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The RickenBaker


Al Heeley
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Rick bass & guitar toasters are exactly the same apart from the mounting holes. The toasters on my 70s Jap copies also have 6 poles.

[quote name='Bassmanc' post='377136' date='Jan 11 2009, 08:52 PM']A couple of comments, one of my first basses was a Pearl Rick 4001 copy and it was so accurate, apart from the bolt on neck, that once I'd glues the neck in place, made a new neck heel, painted her black and added an original Rickenbacker headstock logo, the Bass Centre in London thought it was a vintage original! So I'm not so sure about the comments on Rickenbacker protecting their designs at all.[/quote]
In what way does you passing off a copy as genuine cast doubt on Rickenbacker's protection of their designs? This is precisely [b]why[/b] they do so.

There are no Rickenbacker copies which are indistinguishable from the real thing, but many people fob off copies as genuine because most buyers - and music shop staff - won't be sufficiently familiar with the details to tell the difference. Too bad when some poor sod finds out they've just spent £1200 on a Jap copy. ;)

J.

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[quote name='Al Heeley' post='381118' date='Jan 15 2009, 11:43 AM']Here's the two body wings cut to final size and sanded. Next the edge channel will be routed for the binding.
[/quote]

Hey Al, Looking so good! Wich I could build this fast ;)

What were the rough thicknesses of the maple and walnut boards? Ive only ever seen 25mm boards at Boddys...? Or did you plane down the maple?

Ricks are, what, 1 1/4 inch so ~32mm thick, so youd either have to resaw or plane the maple down quite a lot.

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Thanks Mikey, if Boddy's warehouse wasn't so darned cold I could spend all afternoon rummaging round in their wood bins.
The maple cap is 15mm and the walnut is 25mm. Most of the stuff is 25mm but there are some wides sheets that are 15mm if you look in the shelf areas.
Yep, I've got some planing to do but I'll probably leave the body a little thicker than the original - makes for less nervous pickup and ctrl routing. Still got 5mm to lose but thats what electric planers are for. ;)
The beams for the neck section are all 20mm thick, they come from the bin end sections at the end of the rows.

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Cheers Al, Im going wood shopping this weekend so I'll dress warm and take a pair of gloves. Whenever Ive gone to the mill, Ive always spent at least 3 hours in there as it takes that long to pick out the good pieces - and I reckon I miss a lot of the really good stuff.

I hope theres some good wide 15mm maple left this weekend ;)

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[quote name='Al Heeley' post='381416' date='Jan 15 2009, 03:50 PM']Oooh! The Wenge - beware the lure of the Wenge! Theres some gorgeous big railway sleepers of Wenge in the warehouse near the wood floor section. Serious money but mouthwateringly wengey.[/quote]

I dont think Ive got any tools that would actually be able to cut a railway sleepers worth into usable chunks! ;) Then theres the look on my wifes face as I try to get it into the car.

Last time I went, there was a HUGE slab of bubinga, about the size of a kitchen counter top. It was a monster.

Edited by Mikey R
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[quote name='Mikey R' post='381485' date='Jan 15 2009, 04:49 PM']I dont think Ive got any tools that would actually be able to cut a railway sleepers worth into usable chunks! ;) Then theres the look on my wifes face as I try to get it into the car.

Last time I went, there was a HUGE slab of bubinga, about the size of a kitchen counter top. It was a monster.[/quote]
I'm sure Roo would love to see you stick a railway sleeper in the car and find a home for it in your house!

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[quote name='Merton' post='381503' date='Jan 15 2009, 05:05 PM']I'm sure Roo would love to see you stick a railway sleeper in the car and find a home for it in your house![/quote]

I think I'd be looking for a new house if I brought that one home ;)

Edited by Mikey R
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[quote name='Al Heeley' post='376518' date='Jan 10 2009, 11:25 PM']Here's the link to the radius jig I copied:
[url="http://home.mindspring.com/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=actual&linkpath=http://home.mindspring.com/~adhamilton/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/neck_jig_3.jpg&target=tlx_new"]Radius Jig[/url][/quote]
That link just shows the one photo - this is a link to the page with the jig on it.

[url="http://home.mindspring.com/~adhamilton/id13.html"]http://home.mindspring.com/~adhamilton/id13.html[/url]

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Progress has slowed a little. Hopefully my mate will bring in his band saw to lend me tomorrow, then i can get the neck profile cut out and start on the neck shaping. Meanwhile there's the fingerboard to finish slotting, radiussing and sanding level.
Here's the binding on the body

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Thx guys. I had a book of classic guitars - there was a good double-page photo of a ric4001 on it, I scanned in to photoshop and scaled it up to fullsize using the ric dimensions published on Rickenbackers web pages. From this I printed out a load of A4 outlines and sellotaped them together to give me a full size outline plan. The rest of the finer details were either provided by perstering the forum members who had a real one and a ruler handy, or by trial,error and common sense from various photos on the web - a huge library of hi-res images from TalkBass forum Rick owners club thread!
The neck profile is copied from my P-bass replacement neck.

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[quote name='Al Heeley' post='391280' date='Jan 25 2009, 09:54 PM']Thx guys. I had a book of classic guitars - there was a good double-page photo of a ric4001 on it, I scanned in to photoshop and scaled it up to fullsize using the ric dimensions published on Rickenbackers web pages. From this I printed out a load of A4 outlines and sellotaped them together to give me a full size outline plan. The rest of the finer details were either provided by perstering the forum members who had a real one and a ruler handy, or by trial,error and common sense from various photos on the web - a huge library of hi-res images from TalkBass forum Rick owners club thread!
The neck profile is copied from my P-bass replacement neck.[/quote]

That's brilliant... If I had a hat on i'd take it off to you. I hope to have a go myself some day. Well i've two builds planned a great big 2 x 15 bass cab and the Ricky copy......

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[quote name='hookys6stringbass' post='392061' date='Jan 26 2009, 07:57 PM']That's brilliant... If I had a hat on i'd take it off to you. I hope to have a go myself some day. Well i've two builds planned a great big 2 x 15 bass cab and the Ricky copy......[/quote]Thx Hookey, go for it and drop me a line if I can be of any help ;)

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