Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Sorry if this double posted - I hit the wrong button after editing! AARRGGHH!

Hello all, in a previous thread I, among others, discussed cutting and splicing together a 620/12 and a 620/6 to make a solid-body RIC doubleneck.

I am at a point now where I am about ready to do this. (I can here the gasps from here!) After considerable thought, measurement, and checking details, I have concluded that I need to cut the two guitars fairly close to the necks and use another piece of wood between them to form the center part of the body.

So my question to the RIC cognescenti is this: what wood should I use for this in-between piece? (I'm thinking maple.) Also, should the piece of wood be one piece 1-1/2" thick, or can I glue two 3/4" pieces together to get the right thickness?

Any and all comments, opinions, recomendations, epithets, etc. will be appreciated.

P.S. The two guitars chosen to be sacrificed for this rite are both Midnight Blue, a 2002 and a 2003.

P.S.S. And yes, Peter, I thought of "... how can anything this rite be so wrong ...", "... the thought of sacrifices at Midnight Blue me away ...", etc.!

I totally want to see this baby once it's finished!

Sergio, I plan on documenting all of the steps taken, which includes pictures, of course!

Gary: How do you propose to match the Midnightblue finish?

I have foreseen that this wiil be a problem, as I am not skilled in refinishing. My original plan was to buy two Jetglos which would, obviously, be easier to match (and hide any deficiencies in the refin!); it just turned out that every JG 620 I bid on sold higher than what I was willing to pay (I was trying to keep the total cost of both guitars down around $1500-$1600), and I wound up with two MIDs instead. Of course, had I planned on getting MIDs, then I would have wound up with JGs. Could be worse, they could be Fireglos!

I have considered as a 'cheat' work-around painting the assembled guitar in an American flag motif, with red and white stripes on the lower guitar and the in-between piece, and then just paint white stars in rows on the upper blue part. That would be the front only; I haven't figured out what to do with the back yet.

Of course, I could just be a Rolling Stone and Paint It Black... Black as night ... Black as coal...

I very much doubt that you'll be able to blend the finishes of the two guitars together. First of all, I believe the blue used is a metalic blue and will therefore be impossible to blend together without painting the entire front and back of the instrument. Second of all, from what I know of Rickenbackers finishing process, you wont be able to come up with anything compatible with what they use. I would definitely start with guitars of matching colors so that all of the little nooks and crannys will be a close match since you wont be able to quite get to them when you sand it off. Anything worth doing(and I think this definitely is) is worth doing right so just break down and spend the money on a quality re-finish when it's done. Incidently, I would saw the guitar sides off as close to the neck "board" as possible and use a single piece of maple to join them. Make it a little bit longer so you can seemlessly match the curve at the back of the guitar. You should wire it with a single volume and tone per neck and a neck selector switch. If you go with mini-pots, you can do volume-volume-tone for each neck.

Why not just make the body and use your old necks

It would be kinda hard to remove the necks on 620's since they are of the neck-through design.

Actually, to me that'd be easier. No set neck, therefore you don't need to worry about the neck angle.

You should be able to steam the joint apart, or save that you could merely take a band saw, cut just shy of the neck thru and then plane down to the neck itself removing the rest of the wood.

I think that'd be a lot eaiser then trying to mate two different bodies and making them appear to always have been one. Then just have a good painter refin the bodies in any color you want.

Although existing routing might make it unfeasable cosmetically to just cut part of each guitar off and join them without adding any wood,removing the wood from the neck plank down on one and the neck plank up on the other then adding a piece to join them would be the best way. You'd still have most of the original donor instruments, preserving their "Rick-ishness".

Regarding the finish, have you considered getting them both stripped *first,* assembling the whole thing, and *then* getting a refin?

Also, talk to your chiropractor on a regular basis

I would cut them up first, sand the necks and edges of the bodies only.Then after it's assembled, sand the front and backs together so that you end up with smoother joints and more uniform body thickness.

This is probably a stupid question, but can I assume that they have never made solid body double necks with 6 and 12 string configurations.
Or if they have are they prohibitively expensive?

The other thing your forgetting is that the bottom neck is not parallel to the top neck

That's irrelevent. The necks can be at any angle to each other he wants.