Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Anybody remember the first time the Beatles played the Ed Sullivan show? They were cool and all of their guitars were cool, but the one Lennon was playing with that crescent-shaped TRC that said Rickenbacker on it was beyond cool. There was something about that Rickenbacker body shape that just grabbed me and never let go. When the Byrds showed up on the scene it just reinforced my belief that Rickenbackers were the guitars to own. Within a few years I was out on my own, scratching out a living as a musician, a bass player in the Chicago-based folk music circles. The cresting wave, semi-psychedelic shape of the 4001 and 4003 always seemed a bit out of place as the only electrified instrument on stage with a bunch of Martins, so I mostly played a fretless, heavily modified, stereo-wired Gibson with a thick, walnut Les Paul body. I suppose a 4005 would have been great if I could have found and afforded one, but I never did find one and being "successfully poor" probably wouldn't have had the cash to lay out anyway. Recently though, and inspired by the work that Paul and Dale have been showing us, I decided to build the Ric bass that I've always wanted - something a little more subtle. I began with an old 2030 Hamburg in decent shape. I've never really cared for that non-Ric-looking Hamburg body shape and everybody here knows that bolt-on necks don't have the mojo that through-body necks have, but the tone and pickups on Hamburgs are excellent and the neck, bolt-on or not, plays very nicely. For an "economy" model, it's a hell of a guitar.

I started on the computer, reading and re-reading all of those great "how I did it" posts that Dale and Paul have made recently. Then I made a whole bunch of measurements and drew a mock-up through a combination of Photoshop and a drawing program. Now I could change colors, parts and hardware with the click of a mouse until I got the look I was after. Finally, I took the 2030 apart, which is a matter of about fifteen minutes worth of unscrewing and unplugging stuff. Over the next couple of weeks, I liberally applied the "monkey see-monkey do" principle and built a new maple body and upper and lower pickguards. I thought about using toasters and rewiring everything like regular basses, but decided not to. Why fix something that isn't broken? ...and there was nothing broken about that signature Rickenbacker "grand piano in a garbage can" sound that this humble economy bass with it's modular components made. Other than the body itself and the guards, everything else is stock and works as it did originally. I did trade the black TRC for a white one off of one of my 360's and will probably invest in a set of those nice, vintage black knobs with the small white line on them. I'll also need to do a little padding modification inside the case, but it still fits. It sounds great, plays great, low and fast and I didn't even have to adjust the neck. Working out in the driveway on a Black & Decker Workmate and with limited tools, my router work isn't quite as precise as the factory and I still have a way to go before my finishes start to look like those that Paul and Dale put out (gotta get a buffer, my arm is really tired - and remember, Zymol is REALLY good stuff) but for a first effort, I can't complain. If I ever want to change it back or sell it (no way) it's another 25 minute operation to turn it back into a stock Hamburg, but this one is pretty darned close to the Rickenbacker bass that I've wanted for 40 years.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid183/pa27c01f07f1302ee6c61f5f051b36706/f29adcce.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid183/p152e7f3fb5bf0b3d57779b13006b7af2/f29ad590.jpg

dude ... that is real freakin cool ...

you gave me an idea for one of my 2030 basses ...

For us newbies, could somebody put up a pix of the 2030(stock) so we know what he started out with? Purty pleez?

here's a 2020 stock ...



and a 2030 stock ...

so he Ricktified a Rick! How cool is that?

Yep, it looked just like those, only mine was/is Jetglow. It's funny, I've always kind of liked the Jetglow 2050 (same thing, but bound on the top and gold hardware) but the 2030 always looked a little too Plain Jane for my taste. Despite their plain appearance though, the playability and sound are first rate and the H-2 pickups will kick some serious butt. They're also interesting in that all the electronics except the pickups (even the jack) are solidly attached to a single pop-in circuit board which loads from an access hatch on the back. I can understand why a company like Ric that tends to be booked-up a year in advance wouldn't want to spend their time making economy guitars when they can be making their top-of-the-line models, but a lot of other companies would do well to take a serious look at a Hamburg.

Todd...that looks GREAT....I've said many times that Rickenbacker should issue a 320, 330 or 620 bass. You did a great job but if I was doing it I'd have a 2 or 3 toaster line-up to get that Lennon Bass look...Wonderful work!!...dm

I've always loved the sound and playability of my 1989 230 Hamburg guitar, but always hated the way the body looks. I thought about building a different body for it, but I'd rather work on my own designs. I do need to strip off the black (and red) paint that were put on it by the previous owner. There is so much lacquer on it now that its all cracking. A real pro would have stripped off the red before painting the black on too.

I went back and forth on which pickups and wiring to use for a long time. Toasters would look the part for sure and were a strong favorite. I even wondered whether toaster covers over the Humbuckers would fit or even work, just for the look, but electronics is not my specialty and I don't have a clue.

I also considered two jacks and two cords, as well as Ric-O-Sound as other options. My Gibson uses two cords, one to the neck Humbucker and one to a Precision pickup just in front of the bridge. They're run independently into different channels of my old Acoustic 140 head, currently with a Traynor YBX1510 cabinet (1-15" 2-10" and a horn tweeter) with the HB set pretty bassy and the Precision set really bright, mostly adding percussion to give the guitar a very deep, full sound, but one with incredible bite. They do share a master volume pot and a "neck pickup/bridge pickup/both/mute" selector knob but the wiring inside is a true nightmare if you have to track down a problem. Then it has a toggle gizmo on the humbucker that when flipped will give it that Pedulla Buzz-like whine for fretless jazzy stuff. I popped the cover off the back, took one look at all the spaghetti in there and thought "no way, I'm not going to try that on the Hamburg".

Incidentally, this is off the subject, but I was sitting around Rickenpickin' the other day and had my 360/12 plugged into my Traynor YCV40WR, which is a very good amp. Just for grins, I thought I'd plug it into the bass amp to see what it sounded like. I dialed-up the treble, hit the bright switch on the Acoustic and heard the brightest sounds I've ever heard any guitar make in 40 years of playing. It would cut through steel! If you need a cheap, powerful 12-string amp head that's so bright it will shatter your teeth, find an old Acoustic 140 or 150 on eBay.

Anyway, back to the bass. The other big consideration was that much of this stuff had to be decided before sanding and painting the body. The router work for a Hamburg circuit board is pretty different from that on most solid body guitars. Not having built or finished guitar parts before, I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I was willing to gamble $40 worth of maple and some varnish as long as it could be tossed in the dumpster and the Hamburg reassembled if it didn't look good. Upping the ante by purchasing an additional $200-$300 worth of new pickups, pots, switches, jacks etc. and switching to a more normal routing pattern seemed a little too risky for a first time project.

Plus, the more I played the Hamburg, the more I liked it and appreciated the way the electronics are installed. It has a really wide range of tonal variations. I can roll the treble off and get really deep, soft sounds (Jeff would probably call it mush) bring the treble back up and you have that "piano" tone or mix them and get a real "woody" sound (like the bass line in "Windy" for you old guys). The pickup height adjustment is nothing short of brilliant. There are allen screws on the back of the bass, two for each pickup, bass side and treble side, and they're spring-loaded. Turn the screw one way and that side of that pickup raises, turn it the other way and it lowers - fast, clean and simple.

The other thing that I really liked about the modular electronics in the bass is that they are extremely quiet. So, the final decision was to change the body shape, maybe turn a somewhat ugly duckling into a swan, but stay true to the original electronics and not take a chance of screwing up a perfectly good instrument. It was a Hamburg and it still is a Hamburg. It doesn't have toasters or checkerboard binding like it's famous cousins, but as far as I can tell, that's OK. This Cinderella's got blue suede shoes!

Pretty cool.
Do check this one out however:
http://members.shaw.ca/wilkatguitars/DV_Rickberg.html

Todd-

Nice job. I give your bass two thumbs up!

Hey Todd... that's really nice looking! That would make a great new Ric model.

Mister Hall?

Very sweet, dude! VERY sweet! Love it.

it will be the 2035 model ...

half 2030 and half 4005 ...

So Todd ... did you modify the 2030 body or make a new body and bolt on the neck ...

and you will have to make me one so I can convert it to a five string bass ...

I made a new body. I thought about slicing the wings off of the old one and adding on, but the existing routing was a problem and I didn't want to destroy the only body I had that worked - just in case mine didn't. To get the electronics to fit the new shape, to keep the notch for the jack in a reasonable position on the edge and the knobs on the front in a good place the rout for the circuit board was turned a little bit and moved to the new edge. I also moved the bridge pickup back a bit as I like to have a lot of bite available for the mix.

Mr. Hall might want to have a word with me if I started building them for others....and it might not be such a good word. If you live in the U.S. or Canada and happen to need a new sail for an antique sailing canoe, I'm your man - but if you need a guitar body built you're probably a lot better off going to someone who actually knows how to do it. Plus, in another month or two it will be too cold here to work in the driveway. Just imagine what the Rickenbacker factory could do with one of these. I got dibs on the signature model though....