Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I got my gorgeous 381V69 right after New Years'. What a great way to start 2005!

While I am really impressed by the contrast that the guitar presents between the modern (white pickguards and modern knobs on such a vintage-looking body), I also love the look of the older, big bodied Capris with their gold pickguards and stove knobs. I decided to try to give the same sort of vintage feel to my 381.

I went for the obvious: gold acrylic pickguards (painted to match those on my MB 660-12), stove knobs and new lathe-turned tophat blend knob. Reshape the top edges of both pickguards to emphasize the beautiful shape of the treble side "horn" cutaway. See how things would look with modern knobs and vintage knobs while I was at it.

The pictures tell the story. I laboriously hand-fabricated a new set of guards, using bandsaw and sanders and carefully hand-detailing the edges. I got a nice match on the Crescent Bronze gold that Rick uses. I painted the guards. Then I put it all together.

After looking at the color combinations in three different lightig situations, I decided that the gold color looked a few shades too green against the warmer MB shades. I soon got caught up in drawing the pickguards for both guitars in Illustrator and exporting them to a laser cutter, which will cut them in about 3 minutes while leaving a beautifully flame-polished edge. This allows me to paint the edges and back sides of the guards with urethane paint instead of slow-drying enamel, as ordinary sanded or router-cut edges will crack if urethane is used.

I reformulated the gold paint color in urethane to be warmer in tone--a shift toward a redder gold--and more opaque with a very fast dry time.

The pictures show only the first part of this process. I'll have the rest up, including shots of the laser-cutting process and the new warmer paint color, in a couple of weeks.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/3.jpg[IMG]
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/4.jpg[/img]
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/5.jpg[/img]
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/6.jpg[/img]
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/7.jpg[/img]


The last step will be to locate and install a trapeze-style tailpiece to replace the "R", which I do love and promise to leave intact on my next "R" Rick! Note that I will be making a gold truss rod cover for myself, but I will not--repeat WILL NOT--offer them for sale, out of respect to Rick's ownership of this trademark. And I will not show how I made the TRC, either. Being the owner of several patents and trademarks myself, and having spent a good deal of time and money defending them, I sympathize with Rickenbacker's approach to this issue. If I could have purchased this item in my color from Rick, I would. But they have enough on their plate, for them to worry about filling a special order from me or anyone else, for one custom-painted part.

Beauuuuutiiiiful!!! Nice, very nice. I love the gold. I like the small vintage knobs as well as the oven knobs. Do you have a pics of the whole guitar with both sets of knobs. Paul have you thought of an Accent Vibrato? I think that would be awesome.

Oh, I really like the reshape of the pickguard, it really complements the 381 bout shape. Did I miss it or do you only have the bottom guard on?

Keep it coming, this is nice stuff.

Thanks, Bill.

Bill, the top guard was missing in some shots because I was using it to mess around with the different shades of gold paint. That's part of why I'm going to laser cut guards--I can make up several sets in different shades and see which looks best on my guitar. I usually just paint 2" X 2" color chips, but in this case with the variances in color and wood grain, I wanted actual parts--the square chips didn't cut it, so to speak.

I'll have pics of the whole guitar when I get the TRC finished. The finished guitar will have both pickguards with the reshaped bout area along the top, and oven knobs. I too was surprised at how nice the vintage black knobs look, but I'm in an oven knob fetish thing right now. Knobs are easy to change.

Accent vibrato. huh? Believe it or not, I hadn't thought of that...

Stay posted.

To me, it looks best with gold guards and oven knobs. Hmm, laser cutter....cool.

Paul, that is nice work! It will be interesting to see the completed project. And the Accent Vibrato...well, it could be a nice accent.

Not to tell you what to do with your guitar, but I'm with everyone else who's saying Accent Vibrato...
It would look cool, and think about it, you got a vibrato on it!

Paul: Stunning! I love photo number six with the oven knobs and gold guard.

Thanks for the positive reception!

John and Peter, the oven knob/gold guard look is the picture that I had in my mind when I started on this thing. It's so much like the older Capris, which to my mind are some of the most beautiful electric guitars ever built. I'm pleased at the way it turned out (so far--the photos show very much a mock-up stage).

Patrick, Stan, and Bill: Yeah, the Accent Vibrato would really be quite the touch. I'm going to look into it. I just know that the "R" on this one will go in favor of something else, and I don't want to drill any holes.

If the guitar had been a solid color and not a transparent finish, I would have made a teardrop-shaped pickguard set (like a Capri's). But you see, there's that pickguard hole sitting out there that can't be filled in a transparent finish...

I did find a picture of the color of gold that I'm moving toward for the pickguards and TRC. It's a bit toward the copper end of gold. Printed below:

Know what you mean about the drilling holes. I haven't repaired the holes on my 325 when I took off the Kaufmann and replaced it with the Bigsby...can't say how the alignment would mesh between am Accent and the Ric tailpeice but sure someone knows. And you got to go with what you think is best and what will leave the body in the most pristine condition.

Those are the best homemade guards I have seen!

If you can call yours homemade...

you seem to have a deep hat of tricks.

JP

Fantastic, Paul. Stunning, beautiful, gorgeous, magnificent, WHATEVER YOU LIKE!

I may be a Rick novice but I know what I like!!

You obviously put a lot of thought into it before you did anything.

Cheers

Thanks again. I must be doing something right on this one.

Josh: I'm an older guy and I've been doing this sort of thing for a long time (35 years). I also have a wonderful workshop at my disposal, and lots of design training and experience.

Howard, thanks so much. It's not done yet, but I can hardly wait. Right now, it's back in stock trim so I can play it, while I get the guards done to my satisfaction.

I'm a Rick novice too, and I'm in the middle of my honeymoon period with these wonderful guitars. But like many designer/fabricators, I'm always "messing with the formula".

Good to know that my ideas are appreciated.

Update:

I have spent a number of hours fine-tuning the pickguard color and spraying up various sample chips. You might recall that I thought that the original gold color (on my 660-12) looked a bit too green for the MB color.

[img]http://photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/6.jpg[/img]

The new color is much warmer and less greenish. You can see in the following photos how well it fits in with the MB color scheme. It's a bit subtle in photos, but in life the difference is noticeable and the guards look like they were born there.

[img]http://photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/8.jpg[/img]
[img]http://photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/9.jpg[/img]
[img]http://photobucket.com/albums/v693/jingle_jangle/12.jpg[/img]

I haven't finished the TRC yet, but it will be something different and quite striking! I've decided to order and fit an Accent vibrato, thanks to the suggestion and encouragement of you guys!

Also planned before I'm through: Ivory switch tip, thinwall rubber tubing under the top pickguard (to replace the grommets for a more "tailored" look) and foam pads under the toasters for the same reason.

The 660-12 will receive the same treatment (pickguards, switch tip, special TRC), although it comes with the foam pads already installed.

When these are completed, I'll start on a very special 325, and it won't be a Lennon lookalike, either!

Thanks to all you guys for the kind comments and encouragement!

That looks wonderful. Very classy guitar!

Exquisite, gorgeous, positive stunning - a masterpiece worth framing.