Not RIC, but maybe will be at heart
Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2013 9:39 am
I made the move and bought a piece of wood. A 38 inch piece of padouk 8 inches wide and 1 7/8" thick. Plenty of wood to made 2 killer body wings for a custom design that takes elements from a Rick 4000 shape and adds in elements of a Jazz bass and Les Godfrey's Dragonetti bass design.
My bud will start soon on a neck - we're going to go with a 5 layer sandwich, 1" Maple with 3/8" layers of purple heart and maple on either side of the central strip. The neck dimensions are going to ape my favorite bass neck I've ever played - my 2004 FG Laredo (so there's at least some Ric connection, besides some design elements). So the body/neck are really only an ebony fingerboard (and some hardware like a truss rod and nut) away from having all of the wood in hand.
Next parts - here's the decisions I face, and I'm sure I'm asking to make this more murky:
Bridge - I generally like the newer Shaller bridges on my Laredo and Dakota, so those, or the mid level version for about 1/3 the price, seem agreeable. But is there something I should know about neck-through body stringing or other brands of bridges? Hipshots look intriguing...
Tuners - another morass. I don't think I'm going to be worrying about weight considerations with these, but the Mini Grovers looked nice, but perhaps folks that have rehabbed/built basses can add to the cornucopia of confusion.
Pickups/Wiring: I've already talked to Dane Wilder about 2 HB1's and having a harness built. And I might do that. Or I might cannibalize my J Bass and take out the Seymour Duncan's I have in it and use those PU's. The J bass is probably on the block - is it worth more to sell with the nice PUPs and a good SKB case, or revert the J (a 92 MIJ Fender) to the original garbage pickups and try to sell it sans case? I think the case could be modified to fit the new design...
And on top of the JBass cannibalization idea, I found some mystery pickups that I was scammed on via evil Bay a long time ago...both are J bass necks, and my suspicion is that they are garbage stock pickups that come on cheap Asian Fenders and Fender knock-offs. It might not even be worth seeing how they sound...but I wonder. The J bass is an easy instrument to swap pickups...
When the wood arrives at the luthier's shop (probably Tuesday), I'm sure to get some good close up pictures. At that point I'll figure out how to post photos, as I suspect there will be interest to see how this build devlops...
My bud will start soon on a neck - we're going to go with a 5 layer sandwich, 1" Maple with 3/8" layers of purple heart and maple on either side of the central strip. The neck dimensions are going to ape my favorite bass neck I've ever played - my 2004 FG Laredo (so there's at least some Ric connection, besides some design elements). So the body/neck are really only an ebony fingerboard (and some hardware like a truss rod and nut) away from having all of the wood in hand.
Next parts - here's the decisions I face, and I'm sure I'm asking to make this more murky:
Bridge - I generally like the newer Shaller bridges on my Laredo and Dakota, so those, or the mid level version for about 1/3 the price, seem agreeable. But is there something I should know about neck-through body stringing or other brands of bridges? Hipshots look intriguing...
Tuners - another morass. I don't think I'm going to be worrying about weight considerations with these, but the Mini Grovers looked nice, but perhaps folks that have rehabbed/built basses can add to the cornucopia of confusion.
Pickups/Wiring: I've already talked to Dane Wilder about 2 HB1's and having a harness built. And I might do that. Or I might cannibalize my J Bass and take out the Seymour Duncan's I have in it and use those PU's. The J bass is probably on the block - is it worth more to sell with the nice PUPs and a good SKB case, or revert the J (a 92 MIJ Fender) to the original garbage pickups and try to sell it sans case? I think the case could be modified to fit the new design...
And on top of the JBass cannibalization idea, I found some mystery pickups that I was scammed on via evil Bay a long time ago...both are J bass necks, and my suspicion is that they are garbage stock pickups that come on cheap Asian Fenders and Fender knock-offs. It might not even be worth seeing how they sound...but I wonder. The J bass is an easy instrument to swap pickups...
When the wood arrives at the luthier's shop (probably Tuesday), I'm sure to get some good close up pictures. At that point I'll figure out how to post photos, as I suspect there will be interest to see how this build devlops...