Doing Things Wrong

Rickenbacker 325 Guitar (1/3)

A faithful reproduction of John Lennon's Rickenbacker, but built as a Danelectro. Masonite over hollow plywood body. Poplar neck. Passive electronics with active distortion on the fifth knob.

The first poplar neck I built for this was weak at the headstock and bent over from the string tension, so I built a second one stronger. Both use fixed steel truss rods. I never built another poplar neck, maple is the best choice. Note the incomplete set of dot markers. This is authentic. I guess Rickenbacker was having a shortage.

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The entire guitar was originally finished in black nitro, which got ruined simply by existing. I stripped off all the lacquer and refinished it in black polyurethane, tough as nails.

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Laying out the parts to see what it will look like. The body has been finished for a long time. Yesterday I encased the neck in plastic - 4 layers of polyurethane, wet-on-wet. Today I smoothed it out with 320 sandpaper, a gentle touch to remove any remaining wood grain and give a good surface for the final topcoat. It will need a few days to fully cure before then.