“1973 Rickenbacker 480/6 – Gretschen”

I bought this guitar from ebay around 2011 . I needed a pair of original toaster pickups to fit to my 1978 4005 as I prefer the sound to High gains..
A previous owner had cut off both horns for a reason only he will know. For the next 16 years the body and neck languished in and around my workshop gaining more dings and scratches.
As I still had it after all this time I decided in September 2016 to put her back together and make her a little bit special.
I assembled the guitar as shown in the pictures after hand stripping the old paint ,to make sure she would still be playable .
The next job was to CNC some new horns from Maple and attach them to the body with dowels and glue.
I also decided to get rid of the bolt on neck joint and converted the guitar to a set neck which to me is more in the Rickenbacker style and looks IMHO so much better.
The bodywork was sealed and primed and given many coats of brilliant white nitro cellulose, polished to a very high gloss
New Rickysounds truss rods were fitted and a new Rickysounds Pickguard was laser cut.
Two 7.4K scatterwound toasters are dressed in gold high gain surrounds, the wiring is sixties spec with cloth wire.
A Gold Bigsby B5 vibrato, Gold Kluson keywinds together with the remainder of gold hardware and TV/Cooker knobs complete the retro look.

I call her “Gretschen”, tipping my hat to the other Great American guitar company.