381 RICKENBACKER BASED GALLERY GUITAR

An extremely-high-end 381V69/12 conversion that pulls out all the stops!

To begin with, a 381 was completely disassembled into its component parts, and top, back, and neck were removed and set aside. Based upon full-color proposal sketches that were created by STUDIO CALIFORNIA principal Paul Wilczynski, the top and back were both re-sculpted in bookmatched AAAAA flamed Maple. The new top has no pickguard; controls were mounted from the back through the top surface itself. While the 381 model has flat top and back surfaces, this guitar has a 3/8” carved arch on both top and back, which results in the hand-carved “German” carved edges varying in width. The carved edge is narrowest where the bouts are widest, and widest in the waist area. Additionally, at the tips of the two cutaways, the arch tapers back into very narrow “German” carved transitions. The tailpiece relief has a new, curved shape that was also hand-carved.

The sound holes were redesigned as symmetrical “candle flame” shapes and bound in white celluloid.

The neck’s dimensions were taken from the 1993+ model, with a wider fretboard at the nut for easier fingering. The nut itself was fashioned from carbon fiber sheet. Frets are vintage Rickenbacker medium width and height. The triangular fret markers were rendered in crushed “sparkle” genuine mother-of-pearl for dramatic effect. The neck is bound in white with black position dots inset. The headstock is bound in “checkerboard” purfling.

The hardware and electronics are equally well-conceived, and it can be truly said that no stone was left unturned in order to achieve sonic originality and perfection. The trapeze tailpiece and bridge, including saddles, were machined from Grade 5 Titanium by STUDIO CALIFORNIA. The tailpiece was polished and the bridge parts were vapor-honed to a semi-polished surface finish. The 12 tuning machines are premium Waverly items.

The toaster pickups were rewound with #42 pure silver wire and cryogenically-treated. The two-control monaural wiring harness was crafted by Dane Wilder, Rickenbacker wiring guru, using premium components and cloth-covered, push-back wiring. Both volume and tone pots are push-pull to provide straight-through signal to bypass volume or tone, or both, at the player’s preference. Knobs are billet brushed 6061T6 aluminum, knurled and anodized in matte black. The mono output jack is a premium unit manufactured by Analysis Plus. The second output jack, normally used for the Ric-O-Sound stereo feature, is now the termination of the dual element Schaller piezo pickup system. The guitar can be played as an electric item with three pickup possibilities, as a semi-acoustic instrument using the piezo pickups, or both can be output into two separate amplifiers, or into separate channels of a single two-channel amplifier.

This Gallery 12-string guitar has a sound unlike any Rickenbacker ever heard—precise, clear, very sensitive to touch, responsive to amplification, and having nearly infinite tonal possibilities! This is due to both the electronics and the Titanium hardware, and no expense was spared in either area in order to achieve this unique clarity.