Oddballs

I admit, I'm not one of those traditionalists. Back in the day, I admired radical designs such as Explorers, BC Rich's, anything odd or extreme looking. The love of traditional looking Strats, Tele's and Les Pauls came later on.

As I previously mentioned before, I'm sort of a frustrated bass player in a sense. Some of my fave bassists are Chris Squier and Geddy Lee. Both made the Rickenbacker 4000's series basses part of their signature sounds. I always liked the design, and back before the Internet, and living in the time when suburban legend was our information source, I would ask around to music stores and musicians in my area how come no one, even Rickenbacker themselves, made a guitar in that shape. I always got the answer, no one does, It's only in it's bass guitar format.

Since I'm a draftsperson, I thought of possibly making one on my own. But this wouldn't be an easy task. Guitar building is complicated, and I think it would be overwhelming for a 1st time project, So I kind of put that off as a "to be attempted at a later date" project.

Then the Internet came along, and I was enlightened. Rickenbacker did make a version of the 4000 bass, as a 6 string guitar; the 480.

I never saw one of these rare birds in person, and the specs are interesting: 24 Frets, a bolt on neck, and a solid body. I'm sure the playability is probably traditional Rickenbacker solid body. I have had some experience playing various 360's and 620's. They're not shredder type of necks, but neither is the sound, so it fits nicely with rhythm and nice melodic playing.

Now Rickenbacker did make a version that had full size humbuckers in it, the 481.

Now while it did have a more traditional pickup choice, the frets were slanted for faster playing, but the action was reportedly so high that it offset any improvement.

So now AGAIN, I'm debating a 480 style guitar. I've seen a few small builders on the Internet make their versions. and in theory could make a version with humbuckers, a traditional toptail/wrap around tailpiece, even possibly fit a Piezo pickup in there. I have a digital file of the body outline, which means I could design it in autocad, and then find a place that could CNC cut the body, meaning alot of jigs and tooling that would be expensive, can be done in one shot. Even better I could make it with  a "swimming pool route", meaning give it a ton of space for pretty much any pickup combination. Designing a pickguard would be easily as well, I thought of getting a few versions laser cut in wood, or metal, with a few different pickup configurations. The prime one would be 2 humbuckers, and a Hum-Single-single version, as well as a Humbucker and Single coil. it could give it alot more versatility sound wise. I do also have the Rickenbacker 4000 headstock in CAD format as well, so Getting a Warmoth Paddle head Neck can eliminate any worries about the headstock not looking right, or using an off the shelf replacement neck.

Now, that path could be expensive, as any custom guitar would be. A bigger downside is always, it's a guitar that usually has no resale value that comes anywhere close to the investment. Doing alot of the work myself in autocad, will save some $, but I'd still like it assembled by a professional or experienced tech. Also I'd have to paint the body/headstock. Getting that right would be tough. I could go natural with a sealer or some tung or gun oil. Regardless, building a regular partscaster isn't easy, or cost effective, let alone a custom designed guitar.

Currently a 1973 Rick 480 is on Reverb for $2500. That's not cheap either. Considering it wasn't popular enough, makes it rare, which also means there's not a huge market for them, beyond guitar nerds like me that like oddball instruments. It being a rick, it might not be my main guitar, which means It may get played a bit at home or in the studio, but probably won't get taken out to a gig. Most of my original band gigs, I bring my 2 PRS guitars, and for my cover band gigs, I like the idea of bringing a Strat, and a humbucker equipped guitar. Not alot of need for that authentic Rickenbacker tone, with the exception for a Tom Petty tune in our set list.

Awhile back my original band did a gig, and the singer for one of the other bands had a 480, and when I complimented her on it, she was excited that someone knew what it was. Her rig was a Roland Jazz Chorus 2x10, and it sounded great (although she didn't use the chorus alot on it). I asked her where she got hers, and she said through the Internet, years ago, and actually had another one at home. I may just have to start saving my pennies for when the day comes that I actually find one of these. 

Now there are some "New Guitar" options with this too; a company called Zachary Guitars http://www.zacharyguitars.com/ makes a version. 

The headstock design is interesting, and a version of this in black or a red stain could be cool. I'd personally like to see a dual volume and dual tone control situation, but it's nice to see a small builder out there that has the same interest.

I have come across some interesting 4001/480 style guitars on Instagram by a guy named TC Ellis. His website doesn't happen to list the "Lemmy" guitar. I personally think the hand carving is amazing, but I would like something more traditional looking.

So this might be one of those "pipe dream" guitars, but it's nice to dream. Maybe get one of these made as a baritone, and kill 2 of my birds with 1 stone!

Strat Updates (The Adventure Continues)

So I’ve previously posted about my 50’s reissue Strat, and all the mods that I’ve done to it. There should be an upcoming article in Performer Magazine soonish regarding the background on this venture. But in the mean time I’ll give the bullet points; Pickups were swapped out for Seymour Duncan hum cancelling stacks, a new pickguard, and some wiring changes.

What brought me to do all of those upgrades was a dilemma; GAS, Guitar Acquisition syndrome. There are a lot of companies out there, making great strat style guitars. Danocaster does some great vintage-ish stuff, and Suhr has so many flavors of the rainbow. G&L still does a new-meets-modern with pretty much any option you can think of for the money. Of course the original, Fender always comes up some great versions. All of these companies give me GAS after every NAMM show.

So in preventing GAS I decided to modify this guitar and give it a lot of the options I would want in a new or custom strat style guitar. In recent years I’ve had a lot of discussions with gear nerds, and one thing came up a lot to improve a guitar’s tone is the bridge.

The standard Strat bridge isn’t bad, it’s good enough for all those classic recordings from Hendrix, Mark Knopfler,  Eric Clapton (you get the picture), and despite its flaws, we still enjoy the music created on them. I looked into the option way back into putting a fishman power bridge on this guitar. It would have given me acoustic sound options in this guitar. I’d need to do something externally for an acoustic preamp, as well as re-thinking the knobs and electronic controls to be able to use this in an optimal fashion. Taking all that into consideration, as well as the added cost, I passed on this option. I’d still love a guitar with this feature, but that might be a way off in the future for me.

I thought of putting graphtech bridges on the existing strat bridge. I had some on a different strat back in the day, and I had no problems with them. The string breakage factor was really good, and sound wise I was happy.

But anything worth doing, is worth overdoing. So after talking to John Mann I decided to go with one of his Mann Made bridges. John was a big part in designing the PRS tremolo, and now he offers versions of them as upgrades for PRS Guitars, like S2 & SE’s, as well as core models. Strats being one of the most popular guitars out there, he also does a version for pretty much every variation of strat ever made.

Since I picked up my CE24 in 1995, the PRS tremolo is one of the best non locking tremolo I’ve come across. The saddles sit in a nice walled in area, meaning there’s no side to side movement. The tremolo arm is a push in style, having a delrin bushing with a set screw for adjusting tension. The idea of bringing this bridge to my strat wasn’t a real hard decision

With my strat having a vintage style bridge, I never floated the tremolo. I loved the sound but the tuning issues would come around, especially with new strings, when the tremolo was used. I used 3 springs, and had it mounted hard to the body to compensate for these tuning issues. On my PRS I have mine set even, so the bottom of the bridge is set with a little float, but not a lot. For the most part it can handle pretty aggressive use, I don’t do dive bombs and such, but for a non locking system it works fantastically.

So with this new bridge, I have the feel of my PRS in a strat. It stays in tune a lot better as well, with it set up as a floating bridge. Tonality wise, it’s kind of enhanced things. I still have that strat sound, but it’s like an out of focus image has been dramatically sharpened up. I love the feel of the push in arm, although I have to bend the angle of it a bit more to my tastes. That’s not a big deal, as I used to do it on other strats.

The final cost was $255, parts and labor. The pickup and electronics upgrades were about $350, so I’m at about $600 of mods in a guitar that I paid $325 for in the mid 1990’s. So is it a $925 guitar now? No, it’s only what someone is willing to pay for it, and since it’s been modified to MY tastes, I doubt there are a lot of other players that would want all these mods on one of their guitars.
However I’d be hard pressed to find even a custom guitar that would be under this cost, and I doubt could offer these options.

I still have some other things to get sorted out; I’ve recently found some vintage looking locking tuners, which I’m very interested in. Electronics wise, I’d like to make the tone control for the bridge pickup have a bit more range (yes my bridge pickup has a tone control), right now it really doesn’t to a lot, until it’s rolled back to 2, then it just goes dark. Fender also just came up with a volume control that doesn’t lose top end when it’s rolled back. I’d like to also see if I could incorporate this.

I recently acquired one of Gruv Gear’s gig bags, and I’m thinking of making it my strat’s main bag. A nice Couch strap is also on my list to finish off everything.

My to do list on this is still pretty long, but I finally got over the hump, it’s all downhill from here!
Of course I still have some things on my Tele, and my PRS CE to do..It never ends. These little projects satisfy my GAS, as well as tinkering tendencies. The big problem is what to do after I have all my guitars brought up to where I want them..Ugh

Gear Finances

I remember when the first of my little circle of friends got a credit card. It was kind of amazing. I grew up in a middle class family and seeing one of my parents pay for anything via that little piece of plastic was kind of a rare thing. I remember getting one was kind of like joining a exclusive club.

By the time I came of age, in the early 90's Credit cards were all over the place, it was no longer exclusive. It wasn't long you heard people in their 20's talk about having credit card debt in the thousands.

Music stores got into the credit thing too, with 0% financing. I admittedly fell into this trap. Buying my 1st PRS(used mind you) in 1995, for $899. $0 down. by the time I paid that off, with all the finance charges, interest, and late fees (No on-line payments back then, so a Check had to be mailed). I think I probably could have bought 2 decent PRS's and a really nice amp. I cringe thinking about all that money that went off into the ether.

Over the years I've seemed to maintain a small amount of credit card debt, from various sources, car repairs, household stuff, etc. Thankfully I have a decent interest rate, and a card that does have a rewards program. But it never seems to get to zero. So I ran the numbers and right now, coming out of the xmas season, I put myself on a strict spending clampdown to get this to zero by June 2017. But you do have to live a little, and budgeting is key for any financial situation.

These days, I budget my music stuff sparingly. I have a separate Savings account at a local credit union, who's ATM card doesn't act as a credit card. Each paycheck I direct deposit $25, it's not alot, but enough to add up over time. My wish list is still pretty long, and expensive, but it has made me prioritize what I spend my money on. If I don't have the money for it cash wise, I don't get it until I do. I've funded a few purchases this way, and the time it takes me to save up the $, gives time to reflect and internally debate any purchases. Some times it's a passing fad of just newness that makes you want something, and in most cases later on buyer's remorse sets in. Now I have to say I have less buyer's remorse, and less stuff/crap.

Every month or so I go into my storage unit, and I find some music gear gadget or gizmo that I grabbed because I "needed" it. It was so important I purchased it, either via cash or credit, and now it's in a closet or drawer and I forgot about it, or serves no purpose. Even worse, it's something that I doubt someone would want to go through the hassle of buying it from craigslist.

The idea of "I need this item to complete my musical vision/project" isn't new. But it is a false statement. I've gotten through alot without getting these items. Yes it could make things easier in one sense or another, but after being in music for decades, I shouldn't need anything over the top to make my music.

I know alot of musicians that got themselves in debt on gear, and regular (over)spending. Even worse was hearing of them selling off their guitars and amps to make rent, in some cases selling off everything to the point they stopped playing altogether.

Now that NAMM has passed, and lot of the goodies that interested me are becoming available. I know my wish list will get longer, and more expensive, but I know I'm going to be reasonable on my future purchases. New gear is cool, but less debit is better.