Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Whoa! Nice wood on those acoustic bodies.

OOh, I LIKE the grain on those!
What sort of wood do you use for those? Is that eastern hard rock maple?

Amazing Grain, how sweet the sound!

As always, stellar work, PW. Love the grain on the acoustic. But, I do have one question. Is that like a wide, size 9 foot carving for the cavity of the 1000 model? It only has four toes though.

WOW1 Another acoustic!

jwilli wrote:Whoa! Nice wood on those acoustic bodies.

+1!

buzfluhart wrote:As always, stellar work, PW. Love the grain on the acoustic. But, I do have one question. Is that like a wide, size 9 foot carving for the cavity of the 1000 model? It only has four toes though.

Interesting shape, no, Stan? That's factory. Sorta like Cowabunga Combo. The finish in the cavities, BTW, is shielding paint, expertly applied for/by a former owner. We're gonna leave it in place.

Not sure of the exact species of maple on these acoustics, as the wood came from RIC, although of course it's of American origin. But much of the maple we are using is nicely figured.

jingle_jangle wrote:Well, there's lots of projects nearing completion!


Also, another jumbo acoustic that is the prototype of a new series
More pics next week.

New series! This seems to have gotten past most here

Give us more, Paul

Paul, save some nice grain for me... ...

Those are nice...

Cool, I just saw the updates here. I can't see the 1000 pics here, but I do have them from PW anyway. We are going with a color that's totally RIC, but quite unique and rare.

jdogric12aolcom wrote:We are going with a color that's totally RIC, but quite unique and rare.

GRINCHGLO!!

jingle_jangle wrote:

jdogric12aolcom wrote:We are going with a color that's totally RIC, but quite unique and rare.

GRINCHGLO!!

That was my first thought, though I believe RIC had a different name for it.

Hi Paul,

Any progress on the Steer Head acoustics?

Quite amazing timber grains on your last photos. Do I see some cracks maybe due to the drying process? Certain species of hard woods here in Oz such as our common Ash's (Hard Wood Gum's basically) are very susceptible to checking if dried to quickly or at to high a temp, and end up as "Structural Grade" rather than usable as "Appearance Grades".

I've found much to my astonishment that when re-sawing some of the local ash that has been subjected to rapid/high temp drying, that it almost explodes during re-sawing!!!! Not dangerous but not a great experience either. How do your North American Species (for guitars( shape up?

Cheers,

Si.....

Building some necks for "steer's heads" right now. There are three on order, orders coming up later this Spring. Also a very unusual short scale 700/6 which is getting a neck with a 22.5" scale, sometime in summer.

The wood I'm using has had several years' worth of acclimatization, first in So Cal (in RIC's store room, all cut to size), and then up here in storage in Sonoma County, which climatically speaking is a perfect place to build and keep acoustic guitars--average temp of about 65°F and humidity of about 45%. So Cal was very dry; moisture content of the wood when it left RIC's shop was under 4%; it's doubled since to a very healthy and split-free 7+%.

Now, seriously, do you think I'd build acoustic bodies out of split wood? Those are giggles in the grain that you're seeing. The place you'd be more likely seeing splits would be in the spruce tops, which are very soft and absorb and give off moisture as fast as a sponge. These do have a tendency to split. This happens most often when the wood is too dry during construction and finishing, and then is subjected to humidity changes--first to high humidity (as in a temperate climate near the ocean), and then very low humidity again. In many cases, it only takes one cycle of this to cause a split.