Doing Things Wrong

Superfreaky Part IVa

Oops, bridge assembled upside down

Some small parts for the new Ric. The logo is laser-printed on an adhesive packing label. A coat of poly locks-in the toner. The font is a free one called Dymaxion. It is a pretty good match for the Ric logo, which was actually hand-drawn.

Then I made a new saddle for the bridge from a scrap of super-hard Brazilian Cherry. I never liked the shape of the original saddle. The new one is much thicker, with a 10" radius to match the neck. The color also matches the neck. A bit of linseed oil for a finish.

Finally I ordered a set of "Alice" strings. These are not the cheapest you can find, but they are the cheapest that have at least some good reviews. The whole theme of this build is cheap and cheerful, and an expensive set of strings would go against that. We'll see how these Alice strings are.

EBay is not what it used to be. A few years ago, you could find all sorts of nice parts cheap. Now there is much less. I haven't seen a Bronco bridge in over a year. And the bargains are gone too, what you can find is much more expensive now.

Which is the real Rickenbacker?

This body was purchased on eBay from a parted-out guitar. Might have been a Squier, I don't remember. It was in pretty good shape, and I gave it a good polishing. The neck is hand-made, one of my first. The back is hand-picked Home Depot maple, the fretboard is pre-slotted rosewood from StewMac, I hadn't yet worked out how to make my own. If you cut the first two frets off a 34" fretboard, you end up with a 30" scale. That's about the limit with a pre-slotted fretboard though, as you start to run out of frets at the other end. The dots are 1/4" pearl from StewMac, expensive. The frets are probably pre-cut Fender.