Marcel's RCM-4F (PBG build #3)

[wazkelly]

Looks like you have sanded off a lot of colour or is that just how the photos came out?

[Marcel]

That's correct Waz...

Sanded until the Maple is just starting to break the surface. It is losing the burst effect but the contrast of rawish Maple against the dyed Maple is really making the flame pop and I like it.

The Poly in the Maple is making it very slow going so I have little fear of sanding right through to the Mahogany underneath...

Looking now at the photos on the computer screen I'm starting to have thoughts of dying the exposed Maple a different colour such as Yellow or Red.... Maybe I should have a few more beers to quell my excitement...lol

[Marcel]

The photo doesn't do it justice...

I hit it with some Red stain knowing full well I'd get a Pink..... but Pink and Purple do go well together...

Just hoping the guard and hardware hide, disguise or distract from most of the blemishes...

[wazkelly]

Interesting effect. Would tend to think a diluted wash of the original stain would help pull it all together.

[Marcel]

As I said earlier Waz, the photo is misleading...

In full daylight it doesn't look so dark. And with a wash of the original colour, even a light one, the flame of the Maple would disappear into a deepest of Purpleness. The Pink at least gives the flame something to contrast against. It is just sad that the flame isn't more even across the entire body. Before I had patches of nil flame with patches of Purple dye, now I just have patches of nil flame (which the photo does highlight).... No it isn't sand through...

There are a few spots of what looks like Blue/Purple which is where the original dye soaked into the Maple really well and were impossible to sand out without high risk of sanding through, so I decided I'd live with them. Most will be covered by the guard or the bridge, but some of the smaller ones will be visible which I suspect will bring a little dynamic character to the overall look. In some ways the nil flame patches could be mistaken for some kind of wear marks ...

[stuzl873213]

That veneer issue is really annoying. I went for Basswood but that isn't brilliant. A few QC problems and areas I wasn't able to sand out due to depth and binding

[Marcel]

Nail on the head Stuzl...

Where I have flame it is a real nice flame ... Sad that 1/. the veneer joint is not on the centre line, and 2/. the flame isn't bookmatched very well...

Such is the life of kit guitars.

I suppose if I wanted I could replace the veneer with one of my own from http://www.veneersupplies.com/catego...neer__H__-__M/

[Marcel]

While I was waiting for one of the coats of Poly to dry enough to apply another coat I thought I'd have a crack at wiring up the guard.... and was met with almost instant confusion....

The PBG wiring diagram specifies four 500k pots and two unspecified supplied caps.... What I have out of the supplied blister pack is three 250k pots, one 500k pot and two caps marked 683 (which is 68nF, or 0.068uF).

I can sorta make sense of it all, and can wire it up with what I have and have something that works no problem... but I see this as a chance to make some effective useful changes... so for all you Ricci owners that know their electronics, what are the values in your Ricci?

I'm presuming 500k on the humbucker volume and 250k on the JB volume and tone with a 0.022uF or 0.047uF cap, but what cap and pot should there be on the RC humbucker tone? 500k with 0.068uF cap?

[Simon Barden]

Rickenbacker kindly provide their wiring schematics for you. http://www.rickenbacker.com/service_g_schematics.asp

As you don't have two output jacks, the one marked as 'For models 4001S, 4001C64, 4001C64S' is most appropriate. Note that on later 4003s, capacitor C3 can be bypassed by a switch, so it's up to you whether you fit it or not. http://www.rickenbacker.com/pdfs/19507.pdf

Note that Rick use 330k pots throughout, which explains their generally bright tone.

It's certainly a different way of wiring up the pickups to 'standard', and you'd need a Switchcraft style 3-way switch to do it. It's derived from the stereo models, which is why the treble and bass circuits are kept separate until the last minute.

If you want to do something similar with your kit, I'd be tempted to use higher value than normal pots, 330k on volume and tone for the J-bass pup and maybe 1M for the neck humbucker on volume and tone, though 500k would probably be sufficient if you don't want too bright a neck pickup (though it can be tamed with the tone control. Also note how the tone controls are wired as potential dividers, not as variable resistors as on a standard tone circuit.

[wazkelly]

Best to ignore traditional Riccy setup as the kits come with HB in neck position and single coil at bridge which would suggest 500k pot is for neck PUP volume control. Try one of each cap and swap them around until you get a sound you like. It only makes a difference if you actually use a tone control. I mostly have mine flat out on 10 or rolled off slightly and prefer to select between PUP's for different tone selection. Not a fan of muddy bass tones and prefer a bit of bright clarity so that individual notes played can be heard rather than felt as a rumble.