I built myself a Rickenbacker Bass Guitar
Vložit
- čas přidán 28. 05. 2021
- My first attempt at building a guitar. A through-neck Rickenbacker bass guitar made from a bannister, some Venetian blinds and ash. This was just a Covid lockdown project to help pass the time but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It plays great and sounds great too. Nice and punchy. The video shows the process of building the bass from the very first steps right up to my first time plugging it in and playing it. It has mostly been sped up and edited to just show a short section of each step of the process. Since finishing it I've started playing again, which I hadn't in about ten years. For any first time builders out there, it might be of help or give you ideas and at very least it should inspire you to give it a go if you have any sort of level of skill at woodworking. The most intricate thing I had made before this was probably my shed!
- Hudba
Outstanding work. The simplicity of the layout, i.e choices of wood, pickups, bridge and knobs, makes the Rickenbacker shape look quite modern. Well done.
I have always had second thoughts about neck building since I do not have all the special tools I have seen in other videos to complete the task, you Sr. make it look somewhat simple, even when you had to repeat some work. Your video is inspiring. Great job!
I wouldn't say simple, but there are so many good instructional videos out there (not mine!) to show how to do it. The key is to take your time on each step and give attention to every detail. This was the biggest challenge for me as I like to get through projects quickly normally to get them done. This was a really satisfying challenge once I got into the flow. Thanks for the kind words. Give it a go! You won't regret it either way
This convinced me never to make my own bound neck.
Beautiful bass!
That must have been a really gratifying project, Niall! I hope you're really proud of it. It was fun watching you build it too.
It really was! Thanks
Is that your kitchen... Respect man
Amazing work!
WOW! Quite a jump from bench/table maker to excellent luthier. I am most impressed. You should be very proud.
Amazing !! wow !! great job !
Very nice good work!
Love the sound!
Thanks man. Love playing it. Hadn't played bass in a long time and this has got me back playing.
Just saying AMAZING...
I had NOT had your patience no matter how much I wanted to do the same.
ALL HONOR TO YOU both for making AND being able to film everything ...
Thanks for the comment! Lockdown gave me lots of time and patience that I'll not get again until I retire!
I really like how it has a Ric body, a Wal's wood and color scheme, and jazz pickups. Props to you my man.
Wow, that is fantastic! And the fact you edited all of this length of a video is impressive
ypu have a very nicely furnished work shop. Even a washer and dryer. I'm jellous!
Lol. Trying to keep it from turning into a full on laundry and utility room is the problem! Everytime I go in there seems to be some new appliance dumped in there from the kitchen
Great build. I really like the shape of the lower horn.
Cheers man. Appreciate it. Can't take credit for the design though!
Esse vídeo é uma verdadeira aula. Parabéns!
Awesome. Nice work and looks great.
Cheers man
Very nice!
Excellent craftsmanship! An inspiring and entertaining video!
Thank you, Dave! Glad you enjoyed it. Just starting builds number 2 and 3 simultaneously.
@@NiallLeechphoto
Do you do commission builds?
@@davetuttle9701 maybe in the future. That was my first ever build. Now working on my second and third build so don't think I'd be confident enough to do a commission just yet . Maybe down the line!
Brilliant job, a talented guy, even has that low down growl, that a Ricky has, impressed
Cheers Billy! Sounds great alright
Very good I’m sat watching this with my 77 mapleglo it’s moaning a bit now. You could add a selector switch at some point too! Well done.🇬🇧
very nice!!!!!
Wow, what a nice bass you created! Good job! Sometimes I want to try to build the Rick myself too (I have some woodworking and CNC machining experience) but I'm always scared of how to make a neck (especially the shaping process). Well idk but after watching your video I might give it a try, thank you!
That is pretty awesome
Cheers!
Dude well done!👍
Thank you!
listening to Tom Petty songs like Learning to Fly sped up was a great little treat for me. Great looking bass man, glad to see others having taken the time to learn a new craft such as this through the pandemic.
I probably won't get a chance to have time like that on my hands until I retire! Thanks for the comment. Can't beat a bit of Tom Petty... Another positive of the lockdown was getting a chance to listen to some of my old music collection
@@NiallLeechphoto hopefully you dont have to wait that long my friend.
This has been absolutely fascinating. Niall you've done yourself proud. I love it that half your tools are from Aldi btw and the others are easily affordable here in the UK.
There's a few things I'd like to mention that I have concerns about though, shame on you for using your missis' kitchen table to plane the neck and I hope you took her and the boys out every night you used it for a slap up meal or at least to the chippy, shame on you for bosting up your lad's kite for the inlay dots and I'd like to think that you bought him the very best flier that Ireland has ever seen, and finally shame on you for using your lads as slave labour @33:50 ish. If you get some money off the channel I jolly well hope them lads are fully recompensed and dad has to make another 2 of these for the boys for the effort they've put in.
It's brilliant what you've done with the neck and being a simpleton I may have missed the type of woods you made it from, but in our neck of the woods bannisters are usually oak or pine what makes me wonder, as I've never heard of a neck made of oak before.
This won't appease the Gods of Guitar Making though, those that keep their sacred skills entirely to themselves. Any any mortal who treads on their ground will be hit with C&D notices to ensure no-one discovers that it's all Emperors New Clothes and that an ordinary Joe can make a better mousetrap without having to spend £2500 and wait a year for the pleasure of being awarded a device that'll catch a few mice, if you know what I mean.
This has been a fantastic journey (mad to hear all the music playing 8x speed in the background - Pogues lol and youre playing of Thin Lizzy at the end, first bass riff I ever learned to play - what a toon). If you ever feel like upgrading the bridge to make it look like the real thing just search for a Hipshot 5RK400 pricey, but I got one on my Harlet Benton RB-414 and the sound is ace, bought mine from the States and the price with shipping was less than the rob dogs over here will charge you. Mate thank you so much for your efforts and stickin' it to the man. Subscription and like added.
The Ric 4000 had a single pup which is almost the same position as a sting ray. I played one back in the day. The sound was great! I would use a Nordstrand or a MusicMan in that position. Yes, I have heard a lot of basses. Listen to a Yamaha 765a.
Amazing build! Great surname! :)
Cheers man! Some lovely tunes you've got there. Ditto on the surname!
wonderful job, I built a Telecaster. But you are a master craftsman!
Thanks man. Appreciate the compliment
Nice job. Just imagining the numbers of hands that have previously used that neck to hold onto going up and down the stairs 😆
Thanks! Never thought of it that way!
You did a great job! I wish I had the means to do the same. Nobody to teach me around here.
You got yourself to teach you and all the folks on this Toob, just glue a few bits of scrap wood together leave them to dry and work them. Your first effort will be horrible but you'll learn from your second and third efforts until you know you are capable of making something. There's no experience better than making huge f ups as that's the only way any of us learn. Go for it LD, don't let anyone tell you you can't do this, there's only one person telling you you can't do this and that's you.
When is a Rickenbacker better than a Rickenbacker? When it's not built by Rickenbacker!
Great job.
Cheers man! Appreciate it!
Hi, excelent work!!! Did you solve the ground noise issue? If yes, how?
Wow amazing! Where can I find the Rickenbacker draw project? Thanks
Thanks. I ordered plans from black dog music. Just be careful if you get them as the feet measurements are out on it and hence the neck length
Amazing work. I can understand not wanting to go "full Rick" on the neck inlays. I've always wondered what a fretless Rick would sound like.
Played a fretless jazz bass for a while, wasn't a big fan. Doubt it would suit the Rick sound. Would be a much easier build though 😉
@@NiallLeechphoto Yeah, a fretless instrument is intended more for actual jazz than for blues or rock, and definitely not for prog/rock.
I've built several basses; my first from a block of alder, the rest from components and kits, but I've never done a neck-through or made my own neck. I was very surprised that you stated that shaping the neck was your favourite part of the build. Could you please explain why? That is the one part of building a bass (or guitar) that scares me.
Cheers!
I think that that part of the build was the most tactile and creative for me. The rest of the build is quite technical and down to specific measurements and constraints. The carving and shaping of the wood for the neck gave me more freedom and it felt more like an art piece than an engineering piece.. does that make sense?! Thanks for getting in touch
@@NiallLeechphoto That does make sense; the neck is probably the most personal part of the instrument: the shape of the neck and the action result in the way it feels in your hand.
@@NiallLeechphoto Looks like you didn't "ground" the bridge? Need to tuck a wire under the bridge between it and the body and feed that into the control cavity and attach to your ground at the jack. That grounds the strings as well and is a common source of nasty buzz picking up. Nice work.
@@rafaelallenblock cheers. Actually had it grounded. Hadn't shielded the cavity which I have now done. Seems to have been the problem as buzz is gone. Thanks for the advice though. Appreciate it
Beautiful...How many hours from start to finish..including going out to purchase tools and material?
Thin Lizzy sounds good well done very nice where did you get the plans from
Got the plans from black dog music. The original maker of the plan was jag guitars but the frets are off on the plan so if you go with them be careful!
Thanks! That was fascinating. If I had the right tools I would try to do this. Listing to Zappa helps with the fret work! Sounded like “Apostrophe “! Was there any maple in the neck? Why that particular pickup choice vs. stock Rickenbacker or Joe Barden pickups? How many hours of work total? Including sanding by hand. Very impressive work! It sounds great too! Sort of a cross between a stock Ric and a Jazz bass. Is that what you were going for? Check out the early live recordings of Spocks Beard. Bassist Dave Meros had a Ric custom with 4 jazz bass pickups! It sounded tremendous! You might like their music also or have you heard them before? I’m waiting for your next build!
Thanks for the feedback. Nailed it with Apostrophe! Love that album. I've always played jazz basses or similar but always really liked the look of the ricks. Was a mixture of that and trying to keep costs way down. It was my first major woodworking project of any kind smaller than my shed so wasn't sure I'd pull it off tbh. Didn't want to fork out a load on Rick parts to find out it didn't play! Will give Spock's Beard a listen. Thanks for the recommendation!
And no. There was no maple in the neck. It was during the first major lockdowns here and all I could get my hands on was some ash and an old teak bannister. Did the trick but a little heavy.
Honestly, don't know how long it took. It took a lot of time. I spent twice as much time researching, learning and watching CZcams videos as it took me to build the bass itself. Had all the time in the world due to lockdowns! Won't get that kind of time again til I'm retired! Next guitar project is just beginning.
Everything looks great, just the tuning keys were installed upside down
Cheers!. They wouldn't fit the other way around
For a covid Project........sweet....I bet it took up some of the covid time at least. And, Well...... Hey, Did you show the truss rods placement in the vid? If so, I must have missed it. 37:35 To round the back of the neck it would be great if you could have used some sort of stationary router to shape the back. Or dare I say "Wood shaping chisels to do the hard work. 50:00 I would have also used some good quality Dowel pins to help attach the wings to the neck...(for resonance/Tone and vibration solid attachment). 52:25 What gauge fret wire did you use? 53.30 Rough cut each fret and place them in then after glue is set then you trim them to size with like with a metal nipper along the side of the fretboard , then sand and shape edges with file. LOL I see you nailed that previous suggestion. 56:58 watch out for fret heights on the low and high ends of the neck (pre-set, not under tension) they may vary. (but not anything that can't be fixed later) 58:48 does'nt sound too good, No sustain. fix those issues now ( I hope) Before moving on. 1:00:00 that router with a kind of r"Rounding bit" and a straight edge or correctly contoured guide could have been used to help shape the back of the neck earlier to save man hours with files and sanding...1:04:22 if you want to add body contours to the body, I would do so with the router at this point. Again saving time to sand and or filing. 1:08:04 at this point also give the fretboard it's pre-treatments and or early finish coats also. 1:11:05 Make sure the body AND neck are Finished (Coating wise/color/clear coat/ Staining) before you start adding hardware. ( unless some of that is a test fit). 1:11:54 OK as long as the wood is treated and sealed and the Same with the fretboard ( as Rick Always did) String'er up and start doing the old ( Bass Set-up) stuff. It looks very Nice. Additional question: What pick-ups did you use on this guy? (Make/model number/ brand) 1:13:10 The "Rick Bite" is there but something else..... perhaps tone or resonence is different....perhaps no Mechanical connection of the wings to the body....?, but for a "One Off"/ side project, One Hell Of a Job...1:13:17 do I sense an "Adam and the Ants" song or something that was inspired from them? ( It sounds real familiar) czcams.com/video/xQ-_nr5YrWQ/video.html :) Overall as a first attempt. Oh Hell Yea!!! If you build another or something else I hope you take my suggestions into consideration. It will save you time and help make an even better Instrument. Great Video Thanks! "Live young be fearless". Skyprop
Very nicely done and a good sound.
Some comments that I hope you find constructive from someone who builds bass neck throughs for fun!!
Please note that Rickenbacker have used several pitch/scale lengths and confusion reigns as to which one to use, the plans may not have reflected this well.
When you make the neck lay out your neck centre line and your various major points, 0-fret/nut, last fret plus 1fret for end of fingerboard, pickup positions (on harmonic points) and bridge then drill a 1 mm hole to mark these positions.
From these points lay out where the body and head wings will start and stop, or if you use a separate head piece mark that in.
Copy everything to a full size plan.
Using your bridge and nut mark out your string lines and from there your neck sides and again drill the major points and mark your plans.
You will end up after 2 or 3 using these final core measurements as standard.
Set your neck angle to the fret board and figure out your fingerboard and fret height.
When glueing your figure board on use a couple of staples partly set in the neck and trimmed to less than 1mm high as locators for the fingerboard and use strips cut from car or motorcycle wheel tubes 15 to 20mm wide to wrap the fingerboard, and later the binding, on less clamps more even pressure without using cauls.
You can just about finish the neck and fret it prior to gluing the body on once you gain confidence you have it all worked out.
When shaping the neck and flatting the finger board and frets put some slight tension on the truss rod/s so that when you back it/them off the neck is slightly concave, the tension to flatten the neck under string load makes the compression in the neck to get flat higher which adds to the string/neck/body harmonic coupling and makes tone/sound a little brighter/less muddy.
Very good and nice and solid response to playing, genuinely Rick in essence.
Once you’ve done a couple you will figure out that you can do so much more, like binding the head and body in wood, so much fun steaming and glueing.
Keep making and playing, they improve so much with age and playing.
Good luck and take care.
A lot to take in there, thanks! Definitely need to spend more time on planning out the measurements for the neck alright. I just assumed the plan I bought would be bang on but you live and learn! Looking forward to my next project now. Just drawing out plans for a pair of tele style, neck through semi hollows for my two kids. One will be left and one will be right handed just to add to the challenge. Also going for shorter scale length. Might be in touch if I've any questions! Thanks again
@@NiallLeechphoto Hi Niall, Thank you, By all means please contact me if you have questions, I am doing some not public CZcams postings soon showing how I do bass's. I will PM you links when done.
I live in a remote ish area of California and I have no easy contact path to other guitar builders or music stores. Learnt most of my lessons the hard way as you have done, or from real books, some internet, and the occasional trip to the big smoke to talk to a good player.
I make them primarily for my son in NZ or to loan to locals to get them to try something different.
Take care and good luck.
@@pebrede appreciate it. Something very satisfying about figuring it out yourself though! Would love to see the videos
Beautiful. A little help from the Flaming Lips?
Thanks Peter. Had to defeat those evil robots
Very cool. I built a 4004LK Rickenbastard Bass. I found the trick to getting the Ricky tone was to use their pickups and 300k potentiometers. Now, it sounds just like the real thing. I made the truss rod adjusts at the headstock and I upgraded the bridge otherwise it's a 4004LK.
So you know, I always liked the look and the feel of them to play more than the sound. Always had jazz basses. You have pics or a video of the build?
@@NiallLeechphoto I love the sound of Lemmy's bass but it only works in some genres. I prefer my Ibanez neck-thrus with Bartolini's for my metal band. I have pics but no build video on my 4004lk. So do you think using ash make the bass weigh more?
@@Holtenstein hey. Yeah, the ash is definitely heavier
@@NiallLeechphoto I always wanted one too since the early 70's but never had the money or the break to lay my hands on one, I guess these guitars were only made for ppl who were much more deserving than us or who had the money just to buy one and hang on their wall. Glad you made it before the Halls stamped everything out.
We’re you listening to Zappa? Awesome bass!
A bit of Apostrophe.. great album. Cheers man!
Man, I thought you said you made a Rickenbacker.
59:56 Offspring - Bad Habit ^^
Guess the guitar is more thin than the original Rick? Great job!
Not sure it's much thinner than the originals.. might have ended up that way after I had spent hours sanding it!
Nice work, Niall. A couple of questions. The John Anthony plan has far too steep a break angle for the headstock, it is almost Gibsonesque. I used the actual angle measurement from my son's Rickenbacker bass and have added a volute. What break angle did you use?
Secondly, have you had any copyright issues with Rickenbacker?
Hi. Thanks for the comment. I'm pretty sure I followed the JAG plan to the letter on everything bar fret slots and fingerboard length (second time around). Not sure how that compares to the original Rick's break angle. Not sure what you mean about the copyright issues. It was only built for myself not for sale so I guess it's not a problem but I suppose if I was to sell them they might have an issue (though at the rate and my ability to build them I wouldn't hold out much hope on going into the business!)
I know I'm late to the party, but I was wondering hor you bass is holding up, lovely build btw. Asking because you used teak in the neck, teak is notoriously greasy and hard to glue up, you really need to get it dry before glueing...Just wondering!😊
Yikes.. I didn't know this. I did clean it all with acetone before gluing and so far it's holding up great 😃 the teak had been a bannister for twenty years in a past life so maybe gave it time to dry out? Not really up on timbers and their properties. Just went with what I had to hand
Nice, but why wouldn't you use Rick pickups ?
Cheers. Was running on a tight budget and was first ever build so wasn't sure I'd pull it off!
Sounds better than a Ric.
Sounds like a Ric and a Jazz.
I want a Warmoth neck with a blank headstock. A body with a rear control cavity. I will layout the controls and pickup position. I have plenty hardware for such a build.
I guess you haven't heard very many Rickenbackers
Shame the plans were off. How'd that happen? I'd hate to have bought them only to be stymied by them. The end result is great, though!
Not trying to impose, since you clearly got this done-and well-but, for gluing a fretboard, I've had success with both huge elastic bands and surgical tubing. Old bike tubes also work well. As for gluing on the wings of the body, you could have used the offcuts as clamping cauls in both cases (though I did see you use the one with the second wing).
I've got a Rickenbacker clone kit but the neck is trapezoidal at the heel, while the pocket is straight-sided. I haven't had the gumption to just glue it in and hope for the best; I'm worried the voids will cause an issue under string tension. Kudos to you for doing this all from scratch!
Thanks for the kudos! Not sure how the plans were off but the measurements for the frets were out which let to the fretboard bring too short. Couldn't find any way out scale length that the frets they had in plans would ever fit. Very strange.
The only reason I didn't use the off cuts for gluing the wings was that my clamps weren't big enough. Managed to borrow the big ones (think they're for sash windows) to clamp the second half! Like the idea of the tubes and bands as it would stop things sliding about so much. Appreciate the tip.
You may have just inspired me to get back out and finish the two guitars I started for my kids. Might try out the tube trick for the fretboards
Would you get away with filler or epoxy for gluing your neck into the pocket?
@@NiallLeechphoto I'm thinking it needs to be more integral than that, like grafting wood onto the neck heel to make it square. Figure the string tension of bass strings would be significant, so I want the thing to be rock solid.
@@stevesoldwedel I got a lot of good advice from amateur luthiers group on Facebook. You're probably asking the wrong person here! Definitely needs to be strong on a bass.
Amazing video but why did you use the red skinny font we can't ready what you're writing!
Would you believe I tried lots of different ones and that was the best I could find across all the changing backgrounds
Thank you!
Ricky!
Wow Niall, you really know your craftman skills. Great job on this bass guitar. I hope Rickenbacker will pay you a fee for building this one.
Cheers Tommy! That'd be the dream.. building basses for a living. I think with just one under my belt, I'm a bit far of that yet!
❤❤❤👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
my one complaint: you put jazz bass pickups in a rickenbacker style bass
That's one of the problems with the John Anthony plans. It has jazz style pickups and bridge. It also has a jazz scale length, hence the problems with marking the fret slots. Also the break angle for the headstock is too steep. Oh, dear.
peavy t 40 sound
Interesting except you manage to put the camera in some odd places.
good work just a tip you need to sheald trhe electrics stop interferance
Thanks for the advice. I did have some interference alright so have since put in shielding which helped.
@@NiallLeechphoto I was going to post the same thing. Just make sure that you use tape that has conductive glue on it, which is typically the copper tape, the silver stuff that the HVAC guys use won't work. Make sure that there's connectivity between all parts of the tape. Put tape on the back of the pickguard too and make sure that it touches the cavity tape when the pickguard is installed. And finally, make sure the tape is grounded. Sorry if you knew all this already. I assume you did run a grounding wire to the bridge too, right? If you've done all this and still have grounding noise, you might have a grounding loop. If the shielding tape is grounding the pots, there's no need to also have a grounding wire between them.
the biggest issue I can see happening here is those duel trussrods, they are the worst part of a rick design as well as it's neck through and scale, you could get the exact same tone out of a jazz pickup in the same spot on the body at 30" scales, the Squier vintage mod Telecaster bass does
Yup out of it
супер!!!молодец!!!!!привет из россии!!!
Pobres vecinos !!!!!!!!!!
From a template etc? Looks cool
Yes. Got the plans from black dog music. Sounds great. Punchy
Thanks!
bit of flaming lips playing?
GOOD JOB ! COULD YOU TELL US ABOUT THE SPECIFICATIONS TO MAKE A CORRECT SETUP ? THANKS
Why wouldn't you put Rickenbacker electronics and pickups in it? Believe it or not, buying everything new from Rickenbacker International is cheaper, MUCH CHEAPER than buying used! That way it could sound as close to a Ricky as possible! Why build a Ricky clone and put Fender pickups in it? Everything is a copy of Fender. You did a wonderful job building it! I just built a Rickenbacker 4080 double neck bass and 12 string. I used all Ricky electronics, pickups and hardware except for the Badass bass bridge (thanks Geddy). I even used Ricky 360 pickups in the guitar side. It sounds great, just like a 12 string Ricky should. It was a heck of a lot cheaper building your own double neck today. Since Rickenbacker stopped making them in the 80's, the prices have gone through the roof! I respect you building your own guitars. Just try building a Rickenbacker with real Ricky equipment. Make one that is supposed to sound like one as well as look like one.
It was my first ever build and honestly, I didn't trust that I'd pull it off so just got the cheapest hardware I could find. Figured I could upgrade the pickups with jazz pickups handy enough if I was happy with the result
Maybe if I wanted a Ricky that looked like a real Rick and sounded like a real Rick and had the same parts as a real Rick I'd be better buying a real Rick!
Why you didn't finish body shape? It is too much bumpy.
I know Woodglut has the best woodworking plans.
You did the fret board and binding wrong put the frets and glue it down first then bind it and then scrape the binding smooth and over hang. I use to love scraping binding goodtimes.
Thanks for the feedback. I'll know for next time
Well not a Rick, but rather a Rick shaped bass.
Cheers for clarifying..
No you didnt