Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Sneak preview for your old mate Aitch, Paul?

See the thread "Rickenbacker Baritone?" in this section...

When you get here, Aitch, you can play it of course.

Woweee, Paul!! I think I might just stand back and admire. Can't have saliva all over it, now can we?

Who's a lucky boy Howard! You'll not only get to eyeball these guitars up close - you get to have a play as well!! You lucky "B"

Whatever happened to this?

Too bad, Nick, that you weren't at the 75th Anniversary festivities. The finished Capri was at my table display, along with about 10 or 11 other Ricks that I'd refinished or restored. I also had my first two Rickenbacker acoustics on display, that I'd constructed from surplus parts and materials from the RIC acoustic shop. I think there's a shot of my table in the 75th Anniversary slide show on the RIC site.

One acoustic (FG 730L/12 is on its stand in my living room as my "standby" guitar. The other one, a MG700S/12, was played by Paul Kantner and Marty Willson-Piper at the RIC75 acoustic concert at the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad that Saturday evening, and is now in John Hall's collection.

A couple of weeks after the RIC75 festivities, I posed the Capri on my deck just before a rain storm, and took some quick photos. Unfortunately, I had no time to set up a foreground reflector, so these shots have all kinds of junk in the reflections.

You can see the color of the finish, which is a five color burst if you include the amber varnish. There's some FG, som MB, some chocolate, and a bit of lavender in the center. When toned down a bit with the amber varnish, it takes on a nice antique tonality.

I checkerboard-bound both sides, but not before I veneered the front and back with birdseye maple. The sides were not veneered, but were shaded. Notice the nicely striped neck binding and the original fire orange celluloid side dot markers. The fretboard is the original padauk, and was stripped, levelled and refretted. I fitted gold strap buttons from my stock of acoustic parts, and an NOS Kauffman Vibrola and roller bridge. Grover "Butterbean" Sta-Tite tuners were fitted The original toasters were kept, but the neck pickup received a new cover, as its plating was nearly worn off. The original pots and switch, with its perfect butterscotch tip, were retained.

The headstock was bound in checkerboard, and new pickguards and TRC were made and fitted. Notice that the lower pickguard is tortoiseshell and has bevelled edges to show off the laminations. The TRC is one of my laser-etched ones, like the 75th Anniversary models have.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures and I hope that all these details are discernable. Again, sorry about the reflections...we'll get a decent set of photos soon.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1960%20365%20CAPRI/DSC00001sm.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1960%20365%20CAPRI/DSC00004sm.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1960%20365%20CAPRI/DSC00003sm.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1960%20365%20CAPRI/DSC00007sm.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1960%20365%20CAPRI/DSC00008sm.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1960%20365%20CAPRI/DSC00009sm.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1960%20365%20CAPRI/DSC00011sm.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1960%20365%20CAPRI/DSC00012sm.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1960%20365%20CAPRI/DSC00013sm.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1960%20365%20CAPRI/DSC00014sm.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1960%20365%20CAPRI/DSC00017sm.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/1960%20365%20CAPRI/DSC00018sm.jpg

Wow...I think I'm starting to understand what a custom guitar is really all about..it's beautiful!

Paul, all I can say is you are truly talented...that guitar (along with the other samples I've seen of your work), is simply spectacular...I hope to be able to see your work in person one of these days....

Cheers, Bill

P.W. It's really a shame you couldn't get much of a shine on the Capri..... (that thing should come with a bottle of sunscreen in case you're playing outside and get caught in it's reflection). If anybody ever wants a definition of "drop-dead gorgeous", just show them the photos.

Everyone on the Forum, at times, has bantered about what finish of Rick they wanted, what model, what kind of binding, what kind of vibrato, etc. On this particular guitar, Paul, I think you have just about covered everyone's desires. Incredible!

I love that what looks like to me a "halo" effect on the backside. Beautiful!!!

WOW! My new favorite Rick.

Well done Paul!

Nice. Very nice. But here comes a bit of constructive critisism. Sorry...

Paul, everything looks great, but somehow I don't think the gold pickguard goes well with the tortishell pickguard underneath. If the upper guard was also tortishell then that would just be perfect. That's the only thing that looks out of place. Also, you can't laser etch into tortishell, can you? If you can, complete the look with a TTS (short for tortishell) TRC.

How are you enjoying it?

It's got an unbelievable neck, Will, and now that the frets are new and the fretboard nice and level, the action is really fine.

I got it from John Williams last year, and we agreed that it was in very sound, straight shape (good action--did not need a neck reset; nice electrics), but because it had suffered through one bad amateur resto, it didn't bother either of us to dig into it again.

While I was buzzing out a set of guards, I actually made four sets at once. I made a top and bottom each of gold, black/white/black, solid white, and tortoise multilayer, and tried most of the combinations before I settled on the gold/tortoise. I recall seeing some pics of some older Capris with two different-colored guards and liked the look. I realize it's not everyone's cup of tea, so no offense taken at all.

The tortoiseshell is really an acrylic/ABS sandwich. The white and black inner layers are white ABS. Unfortunately, when you laser-etch white ABS, it turns brown and will not clean up afterwords.

I am pretty fond of the look of the gold/silver special acrylic TRC, especially against the darker, checkerboard-bound headstock. This one has radiused, polished edges like an acoustic TRC, too.

Even if I could do a TRC in tortoiseshell, I wouldn't. Not enough color contrast.

I will attest that it plays as good as it looks, it is a fabulous guitar. It's got a great old-school sound too...right on the money.