Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

tristanbacker wrote:

Electrostring wrote:Nothing been finished since last year?

His mom is sick but don't worry Paul talk me my Rickenbacker 700/12 acoustic is ready to paint this weekend and will be finish in a 2 o 3 weeks. I think he will post pics of my guitar and others soon.

Paul has been working on something for me, too, and we definitely need to remember that the man is doing a pretty impressive balancing act right now.

Between his mother being ill, ceasing to make Rickenbacker acoustics and starting up his own independant guitar business, working on our projects and combined with whatever he does to earn a living from his day job!

Grey wrote:Paul has been working on something for me, too, and we definitely need to remember that the man is doing a pretty impressive balancing act right now.

Between his mother being ill, ceasing to make Rickenbacker acoustics and starting up his own independant guitar business, working on our projects and combined with whatever he does to earn a living from his day job!

Plus he's in a band

kenposurf wrote:

Grey wrote:Paul has been working on something for me, too, and we definitely need to remember that the man is doing a pretty impressive balancing act right now.

Between his mother being ill, ceasing to make Rickenbacker acoustics and starting up his own independant guitar business, working on our projects and combined with whatever he does to earn a living from his day job!

Plus he's in a band

Jeez, what a slacker!

Between his mother being ill, ceasing to make Rickenbacker acoustics and starting up his own independant guitar business, working on our projects and combined with whatever he does to earn a living from his day job!

I went to see Paul last week at his place of employment..impressive! It took awhile to wake him up but we had a great visit after he came around....his assistant is Prince..no BS!

It's a surf band, so Don't Worry Baby!!!

tristanbacker wrote:

Electrostring wrote:Nothing been finished since last year?

His mom is sick but don't worry Paul talk me my Rickenbacker 700/12 acoustic is ready to paint this weekend and will be finish in a 2 o 3 weeks. I think he will post pics of my guitar and others soon.

Possibly one of the last Ric acoustics!

I know Paul's mightily busy, but I'm just a demanding fan of his work

manta wrote:It's a surf band, so Don't Worry Baby!!!

Surf band it is though Paul does a hell of a vocal on "Society's Child"

Yes, things have been more hectic than usual the last couple of months, but I am getting into my workshop here and there as time permits.

Next weekend I'll be returning to Chicago to visit my Mom, who had a week of touch-and-go, then improved a bit. I'll know more after Wednesday the 20th when I return.

I've finished a lot of projects since the New Year, but haven't had a lot of time to photograph and post. The photos here were taken with my iPhone 5 in one of my 3 tiny shops, which someday soon I hope to combine into one decent-sized shop for the Madeleine debut stuff. So, please excuse the mess...a small shop is very hard to keep organized, contrary to accepted wisdom...

Here's Jesus' 700C-12 in Mary Kaye white (top) and Wineburst (back and sides), in process. It's in color and will soon have the binding scraped and then receive its first application of clearcoat varnish. As usual, the hardware will be gold, as will the TRC and pickguard. It's quite an elegant color combo with lots of sweet details (including checkerboard on the fretboard!). It'll receive a ToneRite treatment for 4 days while I'm gone in Chicago, before shipping.

After sealer, before color:





Here, in my booth after receiving its six coats of transparent warm white for the "Mary Kaye" look:





Masked after it was sprayed with the initial coats of deep Wineburst burgundy:



Finally, following shading of the burst and removal of tape masking. NOTE that the top and back binding still must be scraped, and the fretwork completed, before any of the dozen coats of clear varnish are sprayed.







Next, here's a VERY unusual (one might say, "unique") 650C of recent vintage...I'm providing it to its owner with a fresh MID paint job and matching guard, but the original chromed guard can also be fitted at his request. Up to you, Charles. Before I post photos of the finished 650, see if you can spot the unique feature.





That's right--it's a 12-string conversion!

Here's a shot of the headstock, made to early Rick pattern:



More shots of this beauty tomorrow or Wednesday.

Here's Bryce's '68 4001 following its buff job a couple of weeks ago:





In the booth last month:



New guard fitted with original electronics with new hardware and pickup covers.



BTW, this '68 was routed and fitted with a Badass bridge when Bryce sent it to me...

I'm wrapping up a '66 1999 for Bryce this month, as well...

You may remember the '46 SP archtop I picked up about a year ago...



It was incomplete, with a badly-repaired headstock break and a bad fretboard, but I did dig into it and replace the headstock with a new one and am in the process of redoing the fretboard, too...haven't had a lot of time to work on my own projects this past 12 months.









Here it is, next to a near-twin Harmony Holiday that I got started on about the same time...



Hoping to wrap these up sometime in the near future as time permits.

Lastly, there's the '67ish shortscale body that I now have two of, which will get built up sometime as well. These apparently were snuck out of the factory sometime in the last 30 years and turned up on Ebay a couple of years ago. Here's one of two:



You can see where somebody has epoxied the halves together, unsuccessfully. These will both make interesting projects. Tenor short-scale, anyone?

Oh, I've found a good powder-coater who I've begun using for projects. He only does batches, however (like my new plater). Here's a shot of some bass parts that I've had done in Matte Black:



I hope to post some photos of at least three of these projects completed before I return to Chicago on Friday!

Forgot about this '69 340SF that came to me awhile back. It's another of those Jetglo CME thingies, like Graham's old 360F that I restored.

And, like Graham's F body, this extremely rare slant fret Rick's original body was hidden by a cheapo black nitro repaint, including the control cavity. Fortunately, the sound hole was masked off. The guitar was apparently originally MG, which I predicted prior to disassembling it, judging from the wear patterns.





Oddly, the soundhole shows traces of FG shading under the black nitro, but the MG was definitely factory original, so I'm thinking somebody changed their mind and the FG was sanded off and revarnished...this 340 also shows signs of the old '60s Rick practice of post-painting mods when hardware didn't fit.

Explanation: when a guitar or bass was being assembled and one or more pots interfered with the control cavity opening, rather than re-route the cavity in a painted guitar (and risk scratching or worse!), the assembly person took a hand drill fitted with a 1/8" bit and drilled a number of holes to outline the section that needed to be enlarged. Then a pair of pliers was used to break out the offending area, and the opening smoothed a bit with sandpaper. This modification was hidden by the pickguard, anyway:



Or if a pickup didn't line up with the neck or strings, same trick:



Hard to say when this was done, but somebody moved the tailpiece over almost 1/4" on this 340SF:



Lots of worming on the back. As it turned out, the black nitro was sprayed on top of a non-scuffed CV MG finish, which led it to wear off quickly.



So, the finishes were carefully hand-sanded off with #120 and #320 paper, leaving the body looking like new, with all the worming gone. The excess tailpiece holes will be dowel-filled before refinishing. The control cavity and pickup holes were stripped of their paint with chemical stripper and carefully scraped. All of the original writing in the control cavity was preserved.













Of course, the frets were quite worn, so they were pulled and will be replaced!

The finish? The owner has asked for Azureglo! This will be one unique Rick when it's completed--probably one of a kind.

Real nice workmanship on all these projects !!
I really enjoy these "visits" to Paul W's workshop, through these periodic picture postings ....
That 12-string 650 will, indeed, be a unique guitar !
And the burgundy "wineburst" acoustic is a very tasteful color/finish .

Oh my God!!! checkerboard binding like your Jazzbo!!
I'm gonna take a cold shower...
Thanx Paul

jingle_jangle wrote:pictures

tristanbacker wrote:I'm gonna take a cold shower...

You're probably still under it, eh! The acoustic's going to look awesome!

8mileshigher wrote:I really enjoy these "visits" to Paul W's workshop, through these periodic picture postings ....

Same here! Imo, this is the single most enjoyable thread at RRF - glimpses of the master at work

Got to love the MID trc and scratchplate for the 650C/12!

8mileshigher wrote:Real nice workmanship on all these projects !!
I really enjoy these "visits" to Paul W's workshop, through these periodic picture postings ....
That 12-string 650 will, indeed, be a unique guitar !
And the burgundy "wineburst" acoustic is a very tasteful color/finish .

+1!!!