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 for the angled double lipstick bracket. The straight one is at the left, in the center I have cut out my drawing and Scotch-taped it to the aluminum blank. Then I punched the centers through the paper. That's what the black tool is - a spring-loaded punch. It is used to make dimples in material to accurately start a hole. If you don't have one of these in your toolbox, get one - under ten bucks. It works great on woods and soft metals, and even mild steel. The accuracy of your drilling will improve tremendously.