A Ric Inspired guitar from Mark Wybierala

[Mark Wybierala]

This is one of a group of four that I'm currently building. This one is the unfortunate instrument that is the first and endures all of the glitches and establishes the learning curve. I don't use plans and I seldom use a ruler. I do however make templates and I can read a ruler when I need to. I like using string and dividers...

The project began when a client asked me to build a sort of John Lennon style Ric Capri. I did a fair amount of research and came up with a few ideas of what I thought would improve on the original design yet maintain the look and charactor of this little Ric. Rics are not on my short list of favorite guitars but I think they look really cool. I decided on a Gibson scale length and at least for the first, and my own guitar, a pair of Gibson humbuckers I had on hand. A vibrolla style trem is an inexpensive yet highly functional device because there are no moving parts that can end up being a problem due to friction. I made my own bow-tie style bridge from aluminum and a brass base. Again, no friction problem with the stainless height adjustment screws sharpened to points and pivoting in drilled depressions of the brass base. If I'm not breaking the bank for a set of Waverly tuners, I'll settle for a set of the Grover Stay-Tite open back tuners because they are simple and honest basic good tuners -- not to mention that they are very economical. I enjoying fretting with stainless steel more and more. The frets are a medium/jumbo and the madagascar rosewood fretboard is a 12" radius preslotted from LMI. The neck is maple and mahogany with a dual adjustment trussrod from WD and a corian nut. The pickguard is 1/16" delrin from McMasterCarr -- I wanted that milky translucent look and delrin is a bit easier to work and I believe more durable than ABS. The wiring is standard Gibson LP design.
Of all things that Rickenbacker does oddly, I really appreciate the method of setting the neck. Its a great method for intermediate luthiers like myself with all sorts of wiggle room to make last minute adjustments as needed. The joints are easy to make with basic tools and you have the oportunity to check and recheck everything and even string up a pair of test strings and check angles before you glue and clamp. Its a chambered solid body with the neck pocket on the back and a 1/4" cap that covers the back and the joint. Its just too simple to execute. On this body, made from alder, I performed the chambering (which is about the size and position of the pickguard but on both sides of the body) and desided that I didn't want a soundhole. All of the Capris are chambered like this and a few of them had the cat-eye sound holes on the upper side.
I wanted to try the Minwax Wipe-On polyurethane and alder is probably the most forgiving wood to do this on. I used the Minwax wood conditioner and one coat of Minwax Clear Stain base with the vintage amber tint from Stewmac. I like the result. Without the wood conditioner the stain would have really sucked up at all of the endgrain but with it, its all quite evenly tinted and I think I got the amber intensity just about right. The graphics are just an experiment and I thought I'd try my hand at using acrylics and a brush. While playing around, I discovered distressing the image so I played around with that. There are seven applications of the wipe-on polyurethane and I haven't done any rubbing or polishing yet -- a little is needed.

[Dave Locher]

Very cool guitar. Any detail shots of the neck pocket construction you liked so well? I'm always anxious to see things that work well and are easy to boot!

[Mark Wybierala]

Here is #3. All four guitars have the same neck pocket and internal chambering. What is cool is that it is easy at this point to change the neck angle from zero as in a Fender or Ric to anything you want prior to installing the neck by putting an angle on the neck tennon as I did with the guitar above. To adjust the angle, you can work with full pocket shims, or a pair of single shims and then just do the math to translate into the tennon angle cut needed to get exactly what you want. The long length of the tennon makes this a lot more forgiving. Due to the large gluing surface area, I'd never see this joint coming loose. I'm using Titebondbecause I never forsee a time when I'd need to remove the neck. I wait until I have everything right before I trim the back of the tennon to join flat with the back. You can actually string the instrument up with one single clamp holding the neck in place to check you bridge height, pickup heights and intonation placement prior to glueing. This is very important if you are using dog ear P90 pickups and don't want spacers. In this range of four guitars, I'll be doing four different neck angles to suit the needs of each.

[Dave Locher]

Please forgive my ignorance of Rickenbacker construction, but in your first photo am I looking at the body from behind? If that is the case, are you saying the neck just extends several inches beyond the end of the fingerboard UNDER the top and then gets sandwiched under a back plate as well?

[Mark Wybierala]

I had no idea about Rics when I started looking into them. There are quite a few things in the older ones that'll make you scratch your head -- especially the truss rods. Yes, the top picture in my last reply is the back and it gets covered with a 1/4" cap that covers the entire back of the guitar. With this method you can put the last fret or even the end of the fretboard right at the body joint if you want to or, as in my case I put #21 just a little inside. I just feel that the sweet spot for the neck pickup is near #23 and I wanted the bridge to be where it is. This neck attachment method is why many Rics only have the back of the body bound and it's to cover the joint of the cap. This method also requires the use of longer neck blanks but since the necks are made of multiple pieces, wood selection is not as limited as it would be with single piece necks and they are probably a bit more durable. The neckpocket route is totally parallel and square and if someone were to look really closely, with a straightedge, they'd see that the fretboard taper ends at the 20th fret to a width that is exactly 2.20" which is the width of the neckpocket route all along its length. The thickness of the top to bottom of the neck pocket is 1/4" so its only a little bit of math to set the height of the fretboard above the top. I'm fretting the two remaining necks later and I'll take a picture of the heel ends and post them later tonight.

[Nathan Gouldsberry]

Mark, I am blown away.I love the look of the old Capri's, and you have definitively taken this simple guitar to a whole new level....

[Mark Wybierala]

Here is the neck joint detail pictures. I have the body and the neck set to put the fretboard 5/16th above the body face but at this point I can still have my choice of setting the neck tilt to anything I want to address the hardware options from a flat Fender style of bridge and pickup configuration, to a Gibson style tunematic configuration with a neck tilt. I'm going to play around with this Ric style for a while because I really like the body style but I want to try it with an all mahogany telecaster style thinline at some point and see what tones and response I get. With the original guitar I posted at the beginning of this post, the recipe is a winner with a sustain and behavior that rivals a Les Paul. However, the tonal responce is shifted to a higher frequency range. Its just as wide and useful but brighter with more bite at the top. I'm tickled pink with the result and the existance of great sustain without the weight of a solid mahogany body. I will certainly build more if for nothing else than to play around with the corruption of this little guitar with graphics, artwork and colors.

[Mark Swanson]

That looks good Mark! I build in a similar way, and the neck joint here is similar also to the PRS style neck joint. I like that way!
I also use the chambered bodies, and I make an inner core just as you do with a top and back glued on. You don't say how you are removing the chambered sections from the main core- are you routing them? I found a much easier way.
My cores have only one chamber, in other words the center section doesn't extend completely to the end of the body but instead after the bridge and tailpiece there is a chambered section that connects the two inner chambers across the center line at the butt end of the body.
So, I take the core to the bandsaw and just make a cut in right at the centerline, at the end. Then I can use the bandsaw to cut out the chambered sections. After I'm done with that i smooth the surface of the cut in and glue a dark piece of wood in there. When the body is done, the dark line at the center right where the strap button goes becomes a nice feature.

[Mark Wybierala]

Mark, I've seen some pictures of Ric 330s being made at the factory and they have a single continuous chamber although shallower under the bridge and tailpiece. As far as making the chambers, I just roughly hog out on a depth set drill press with a 1" forstner bit and then I route to clean up using a 3/8" polycarb template. Doing it your way certainly makes more wood available to you from the suppliers in that you don't need 8/4 stock like this was. I really appreciate how PRS utilizes the top to emulate binding -- its not bound at all but its slick looking. PRS is just very smart at just about everything and I have more respect for their guitars than any other major manufacturer. They're even keeping a close quality control on the new imported models which are probably the best bang for the buck available in an intermediately priced guitar once you adjust the nut slots -- I'm glad they give me something to do.

[Jason Rodgers]

Mark W., when you get your neck set where you want it, do you just plane flush any of the heel that's proud of the back surface? And then the notch on the fingerboard side is for pickup clearance?

[Mark Wybierala]

Jason, Yes and yes. The fingerboard ends up around 5/16 to 3/8th" above the body face. If I needed it lower, I'd see nothing wrong with a 1/16" (or so) full length shim to lower it.

[Gerry Beckles]

A Fireglo finish (IMHO) would really set this off.....still very beautiful.

[Jeff Mills]

Here is #3. All four guitars have the same neck pocket and internal chambering. What is cool is that it is easy at this point to change the neck angle from zero as in a Fender or Ric to anything you want prior to installing the neck by putting an angle on the neck tennon as I did with the guitar above. To adjust the angle, you can work with full pocket shims, or a pair of single shims and then just do the math to translate into the tennon angle cut needed to get exactly what you want. The long length of the tennon makes this a lot more forgiving. Due to the large gluing surface area, I'd never see this joint coming loose. I'm using Titebondbecause I never forsee a time when I'd need to remove the neck. I wait until I have everything right before I trim the back of the tennon to join flat with the back. You can actually string the instrument up with one single clamp holding the neck in place to check you bridge height, pickup heights and intonation placement prior to glueing. This is very important if you are using dog ear P90 pickups and don't want spacers. In this range of four guitars, I'll be doing four different neck angles to suit the needs of each.

Routes2.JPG

Wicked look guitar - love it man - great work... Your neck / body joint looks a lot like the one I did on my last bass I built http://www.tngforum.mimf.com/phpbb/view ... ?f=4&t=238. However I bolted the neck in place under the neck pickup and tilt the neck with 4 set screws (2 under the middle pickup and 2 under the neck pickup). I made my neck 1/8 less thick than the pocket to allow for tilt but the width of the neck and pocket is tight fit. I'm mean once you got the tilt angle right it shouldn't need to change that often. It was just finding that right angle that proved challenging for me so I made it adjustable and also where I can remove the neck easily if I need to.

[Mark Wybierala]

I've considered the potential to have an adjustable neck with these. I really am enjoying the project and have liked using alder for the first time. I think I might do another set of four and try a bolt-on for comparison trying to harvest the same wood from the same stock and see if there is a tonal difference. I've found that glueing a neck in is less scary for me. You need to be a little more methodical but the strength of screws is sort of an unknown -- not that I've ever had a problem or even seen one. Screws just started to cause me unexplained concern. There certainly is adequate meat in the neck to bolt it in place.

[Tim Lang]

That is a thing of beauty!

I'm working on a Ric inspired guitar also, though it's more 360 than 330.