Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

As soon as I get over my option paralysis, I'll share them with you!

So do you think you'll machine it by hand or do you has access to CNC Paul?

Re the comment on the pickguards on your 381, I guess to each their own. I think they're just fine as they are, and I'm sure you do as well. Otherwise they would have been changed a long time ago when you were experimenting not only with the shape but the optimum colour. So they'd be staying put if it were mine!

Has your guitar arrived yet Melissa? Is it here now? I think I hear a FedEx truck, is that it arriving? Sorry to tease but this is better than waiting for a new guitar as you're getting back a guitar you know, but in brand new condition and a custom paint job that you wanted - how good is that!!!!

I will machine it by hand. It takes longer to program a CNC than it does to make it by hand from sketches. If I was making a bunch of them, it would be different. It'll be T6 aluminum billet, and also hand-polished. I'll swipe the bearings, spring, and axle rods from a Bigsby I've got.

I'm still not completely happy with the 381's guard set (this is the fourth iteration). It looks stiff--the curve on the outside needs loosening up and this will be done next.

Melissa's guitar arrives Thursday morning, and depending upon temperature, she won't be able to open it for a day or two. Maddening. My heart goes out to her.

It takes greater skill and is more pleasureable to machine something like this by hand. I only raised the CNC thing, as I thought you might have used CAD to do your designs and post processing to a CNC mill, seeing you have the resources at your Uni. But then you still have tool settings and some tool offsets etc to consider. I'd do by hand just for the "I still got it" appeal when finished!

We're on the same page on this, Ron...I get satisfaction from cutting and finishing wood and metal and fashioning things of byooty. Not satisfying to me to write a lot of numbers into a computer and then spend hours debugging things, only to watch a cutterhead having all my fun for me.

So far I'm coping just fine....I've got plenty of work to keep me busy until I can open the box, LOL! As Paul said, it will arrive tomorrow, and I plan to open the case on Saturday afternoon (Don't want to take ANY chances on damaging Paul's wonderful work!). I will not be available for several hours after that, methinks!

Enjoy it Mel... and make sure the finish is safe from tears of joy BEFORE you pick it up!

Hey Paul - would a standard 300 series pickguard not achieve the shape you want on your 381? And for the record, I think your guitar still looks amazing, it's just my personal preference to have that exclusive-to-381 shape on show.

Melissa - there's no way I could wait to open that case, I wouldn't be able to sleep!

Robert--

The lower pickguard on my 381 does have close to the standard 381 shape. It is made in clear acrylic. The back is painted in my own shade of gold, but the upper horn area is left transparent. There is an engraved line on the back separating the two areas.

Thew problem here is that there is a pickguard screw securing the horn area, which would leave a hole in the guitar were I to go to a more standard 330-360 shape. But the screw secures the transparent upper horn and looks just right.

I was attempting to give the 381 a bit more "Capri" flavor. My quibbles now are with the curve on the outside edge, which has to my eye too little radius and looks a bit too straight and thus "stiff".

Gotcha. I should have known that you would have already considered the obvious!

Rob, sleep? What's that?

Paul recommended that I put the case under the bed while it acclimates.... But I don't think I could do that; it would be sadistic torture!

Kind of like you guys would feel if you knew Susanna Hoffs were sleeping in the same room as you, LOL!

Susannah Hoff without makeup is not the stuff of dreams.

I have this on very good authority.

Okay.... Jessica Simpson? Angelina Jolie? You get the idea....

So what? As long as she brings her guitar along that's just fine as far as I am concerned.

Um, how 'bout Kim Novak? Sophia Loren?

June Wilkinson?