Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Where is Sheena? Oh, Sheeeeeena, there is a GREEN guitar on your monitor!

Wow.... I love the green tulip!

jingle_jangle wrote:Interestingly, this was edited and color adjusted in Photoshop, on my Apple system at home. Here on my (ugh) Windows system at the U, it looks grass green.

It's not.

Gotta look into that color profile...

A very nice looking color of green I think. How close is this green to what you think you'll be doing on my
project Paul?

Brian

Brian, could be close, but yours will be a couple of kicks higher. I've got some interesting ideas for pushing the envelope.

jingle_jangle wrote:Brian, could be close, but yours will be a couple of kicks higher. I've got some interesting ideas for pushing the envelope.

Sure, get me even MORE excited and drooling with anticipation!
Well I know what my avatar here will be when it's done.....

UPDATE: Pickguard has been alodined. New Grover open-back tuners with oversized bushings have been fitted. The oversized bushings cure the problem it had with somebody enlarging the bushing holes with a rat tail file and goofing them up badly. They're round and clean again, with hex bushings that look correct.

I decided to make a smaller back plate, to show a bit more of the color, so I made one to mirror the shape of the pickguard itself. It's been flocked in a nice gray color, and attached with copper-plated brads.

The guard, TRC, and bridge cover were all clearcoated over the weekend and allowed to cure. They were wet-sanded and will be wheel-buffed to a high gloss. This Alodining/clear coating lasts longer than anodizing.

The pickup was carefully disassembled, cleaned and buffed, then reassembled. We're about 2 or 3 man-hours away from playable now, which in my own terms is at least a week, given all the other projects I'm wrapping this week...

I just love that green color!

Very cool! Can't wait to see the finished product.


Ry

Yeah, the Kauffman (pinned to eliminate tuning issues) is a surprise. It was inspired by a white Combo 400 shown on RIC's website in their Gallery section. I thought it was a strangely appealing integration of the old '30s design of the Kauffman, with the short-lived and naively modern design of the Tulip body shape. In test-assembling the hardware and stringing it prior to painting, I discovered that the white 400 in the RIC Gallery had some hidden magic, or it would have been unplayable.

It seems that a slab-bodied guitar like the 400, with its neck-through and a fretboard standing only 1/4" proud of the body, cannot utilize the Kauffman, along with the stock aluminum bridge cover and bridge. This has to do with string height--a check with a steel straight edge shows that strings coming off of the Kauffman and strung to the nut in the normal fashion, will stand an unacceptable 5/16" off of the fretboard at the fretboard's end.

The only solution to the string height issue was to fabricate and install a tensioning bar, similar to the Bigsby B5's. This is hidden beneath the bridge cover, which had to be machined away to clear the Kauffman's string anchor.

Everything went together like a dream; the bridge is fully adjustable and it intones and plays fine with good action.

Wow! That turned out great! Another beautiful Ric!

I've always loved that body-style...

Paul, You are AMAZING!

Paul, where do you find those Chrome end-pins to cover the side screws in the body? Are those the same style used to cover the back neck screw of an 800?

I had the opportunity to pick up a "tulip" in Cloverfield green about 15 years ago for a good price. After seeing this beauty, I am kicking myself even more for not getting it.

Absolutely gorgeous!

The Kauffman is a nice touch Paul. Just gorgeous.