear. If we temporarily annexe NZ, there's another over there (I said tempororarily, Nate!).

It's great that we can follow the work of Dale and Paul in these threads - sort of makes you want to give something like that a try!

Cheers