Viv's Vivenbacker

[stuzl873213]

Didnt know you could get these in a veneer, mines just basswood. Veneer = take care

[wazkelly]

And I think you are right, it makes no sense to immediately glue the neck, it would be sensible in most cases to sand the neck and body separately. Though a Rickenbacker 4001/2 is a solid through neck, so I guess in the factory they must sand with the body and neck together. I don't have much workshop space so keeping them separate will help a bit.

Hi Viv, Nice kit.

Genuine Riccy's are neck through with maple 'wings' glued on. Being such a cumbersome shape finishing one with neck in place would be painful as it increases the risk of runs forming through trying to get coats of finish into all those nooks and crannies. There is a video on You Tube of a Rickenbacker Factory Tour that shows how things are done and definitely easier with machines doing all the hard work. By hand, on a set neck job it is much easier finishing them separately and then maybe some touch ups around the joint if required once glued together.

Cheers, Waz.

[wazkelly]

Didnt know you could get these in a veneer, mines just basswood. Veneer = take care

Hi Stuz, being a fiver and a maple top it looks like a special custom order as no RC kit comes that way as standard.

[Vivg]

Yes, the veneer is really really thin, I don't think it will take much sanding.

[Vivg]

Hi Stuz, being a fiver and a maple top it looks like a special custom order as no RC kit comes that way as standard.

The story goes like this. Always wanted a Ric, but every time I looked at one in a shop, I wasn't convinced they were worth the premium being charged. I also wanted a 5 string. They don't make those now, and when they did I understand they just added another string, making the neck a bit tight! I was also watching a lot of the Crimson Guitar videos, watching Ben build some very nice guitars. I decided I wanted to build a copy. Started surfing and found quite a few alternatives, eventually landing on PitBull and noted lots of people saying some very good things about the guitars. I also looked around this forum and saw what you guys were up to. I could see the kit would help me along a lot, save me money and yet let me customise into what I wanted. I emailed Adam and discovered PBG did a maple top and that I could possibly get a 5 string version. Also Adam was really helpful. The bottom line is a Rickenbacker is £2000-£2500. No five string available. I got a couple of quotes, just for comparison, and a 5 string Ric-a-like from a decent luthier would be £3500. If I come out above £600 I will be surprised although of course the cost of 4 weeks of sanding, glueing, soldering and staining needs to be considered! If the price goes up, it will be caused by my own inexperience or over confidence!

[andrewdosborne]

Nice kit Viv. I'm taking a similar attitude to my ES5V kit. Relatively low cost even with upgrades compared to an original Gibbo ES going on local Facebook group for $8k !


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[Vivg]

Wow, I like your ES5V! If the Ric5 comes out OK I might try another one, might go for one of those...

[wazkelly]

I used the same rationale with the 2 Explorers I built.

Hope it all works out as planned.

[JB RETRO]

Good luck with this one. Looking forward to see how you progress.

[Marcel]

Nice looking kit Vivg.

On my RCM-4F build I chose to do the neck and body separately as I wanted a different colour on the flame Maple top to the Mahogany body, and there are two places on my build where the two are not separated by binding. To make sure I didn't put colour where glue was needed for the neck I did a correct dry fit of the neck and then pulled the neck out 5mm and made a pencil mark to indicate to me that this was as far as the neck colour should go and the rest was where the glue held the neck into the body...

Hope that helps. Good luck on your build...