little "BIT" more

...and by BIT I mean ROUTER bit, huh huh, get it?........huh...router...bit...uh.....

Ric basses have a caveman-like routed edge on the backs, and on the fronts of the models that feature a binding-less front face. Literally all you do is hit the top edge of the front and back, and bottom rear edge with a hand held router. not sure of the bit size, but it looks close enough for me! When I say "caveman-like" I mean it in the most endearing way, for some reason I think this sort of, um, "lack of elegance" is super cool and I love the fact that the current basses still feature these routes.

Before I get to alot of boring sanding, in ever escalating grades of grit, here are a few details I've added.
On older Ric basses, the front (or neck) pickup, has a channel drilled in the face to accomodate the wire, going from pickup cavity to control cavity. it is literally drilled. a bunch of punches on a drill press, all in a line making a nice caveman-esque route. Modern Ricks feature a clean cnc'd route. Not being a big fan of top-load wire routes, I decided to drill a wire hole from front pickup cavity to rear pickup cavity, then run both pickup's wires down through a hole into the control cavity. Only problem is, the front pickup wires will crowd the already tight rear pickup cavity, so I dremmeled a little pathway for the wires to follow, tucking them out of the way. I also dremmeled out a shallow divet for the jack. In most of my past builds of this sort, the jack is always crowded and crammed into it's hole, so I decided to give it plenty of room with it's own groove to hang out in.

 Front pickup cavity : wire "port" features a recessed entry, allowing the wire to be pushed down out of the pickup's way, if needed.

Bridge/Rear pickup cavity features a lil' wire channel to keep things from getting squished.

Jackhole party zone.

Fitment and Character building

Chopping up wood is easy, making it look nice is hard.

At this point I needed to drill some holes in the plank, all of the pickguard screws, pickup mounting hardware, bridge screws, tuner screws, all of that stuff - everything that's held down by a screw needs a screw hole, so a "Fitment" was in order. That means put all of the parts on the bass, make sure everything is in it's right place, lined up correctly, and no other major wood work needs to be done.

The good news : it's 98% correct.

Turns out Rickenbacker basses have an ever evolving headstock shape. Sometimes they are longer, sometimes fatter, sometimes just different depending on who was operating the tools that day I suppose. The bass I traced for my reference was an early 70's model fitted with a set of transitional Grover tuning keys. These tuning keys had a smaller rear "base" to them, and hence the headstocks from this era had a shorter length, to put in laymen's terms. The Tuning keys that I ordered from Rickenbacker were of a different vintage design, and have a larger base plate, so the FITMENT is not correct, the base plate hangs off the end of the headstock by a few millimeters. The urge to punch myself in the head repeatedly lasts a good 24 hours.

Above: picture #1 we have the classic tuners with larger base plate of an early 60's 4000. pic #2 shows the early 70's Grovers that ruined my day. Notice the extra length and swoopier shape of the early 60's headstock.

I contemplated a lot of things, including trying to buy the same early 70's Grover tuners that were on the trace bass - impossible - so after sleeping on it,  I went down to the Felt machine shop and Keosel-ized the offending tuner base plate into submission. "Keosel-izing" something is bike industry terminology for taking a part that dosen't quite fit correctly, and making it work by sheer brute force - usually with the aid of a grinder or dremmel tool. in this case, the grinder.

my results were very pleasing. problem solved, and looks not so bad (NSB)!

Lesson learned. Longer headstock next time (and yes, I have decided there will be a next time.), let's move on.
Now that the tuner issue was behind me, drilling all the other holes was on the menu, as well as making the hole for the jack, or : "jackhole"...huh...huh....huh.

Young Jake is mezmerized by my ninja like dremmel skillzzz.

drilled and jackholed.

photo courtesy of Eva Lewington®

Once home I slapped it together in a for-reals fitment; with the bridge and a couple tuners attached, I was able to throw the G and E strings on this thing to make sure everything was cool. and it was cool.

below you can see The Sethenbacker compared to the early 70's 4001 that I traced.

...and then, with about 30 minutes of rough sanding on the front and back...

Now it's time for the real work to begin, the finish sanding. Since I plan on doing a "Fire-Glo" esque paint job on this sucker, the sanding has to be top notch. Fire-Glo is a classic Ric guitar finish - a transulcent red & orange sunburst, where the grain of the maple is clearly seen, so there can be no sandpaper Tom Foolery, no cross grain swirly hack job here. That just aint my style though, so this is going to be rough (no pun intended), stay tuned....

Making Lemonade

you know...with those lemons life handed me.

So, with some in-depth discussions, and plan B-ing with my shop equipment mentor, Jeff Soucek, it was decided I would purchase this little sideways blade doohickey for the milling machine. A thin round blade that could cut a near perfect straight line right through the body - right through the glueline that holds the misaligned pieces together. I just need to clamp the body into the mill's vice, line it up perfectly, and cut the bass back into 3 pieces. easy-sqeezy-japaneasy.

I'll be losing about a 1/16" all the way around, but that's within my tolerences. I mean, what choice have I got? When these Rics were made in the 60's, there were no CNC machines cutting the pieces to cloned perfection, it was all templates and hand cutting. If you look at as many pictures of old 4001 basses, like I have, you'll notice a lot of variences (is that the right word and/or spelling?). Body profiles changed quite drastically around the control cavities and horns, Headstocks are very obviously shaped by hand, and pickguards are all over the map. All this makes me feel better about what I'm about to do.

That, and the fact that this is not an EXACT replica. The Sethenbacker has a few extra frets and the accompanying longer fretboard. There's nothing I can do about that I have decided, and that's cool with me. The Sethenbacker is also a 34" scale bass, the industry standard more or less, a standard set back in 1950 or '51 by Leo Fender, remarkably that still stands today. Later that same decade, Rickenbacker would shave a half inch off of that scale length (or is it a quarter?) for some reason. not a remarkable change, or discernable difference I guess, but I digresss....

Let's cut some stuff.

Scary.

After the chop chop, I shaved off a thousandth or two to get all of the edges perfectly flat

and perpendicular.

After a night back in the clamps, it's time to start removing some maple.

I spent a lot of time referring to my measurements of Dan's '71 4001, and consulting my vast library of 4001 photos scoured from the "internet" while penciling in all of the routes. You'll notice I have depth measurements penciled in as well.

Starting the control cavity.

....and there you go.

I think I'll spend some time cleaning up the control cavity with the dremel tool. The pickguard is going to be a little weird with that fretboard extending so far back to the neck pickup route, but I'm getting used to it. so far, even with my little hickup - 100% kick ass.

Measure Twice - Glue Once.....

Look at that thing...It's beautiful, isn't it?

Yeah, except for the fact that it's TOTALLY FREAKING WRONG!!!!

'Member back in that first post when I said something about I make lots of mistakes? 'Member?...you...me...Dick Hale? 'Member?

For some reason I thought I had properly measured the scale length of this bass, which is 34" (yes, totally different than a Rickenbacker bass' 33.5"), and for some reason I THOUGHT that the Ricky's redonkulously massive bridge would be just squeaking into the overall length of the neck blank......

long story short, I done F'd up.

Glued the body wings on a good inch and half rearward of where they need to be. Should of re-measured. Should have payed attention.

oh boy......

The Clampdown

Next up are the body "wings", the shapely chunks of maple that will be glued to the sides of the neck plank, making the distictive Ricky 4000 series bass shape. For those of you in the dark about guitar building practices, there are "bolt on" models - guitars that have a neck bolted onto a body, the most common variety being just about any Fender style guitar or bass. Then there are the "neck through" guitars, which means the main chunk(s) of wood that the neck is made from extends past the end of the fretboard, and "through" the body. This here bass, as most Rickenbacker basses are, will be a "neck through".

People (geeks, internet tough guys, and mr. know-it-alls) can argue all day long that a "neck through" bass will give you much more sustain, punch, sexual prowess, what have you - but personally I have never met a Fender Precision bass (yes, bolt-on) that I didn't like for the most part. In fact one of the best sounding and playing basses the world has ever known, happens to be a bolted together Precision Bass, and as luck would have it, this holy grail of basses belongs to me.
Don't get me wrong, the Sethenbacker will no doubt kick a ton of ass in oh so many ways, I am 100% sure of it, my point is, there are lots of ways to build great instruments - all of them good.

back to the action....

After some extra shaping and sanding of the headstock, by hand and by spindle, it was time to rough cut the body wings. and rough cutting is exactly what happened.

looking like Fred Flinstone's ® bass

Tracing spray mounted in place

That's about as accurate as I am capable of. not so bad!

 

After an hour or so with the band saw.

New blades are a great idea when doing this kind of work.

I could have had this done in half the time, had I discovered that

new blade earlier. D'OH!

Aaaaahhhhh, my friend The Spindle Sander makes everything better....and smoother.

Clamp that crap together, it's time to go home, Son.

Start Chopping

Old Rickenbacker basses have these cool Walnut "wings" on the headstock, this Carvin neck has a big lame square. First order of business - wingify the headstock, cut the body end of the neck down to proper body width, and cut out the headstock shape.

My pal and head engineer at the mighty Felt Bicycles bicycle company, Jeff Soucek, taught me proper skills with our milling machine downstairs. So with my actual 4001 measurements and tracings in hand, I clamped up the Carvin headstock in the Mill's steely jaws. OFF WITH THE WOOD!

Walnut gets a shave.

The Body end of the neck gets about 5/16" shaved off

Clamped up overnight

Lil' bit of Spray mount keeps my tracing in place

Dremel gets it close

Spindle Sander get it's near perfect!

I prefer the slightly Larger, more cartoony look of the early 60's Ric bass headstocks, so that's definitely what I am going for here. The shape aint done, but it's pretty close.

Details, Details

The first thing I needed to do was decide what this bass would be exactly. I was currently jonesing (or "gassing" as gear heads say) for a Rickenbacker 4001 bass, or even a good COPY from the 70's as the real deal will set you back a couple grand at least. Now, I am totally not a Ric guy, I have never really owned or played a Ric bass that I loved, but I am currently and have always been a big McCartney freak, and was/is currently freaking on his mid to late 60's bass tone. Hence the Ric re-fascination. I have always disliked the necks on these basses, too square feeling. I have always disliked the binding on the 4001 and 4003 models. I was never a fan of the big ass triangle inlays on the fretboard, or the neck binding for that matter. I also really like the way McCartney's bass has an upside down headstock, as it's left handed - yeah, gotta get me one of those upside down headstock deals. All of these issues would need to be addressed and remedied on the Sethenbacker.

First order of business - I borrowed my friend's early 70's 4001 (thank you Dan!) and spent an afternoon photographing, tracing, measuring, and generally molesting the thing. I learned alot from this disection, and could not have proceeded without this crucial step.

Originally I decided to make this bass the single pickup version, the 4000. it fit with my simplistic asthetic qualities, and sure would be alot easier to wire up (one thing I totally suck at). Just take a gander at the fine example above, courtesy of Ricky Sounds UK. Dot neck - check. No binding - check. FireGlo finish - check. Sign me up, slap an upside down headstock on there and it's the Sethenbacker damnit! Let's do this thing, people.

What followed next was a glutonous spending spree on fine bass parts, and aged hardwoods. Thank you "the interent" for your vast stores of shit we can buy. I went pretty much "spec" on the whole deal: Rickenbacker bridge, pickups, and hardware. I had my buddy The Pickguardian cut a pickguard blank for me, without holes though. He's a bit of a Rickenbacker afficiando, and has the "correct" pickguard materials. He does stellar work. I hand selected some aged hard maple for the body wings, but made a measuring error when homeslice at the harwood center was cutting me a chunk - ended up having to buy the whole 9 foot plank. good thing, as I tend to make mistakes.

After a couple weeks spent waiting for my Carvin made neck to arrive (did I mention I am not up for making the neck myself? quite frankly it intimidates me) something started to creep into my shallow little mind, undermining my whole deal with this Sethenbacker idea. TWO pickups. I mean, you really do need the two to get that proper 60's Ric thing going. That compressed to the gils slightly overdriven with flats thing I enjoy so much. A bridge pickup was ordered, added to the pile of wood on my desk, and the $800 budget was maxed out.

Above : this pile of stuff should look like the picture below, eventually.

I soon realized, with my two pickup, upside down headstock, dot neck version, I was just making a copy of the '64 4001 McCartney reissue that Rickenbacker has already made. Whatever, mine will say "Sethenbacker" on the head stock.....and have a better feeling neck (no offense Rickenbacker.)

Long Story Short...

If you know me, you know I have a boy named Seth. If you haven't known me for very long, you probably don't know about his namesake. I met the first Seth halfway through my senior year in high school, he sat behind me in my first period class, kind of a weird art-jock guy. I wrote him off at first, but he kept talking art and music with me during class, soon we were best buds and our high school careers were screeching to an end. Seth and I continued our unique and intense friendship after High School, we were truly soul brothers, I have never met anyone else who I could share this symbiotic type of bond with - crazy, hysterical, and meaningful experiences were common place when we spent time together. In the following few years Seth was away alot at school, NorCal stints, then UCLA, and I was touring North America with my band Big Drill Car for much of the time. At the end of Summer 1991, I was leaving for a 5 month tour of the US, Canada, and Europe. Seth was leaving for Hungary to study abroad for a year. Unfortunately only one of us would return from our trips, Seth took his own life on a cold February day in Budapest.

Needless to say the aftermath and destructive wake of this act was enormous for myself, his family, and anyone else close to his dark burning brilliance, but that's a whole other blog, and this entry is called "Long Story Short".

A couple years after his death, Seth's mother Cathy gave me some of his belongings, including a couple of Lambretta scooters. "cool" you say? Not so much. These Lambrettas were completely disassembled, rusted, and gutted. I vowed to Cathy that I would restore at least one of these Li 150's...Someday (insert echo of someday here). Long story short, someday never came.

Over the years my collection of deteriorating Lambretta parts was moved and stored, and moved and stored. Finally I came to the realization that I will never restore the Lambretta(s), not because I didn't want to, but simply because it would take a shitload of cash, a shitload of cash that I did not, and have never had to spare.

I sold the lot.

Now I needed to figure out what to do with this $800. I wanted to turn it into something I could use and keep forever, a treasure with some kind of connection to Seth. I thought of buying a new wave crappy plastic asian scooter, but I am not all that into even having a scooter, not to mention Seth would dis-own me if he were alive to see me ride one of the piles of junk. I could buy a bass....hey - I LOVE basses, I use basses, I can keep and use them forever, sure, but there's no connection, it's just a "thing".

Then it hit me like a ton of rusty Lambretta parts - take a bass I "want", a Rickenbacker in this case, and build one myself from scratch, using $800 as my budget. It will be an über project for me, and will be the finest bass I have built thus far. It will kick ass, it will be beautiful, it will be a treasure because I will build it with love and the memory of Seth in my heart. It will be "Sethenbacker"