Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Don't you just love auctions with descriptive titles like that?

Where did you find this one Mitch?

T

Upgrades

Isn't that the P.O.S. upgrade package?

lennon211 wrote:Isn't that the P.O.S. upgrade package?

Yeah, must be! I wonder if it can be restored? (In other words how much wood was removed to install the new pickups?)

JimK

Eeeeeewwwwww......

Why, oh why, oh WHY do people do things like that?

People who do this should be made to show up a an RRF confluence and explain just what they were hoping to accomplish

Pul-eeze!

This is exactly what was done to my 330. Yes it can be saved. Watch out for the neck though. As on mine, the amount of wood removed from the top and neck under the top to accommodate the humbucker may cause it to want to become a travel guitar. The solution is to replace the the missing wood from the top by inserting a maple puck thereby bracing the edge of the neck against the new piece and in turn against the edge of the pickup hole. If you are good you can make it work and paint it JetGlo and there you are. My 330 had issues before I did this. Now it has more sustain and is stable. Unfortunately since I am not a wood worker, this also required(and I shudder) two screws in the back.

It can be saved. The missing wood needs to be carefully replaced and tightly fitted.

Here's a gorgeous old '69 36s OS that I repaired and restored. It went from MG to AZ, and was a stunner once gain. Previous owner had stuffed humbuckers into it, doing the "mods" with the butcher's favorite--a Dremel tool, fitted with a 1/2" sanding drum, and turned up to "11". Then a music store fitted it with toasters on HUGE black foam pads, in an effort to get it sold.





Photobucket album:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v693/ ... storation/

As with all my albums, password is rick46812

This one was unique--it had factory injection-molded top AND bottom guards (a brief experiment). Unfortunately the ultra-rare top guard had been chopped to fit the humbuckers, too.

Paul,

You have a true gift for descriptions - "with the butcher's favorite--a Dremel tool".

Nice one!

So, is there any issues with the filler wood pieces? I mean, it seems reasonable to get a good fit and be able to cover it with an opaque finish, but since there's a seam between 2 different pieces of wood, is there any risk of it showing through the finish due to different expansion/ageing, etc.?

You bet there is. There will usually be witness lines, as the new wood is seldom of the same density and moisture content as the old. But there are a couple of ways that I've recently tested, that eliminate the lines completely. You're still looking at a very dark translucent, or opaque, finish, however.

I'm probably alone in not being bothered by this. It's a guitar, and people tend to modify them so they play and sound how they like.

freshmattyp wrote:I'm probably alone in not being bothered by this. It's a guitar, and people tend to modify them so they play and sound how they like.

You're not alone. Of course, I think it'd be much better left alone, original etc, but I can certainly understand how/why it was modified.

As much as we all love Rics and Vintage guitars, there was a time when people revered neither (I think they called it the seventies...) Humbuckers were IN, and if some guy wanted that "Gibson" sound, but had "some old" Ric, why not fit some humbuckers in there? Probably not the best idea in hindsight, but I can understand it. At least it's a fairly standard NS 365 that was hacked up, not like the OS that Paul saved.