Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Nope, no silicone anywhere near it. I learned that lesson decades ago when painting boats.

I thought that was flame at first, just a reflection though!

It's both flame and the reflection of my garage. The spots don't show from that angle.

Apologies for hijacking your thread, Todd, but you can very likely answer a question I posed in a different thread: does a "normal" Rickenbacker pickup fit in a 430's p/u cavities without needing any routing? I assume it does, since I always thought the 430 pickups were basically just Hi-Gains with a plastic case, but would like to be certain of this in case I ever pursue my vague idea of putting HBs on my 430. (I am too lazy to unscrew the pickups from my 430 and my 620 and actually measure the cavities).

I'd say high-gains probably yes. I don't have any loose toasters handy, but they might have depth clearabce problems with the poles and you might not be able to get them down far enough. I've never seen a Rickenbacker HB in the flesh, so I can't really say anything there.

An HB should fit wherever a high gain or toaster fits. I had no problem swaping them in my 650C.

Well, I think the 350-style body is done, aside from letting it settle in and a bit of tweaking as needed. Figured maple top, bubinga back, veneered headstock, gloss top and satin back, sides and neck, an original 430 pickup at the neck and a high-gain at the bridge, a six saddle bridge left over from one of my 12-strings, new 381-ish guards. It still fits in the original case and it even makes sounds when plugged in (I'm still a lousy six-string player, so they aren't great sounds, but the tone is pretty nice). All in all, it's not half bad for a driveway build. I'd love to have about 20 minutes with PW's buffer for the top, as hand buffing with a diaper after sanding to 12,000 grit never quite gets you to that dazzling shine, but it will work for my purposes.

I'm still waiting on my metalflake and pearl powder from some turkey on eBay after nearly a month for color experiments with the re-shaped original body, One of these days (hopefully) I'll finish it up, although I really can't see taking this one apart, so I'll probably watch for a neck or sell that body when it's done. We'll see how it turns out, but I really don't need two six-strings.

+1! Definitely LIKE... a LOT!

The question is: How does it sound?

Todd, I'll join the chorus saying that your workmanship is beautiful !

Awesome job Todd! Glad to see you stayed with the 325 style body with that neck as the flame on both the body and headstock are gorgeous together.

That pickguard is such a nice shape!

Guy, it sounds more like a Telecaster than I thought it would, though I don't exactly know what I was expecting. In the past, I've owned a 360/6 and a 250 and it's more like the 250. The Tele I had was one of the Japanese Rosewood ones (beautiful woodwork for a Fender, but cheezy electronics) and this is a bit richer and deeper on the low end, but still has a lot of bite and twang if desired.

I built two sets of guards for this body and this one just seemed to look best and gave a little bit of a forward visual thrust to the whole thing, which I like (once a sculpture major, always a sculpture major). It's my "Texas Special" model if you'll note the shape of the upper guard. I was tempted to put a star in the middle, but decided to keep it simple and see if anybody noticed.

The sparkles finally arrived this afternoon for the other body and I made samples of tiny red metalflake and white pearl. They're both pretty subtle, but kind of a nice touch when the light hits them right. I still haven't decided which to go with, but I'd better get going on them before I run out of warm spraying weather out in the driveway. I was leaning toward the white, but I'm starting to think that I can get a better, thinner base coat on with the red. Even if it's a little bit translucent it looks good. The white pearl needs a really solid white base and tends to look spotty if there is any wood showing through. I may have to leave solid white up to the pros and make the most out of what I have to work with here.