Scott's GED-enBacker RC-4 Build

[Hobastard]

I really like the idea of the MM Pickups, I was actually thinking along those exact lines while checking out the "Forum Special".

Two is Plenty though.... especially if they are Seymour Duncans.....

I'm going to enjoy watching this Build.

[billb]

Down the track I'm thinking of doing a MM bridge pup with a Rick neck pup to try to get the best of both tones...

[geddyfan]

It's funny...it's almost like people are "afraid" of the third pickup. I just like the idea...three massive MM bass pickups, like a row of black monoliths...a bass like that should be heavier than a Peavey T-40 and instantly put a permanent dent in our shoulder while it rattles the fillings out of your teeth I was also thinking about coil tapping...it just seems to me it would be possible to tap the entire tonal range for a beast like that...

[Hobastard]

Haha, Three Bloody Great Humbuckers all wired up together in Series...... That'll rock the Place.....

Might as well add a Pre-Amp while you're at it......

Lets not Mess about here

[geddyfan]

So today was glue the maple top to the freshly planed and contoured body day...I'd set the neck and let it be overnight, so the first thing I had to do was cut out the shape and the pocket for the neck.I figured out where my center line was through the center of the neck so I could properly align the seam on the maple cap and drew an outline of the body with a pencil and cut that out. Then, using the center line as a guide, I calculated the cut-out needed to fit around the bottom of the neck. I cut it a shade small and the sanded by hand to get the fit I wanted:



Note to self...when cutting the body shape out of the $120.00 piece of maple, take your time and give yourself plenty to work with.

I test-fitted it about 100 times and took my time sanding, which was good because it turned out that I didn't give myself much margin for error (in other words, hardly more than none) as I should have when I cut out the cap and I ended up just BARELY covering the whole body. Dumb, rookie mistake, but I got lucky and was able to make slight adjustments to the cut out for the neck to make it work...by a hair or two.

So, to do the forearm contour bend, I tried the kerf-cut trick I found on YouTube. My cuts aren't as nice as the ones that guy did (I'm a router newbie)...



...but it did work (and no one will ever see my squiggle-cuts anyway...next time I'll use a guide) This is actually a pretty slick way to do it, barely even requiring router skills...mucho pleased.

And then the moment of truth...glue time:



Now...I'm sure everyone knows this, but when you do this, there's no such thing as too many clamps. I had ten clamps and a half-dozen 2-inch spring clams (pretty worthless, but I left them on for comic effect), and I wish I'd had about four more clamps. Everything looks pretty tight, but I'm expecting a gap or two because after planing and sanding the body, I don't think it ended up 100% flat (as close as I could get...I mean...I checked with a straight edge and it looked good to me):





Yup...that's a pretty redneck clamp-up job (note the OSB), but I think it just might work...or explode in a cloud of maple splinters when I relieve the pressure. Either way will be pretty exciting when I take off the clamps tomorrow

[Chuck]

Love your work geddyfan! Boldly going where no builder has gone before!!

[geddyfan]

Love your work geddyfan! Boldly going where no builder has gone before!!

You can't fear the wood...fear is the bass-killer

[Simon Barden]

Fingers crossed for glueing success and may the god of insufficient clamps smile upon you!

[geddyfan]

Haha, Three Bloody Great Humbuckers all wired up together in Series...... That'll rock the Place.....

Might as well add a Pre-Amp while you're at it......

Lets not Mess about here

"Hmmm..." he says, contemplatively. "A pre-amp..."

In the immortal words of Tim Allen: "More power!" (Grunts in power-tool fueled ecstasy)

[geddyfan]

With much excitement, I took off the clamps today...and nobody died

Overall, I'm pleased...there's one spot with a thin gap due to my rookie power planing job, but I'm sure that a little glue and sawdust will fix that right up:



I used a router to clean up the edges and of course had a slight disaster over the hole for the cord jack...for which I feel double-stupid because I knew it was going to be tricky, so I started there and had it perfect, and then coming around from the other side I forgot it was there and messed it up ANYWAY. Very slight though, and ten minutes with the sander fixed it.



I took the time to pull out a set of mm-style pickups just to see what it might look like...yeah, it's a bit scary, but that's why it's going to be awesome! I'm doing all black hardware over red quilted maple (debating doing a burst...the back will be black), but that bridge looks absolutely anemic next to those pickups...that WILL NOT DO! The bridge I have is too shallow anyway by about 1/8" so I'm thinking about one of those black Hipshot Ric replacement bridges. Need something beefier to be sure...originally I was going to do a BadAss III, but...I don't know...gotta find something MASSIVE. My first real bass was a Peavey T-45...now THAT was a massive bass bridge.

Of course, since the neck is in the way, I couldn't use the router for all the cleanup...I've got some hand work to do...files and sandpaper.



I need to hand work the edge of the arm contour, too. That's alright...I'm planning to take about a week to do nothing but sand until everything is dead-on perfect before doing the routs for the pickups (yes...THREE...three BIG ones).

I want to round off the edges, but I don't know if I want to take the router to it again, so I'm thinking of doing it by hand so it will be perfect...but that's a lot of work to take out the same amount of wood as a 1/4" inch round-over bit...hmmm...

Ordered black upgrades for the tuners...and got the wrong size...argh...oh well, it's going to be a long time before I actually need them...and I need to get a different bridge anyway...oh well, that's what RMA is for...black strings...I'm thinking black strings, too...

Anyone here ever stain a rosewood RC-4 kit fret board black before? And lacquer...clear lacquer on the fret board like a real Ric...just thinking out loud.

Looking at the figuring on this wood the more I clean it up, the better it looks...gonna be insane