new 381V69. I looked at them
and thought, “What would I
do to change these?” I started
making small changes on them
in my shop and posted the
changes on the Rickenbacker
forums. Within a couple of
months, John Hall read the
posts and asked me to come
visit the shop for a tour.
I took the tour, and then
John said he was closing his
acoustic shop, at least temporarily. He asked me if I would like
the license to build acoustic
Rickenbackers for the time
being. We made an arrangement.
As part of the deal, I picked up
all the wood he had left in his
acoustic shop and moved it up
to the Bay Area. I have been
storing it since, and have been
using it to build acoustic guitars in my shop under license
with the Rickenbacker name
and to their specifications.
When I finally got [a
Rickenbacker 12-string],
I was impressed by the
mystique it had about it and
how iat felt old and new at
the same time. It has a feel
that no other guitar has.
How much work have you
done for them since that time?
Since then, I’ve done several
hundred Rickenbacker restora-
tions and refinishes and have
built a few dozen acoustic
models. One of them was that
first acoustic that I built for
Paul Kantner. He decided not
to purchase it and gave it back
to John Hall. It’s now being
used in Hall’s band. That was a
jumbo acoustic 12-string. I did
a special laser-engraved pick-
guard that said “Rickenbacker
75th Anniversary.”
Did you reverse-engineer
their acoustics—actually pull
one apart—to learn how to
make them?
Yep. I got a few that were factory
seconds and literally cut them in
half so I could do the layout for
A Rickenbacker 4003S bass with
a unique transparent blue finish.
