P90's in Toaster Covers, mmmmmmmm

T

Tele-Bob

New member
I like to build my own guitars and have lusted after a Ric 360 since I was like 16 years old. When I finally bought one I was less than elated with the features like the neck and fret wire size, and all those knobs that yielded cool tones in the studio became a nightmare during a gig. So I built a couple of these Ric style guitars for myself. Before anyone gets nervous, I never sell the guitars I build. I just build them because I get to have cool and unique guitars with the features I like.

This particular one sports a set of Seymour Duncan Custom Shop Hot P90s in Toaster covers. They have a terrific sound in this guitar and the strong midrange does a great job of taming the maple.

Here's a couple photos.

aGuitarMachUp1.jpg


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Re: P90's in Toaster Covers, mmmmmmmm

Custom classy, with Ric funky elegance! I love it!:cool2:

The darker wood/maple combo reminds me a lot of the teak furniture craze of 40-50 years ago. What species is the darker wood?
 
Re: P90's in Toaster Covers, mmmmmmmm

The dark wood is 100 year old black walnut. I made the binding, pickguard and cat eye binding from it.

I also built another complete guitar from it with maple binding.

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IMG_3649rearwhole.jpg
 
Re: P90's in Toaster Covers, mmmmmmmm

That second one is BEAUTIFUL!!! Great ideas.
 
Re: P90's in Toaster Covers, mmmmmmmm

WOW!! Great job!! Those are both awesome!!! Too bad you don't build and sell....you could make a living!

-dave
 
Re: P90's in Toaster Covers, mmmmmmmm

Yeah - you gotta be kidding me that you don't sell those. Just REM alone would keep you in business.
 
Re: P90's in Toaster Covers, mmmmmmmm

Aceman said:
Yeah - you gotta be kidding me that you don't sell those. Just REM alone would keep you in business.
Click to expand...
The people at Rickenbacker are very zealous about protecting their name and copyrights.

I tried to sell a bass on ebay that I thought was legit and they threatened to "confiscate and destroy" my bass. I invited them to try!
 
Re: P90's in Toaster Covers, mmmmmmmm

Thank you guys. You're very kind!

The people at Rickenbacker can be really arrogant snobs. And the most surprising thing is, the 360, as beautiful as it may be, is an ergonomic nightmare to play.

I built the maple guitar first and then made a bunch of changes on the walnut one that best suit my playing needs.


The neck on the walnut one is 1 11/16" wide at the nut and 2 3/16" wide at the heel. And it only sits 5/16" higher than the body which keeps the bridge low and makes the entire guitar far more comfortable to play. It has adult size fret wire and 1 degree more rake to the peghead for a better string angle to those tall Schaller tuners. I made mine as a string thru body with a Strat style bridge and a very simple control layout.

The fret board is birdseye maple and I did the inlay with black walnut. The inlay shape has also been modified to better suit the overall shapes of the guitar.

Originally I had Seymor Duncan Antiquity mini humbuckers in it but they were a bit bright. After a few pickup swaps, I got a custom made set of P90s on a mini humbucker bracket from Vintage Vibe. They sound absolutely terrific in the guitar and I gig with it regularly. If Seymour Duncan offered a similar product I would have bought them here but they told me it was something they don't do.

Anyway, there ya have it.

Here's another one of my scratch built guitars with Seymour Duncan P90s in it.

NCT1.jpg
 
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Re: P90's in Toaster Covers, mmmmmmmm

Here's a little Swinger guitar I whipped up a few years ago. This one features a 25 3/4" scale, yup, a little longer, with a custom machined stainless steel bridge plate to get that extra 1/4" string length. It's the very first neck I ever built in 1982.

I love playing swing blues and the longer neck is real comfy for chording.

It has a single neck pickup and a single volume control. I soldered a tone control to the bottom of the volume pot and cut off the shaft so it would fit in the pocket. This allowed me to dial in the tone, and then close 'er up for a clean, stealth look.

The body color is "gold top gold" with an ebony fretboard, black headstock and gold decal.
MonocasterTwo.jpg
 
Re: P90's in Toaster Covers, mmmmmmmm

You're high for not going into business with these things, T-Bob! You're making some of the most beautiful guitars I've seen! If they sound half as good as they look, you could be keeping a lot of professional bands well stocked.

Do you have your own shop? With the kind of work you're doing, I wonder what that basement of yours looks like. It's like Norm Abrams Goes to Nashville!

- Keith

P.S. In response to your initial thought: Yes, P-90s in toaster covers are lip-smackin' good.
 
Re: P90's in Toaster Covers, mmmmmmmm

Wow, that's really nice of you man!

I like to think these guitars sound pretty good. I don't build guitars for a living because it would ruin it for me. Besides, there are some extremely talented builders out there who I think do a better job.

It's just fun to build a guitar and then play it on gigs and stuff. I must admit to getting a kick out of how upset the Rickenbacker fanatics get, but that's a whole other story.

Anyway, I just build 'em because it gives me the opportunity to really customize the features.

My next project will porbably be a Strat without the body contours. For years I have enjoyed the sound of a Strat but just don't like playing them as much as a Tele. Then it hit me! The Tele sits straighter in front of me because it doesn't have those dang body contours! So, that will probably be my next weird project. A Strat with no comfort cut or arm contour.
 
Re: P90's in Toaster Covers, mmmmmmmm

Dude... awesome. The Ricks are cool but your take on the Fenders... Wow...

Create a site, a blog, something and do some tutorials if you aren't in it for the money. I'd check it out everyday.
 
Re: P90's in Toaster Covers, mmmmmmmm

LSP, you're too kind. I tried shariong the build process on-line but the ever vigilant "Hall Monitors" from the Ric site keep squealing and the websites knuckled under to the pressure from Rickenbacker. I don't want to divulge trade secrets but I do enjoy sharing some tips and tricks on making a 360 a much better guitar. Kinda like the way the members of this site came up with the Custom 5, which happens to be one of my favorite SD pickups.

The Fender style stuff I've built hasn't been documented in photos.

Tell ya what, when I do the Strat with no contours, I'll take photos and post those although it might be a boring project to some without the contours. At least there's no hassle in sharing ideas.
 
Re: P90's in Toaster Covers, mmmmmmmm

did the SD custom shop do the covers for the p90's or did you do that yourself?
 
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