After meeting Gerald Ross and lurking here, I bought a postwar Bakelite Rick on Ebay, but it arrived with a broken neck. UPS will either (1) pay me the insurance ($800) and keep the Rick or (2) pay me to have it repaired. I would rather keep it but to do so I have to give them a cost estimate. My guess is that a repair would cost nearly as much as the insured value, but I have no way to support that guess.

Thanks,

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My guess is that a repair would cost nearly as much as the insured value

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He snapped his neck ... and ended up drilling holes, placing in reinforcing dowel rods and then using West System epoxy.

The epoxy alone wouldn't hold ... and its good stuff.

But he may have alot of projects ... and I believe he's still in Hawaii.

Ray got help from Wayne Tanner (who fixed Jerry Byrd's famous Bakelite) ...

I believe it was a certain product made for gun-smithing ... Give him a holler.

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Aiello's House of Gauss

My wife and I don't think alike. She donates money to the homeless and I donate money to the topless! ... R. Dangerfield

Good to see you posting, bad to hear your tale of woe.

You said:

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After meeting Gerald Ross and lurking here, I bought a postwar Bakelite Rick on Ebay, but it arrived with a broken neck.

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I'd like to clarify a bit here. That should be two sentences, two separate thoughts.

I met you last January when you came to Ann Arbor for the Ukefest. We jammed on Hawaiian tunes until 1 AM. It was a fun time and we've corresponded about steel guitars since.

Sometime later you bought a Bakelite Rick on Ebay. It arrived broken.

I did not sell you that guitar. I'm innocent

Bill Creller is the guy to talk to. And I do think he is still in Hawaii. I spoke with him about 3 weeks ago and he said that he was going to Kauaii for a while after the HSGA convention.

It also pays to have the seller to write on the box: FRAGILE, DO NOT DROP

UPS are famous for throwing things; and when things are damaged, they will do an investigation and try to blame the seller that it wasn't packed properly.

What will happen to this Rick in their hands.. a dumpster,
some hack with a hot glue gun..
who knows?

At least here it can be brought back to life, albiet with a lower resale value later.
But a playable instrument now in all likelyhood.

Just a thought.

PS. Gerald I NEVER thought you sold him this badly packaged steel.
But then I've played with you, and KNOW you know better...

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 02 May 2005 at 12:27 PM.]

I DID NOT BUY THE BROKEN NECKED RICKENBACHER FROM GERALD ROSS!

I was very impressed with Gerald's pre-war Rick when we jammed in January. I am a newby acoustic slide player, but we had a lot of fun and I decided then and there that I had to get a lap steel. Gerald suggested that a post-war Rick was a good buy for someone like me. After studying lap steels, lurking on this Forum, watching them on Ebay, and listening to everything I could, I decided he was right. He has been a great help to me in learning to play slide. He also suggested that I ask the Forum for help on this. I am very sorry that I didn't carefully proof read my badly worded message.

In the first photo arrows point to the broken case and the neck, broken off right at the body.

For the second photo, I removed the screws that held the neck stub to the body to show both sides of the break.

Thanks to everyone for your advice on this, and my apologies once more to Gerald Ross for making it sound like he sold the instrument ot me.

Howie

[This message was edited by Howard Clark on 02 May 2005 at 02:51 PM.]

Sorry... J-D.

[This message was edited by J D Sauser on 02 May 2005 at 02:50 PM.]

He had used West Systems epoxy ... it seemed to hold ... and then he strung it up and it snapped.

I think I'm with the ... take the insurance money and run camp ...

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Aiello's House of Gauss

My wife and I don't think alike. She donates money to the homeless and I donate money to the topless! ... R. Dangerfield

Happens to us all.

Welcome to the club!

See you in the Fall.

p.s. you made one more mistake... you wrote

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I was very impressed with Gerald's pre-war Rick when we jammed in January.

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You were supposed to write:

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I was very impressed with Gerald's full command of the instrument when I sat in his presence that cold January night. Eventhough the temperature outside was below zero, the music that Gerald elicited from that steel guitar evoked sweet memories of distant tropic isles, the heavy enveloping scent of Plumeria and an aching longing dream come true... Honestly though, he could use some work on his vibrato.

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Gerald Ross
'Northwest Ann Arbor, Michigan's King Of The Hawaiian Steel Guitar'

Gerald's Fingerstyle Guitar Website
Board of Directors Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association

[This message was edited by Gerald Ross on 03 May 2005 at 08:14 AM.]

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Sierra S8, Polytone Mini-Brute IV, Gibson GA30RVT, Teese RMC2 Wah, pyrex and bakelite bars

That was exactly what I was going to say, but I couldn't remember how to spell "Plumeria" (or what it is, for that matter).

According to Wayne:
"There is absolutely no need to drill any holes in the damaged Rick".
"It will hold if they put a very thin coat all the way acros the flat surface".
"If they were to put a thick coat on
it, they can sand an equal amount of Bakelite off before putting the Acraglass on it. It does not need to be thick, however, if they put much on without removing that same amount of Bakelite, the guitar will not play true. They would have to make bar position corrections in order to achieve accuracy in pitch".
"DO NOT TOUCH that guitar with a drill; it
isn't needed", warns Wayne.
I personally, followed Wayne's recommendations and had not a single "tool" with which to work on this project. I used a flat piece of plywood and used to small bricks on each end to stabelize the two pieces while they were curing.

That guitar is now my instrument of preference; rich TONE; Accurate playability.

My biggest hurdle was to leave it alone and let it have the time it required to cure and harden. I gave it 24 hours just to be sure. NO regrets!