1966 Rickenbacker 335 in MapleGlo
So here's a wonderful guitar that's been around the block a few times... She was listed on Reverb in its early days, and I became fascinated with it--a vintage Ric at a reasonable price. The downside: She had an ugly cavity around her neck pickup. Some genius had routed and installed a Humbucker, probably in the 1970's, later thought better of it, and re-installed the original toaster, but used some sort of bondo compound to "repair" the hole. She also had lots of honest wear from well over 50 years of action, including a neck/headstock repair somewhere along the line.
I ended up trading a perfectly good 2007 Les Paul for her, then turned her over to my lutheir who installed a matching block of vintage Maple in the cleaned out and squared off cavity. He then gave her a full fret job, cleaned up the electronics, and otherwise fine tuned the guitar. I then threw on some new Pyramid strings, some vintage gold plastic accents, and viola'! This glowing old guitar remains one of my favorite players, EVER... She's got a very low, clean action (.03 at the 12th fret). This was achieved with subtle truss rod adjustments and the implementation of a "thinned" (pre-Winfield version) bridge plate. But yes--easiest Rickenbacker to play I've ever owned.
Apart from its remarkable playability, what I like best about this guitar is its patina--aged (i.e., "warmed") amber color, plenty of finish crazing, and lots of other bumps and bruises. Despite it all, she plays like a champ. The neck is arrow-straight and rock solid. Her original Toasters ring as clear as a bell, and the blend knob really differentiates between the neck and bridge pickup, like I've never heard before on a Ric. Even the original silver case is really beat up, but looks great in terms of honest road action.
I added a set of really cool authentic 1966 Kluson tuners with caramel buttons (the silver originals are in the case), along with a matching caramel switch tip. She has gold guards/TRC currently installed, along with true vintage stove top knobs from the 60's. The original white pickguards/TRC, and a set of re-issue tortoise shell pickguards/TRC are there too.
A great guitar, including a substantial haul of original and new parts... $5000
p.s. For whatever reason, my website here isn't letting me add additional photos as it should. If you're interested, contact me and I can send more pics.
I ended up trading a perfectly good 2007 Les Paul for her, then turned her over to my lutheir who installed a matching block of vintage Maple in the cleaned out and squared off cavity. He then gave her a full fret job, cleaned up the electronics, and otherwise fine tuned the guitar. I then threw on some new Pyramid strings, some vintage gold plastic accents, and viola'! This glowing old guitar remains one of my favorite players, EVER... She's got a very low, clean action (.03 at the 12th fret). This was achieved with subtle truss rod adjustments and the implementation of a "thinned" (pre-Winfield version) bridge plate. But yes--easiest Rickenbacker to play I've ever owned.
Apart from its remarkable playability, what I like best about this guitar is its patina--aged (i.e., "warmed") amber color, plenty of finish crazing, and lots of other bumps and bruises. Despite it all, she plays like a champ. The neck is arrow-straight and rock solid. Her original Toasters ring as clear as a bell, and the blend knob really differentiates between the neck and bridge pickup, like I've never heard before on a Ric. Even the original silver case is really beat up, but looks great in terms of honest road action.
I added a set of really cool authentic 1966 Kluson tuners with caramel buttons (the silver originals are in the case), along with a matching caramel switch tip. She has gold guards/TRC currently installed, along with true vintage stove top knobs from the 60's. The original white pickguards/TRC, and a set of re-issue tortoise shell pickguards/TRC are there too.
A great guitar, including a substantial haul of original and new parts... $5000
p.s. For whatever reason, my website here isn't letting me add additional photos as it should. If you're interested, contact me and I can send more pics.
