Rice Custom Guitars Thinline Tele.

[theviking]

Well I have played the Blue Beastie for quite a few hours, so a little review is in order.

Rich and Chris did a splendid job with the packing. The TKL Prestige Hardshell case kept the gem safe all the way. Inside the case I found a letter from Rich and Chris, explaining all the details and specs of the guitar.

For you spec freaks, here are the details

Body: Semi hollow Lyptus front and back, with alder center block. The body is double bound with flame maple

Finish: Hand finished with nitrocellulose lacquer in a deep but vibrant blue finish. The flame maple bindings look astonishing against this hue of blue.

Neck: Maple with dark Rosewood fretboard, 21 jumbo frets. Medium V carve 7,25-9,5" compound radius. 1 5/8" nut width, hand fitted/ carved bone nut. Cream dots.

Hardware: Gotoh vintage tuners, Wilkinson steel bridgeplate with swivel-compensated brass saddles. Chrome knobs, Switchcraft ¼" output jack.

Pickups: OC Duff's 60's set.

Wiring: Custom, I will explain later.

The first thing you notice about this guitar, is of course the looks. I do not know how Chris pulled this off, but the finish is incredible, solid blue. Indoor light makes it dark, deep blue, while stage light or even outdoor sunlight make the finish incredibly vibrant.

Picking it up, I found it to be incredibly well balanced, and light. The guitar weighs in at 2.9 kg.. (6lbs, 8 oz). The neck feels smooth and fast and the frets are very even and have smooth edges. I really like the feel of those jumbo frets. The set up is very good, kind of semi light and the guitar arrived from the US in tune. I played it unplugged for about half an hour, just to get the feel of the guitar and hear what it sounds like acoustically. It has a definite Tele-ring to it, but a bit mellower than a standard Tele.

Plugging it in, blew me away. The OC Duff's are really rocking. I do not know if Chris or Rich adjusted the pups, but I did not even need to adjust them the slightest bit. I usually have to bring out a screwdriver to get the pup height right no matter if it is a Gibby or a Fender CS, this was perfect straight out of the box.

The guitar has a standard 3-way switch, giving me the options of Neck/ Both/ Bridge. In addition to this there is a volume knob, and stacked tone controls. The lower one, works as a standard treble Tele knob, the upper one, gives me bass. It is brilliant really. I like it a lot. There is also a switch bypassing the pup switch, putting the pups in series. That smart little solutions provides me with an output/ mid boost and is truly ingenious switching from rhythm to fills or lead. The third switch is a voicing switch. Down, is normal, center removes the tone control and gives me a much brighter sound, flipping it up adds some bass.

As you can imagine, there are endless possibilities. During the time I spent with the axe today, I was able to get anything from crunchy lead, to mellow jazz, biting Tele twang and fat blues tone. The output/ mid boost is excellent for blues lead pushing the amp that little extra bit to crack up nicely. For a steady rhythm guitar "got something cooking and I think it has mojo" sound, I use the mid position on the pup selector, roll off some of the bass and have the voicing switch set to normal. To get a bit of funk, it is simply to flick up the voicing switch to center where it gives it more bite. Then switching the pup selector down to bridge, you have instant twang without having to touch the tone controls a bit. How great is that?

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate this guitar to be a ten. It looks incredible, it plays incredible, it sounds incredible and the switching possibilities make the Rice Custom by far the most versatile guitar I ever had. Heck this guitar even smells incredible. Rich and Chris did not take any shortcuts on this one, that's for sure. It is from the inside and out a real masterpiece and I am proud to have it in my collection.

A lot of you guys know how picky I am when it comes to guitars, and that my collection room a lot of high quality brand name guitars. Some of them heavily modified to my taste and liking, others more or less stock. This is a perfect combination between looks, playability and tone. I am bringing it to the studio tomorrow to use it on a recording right away, and I normally never do that, unless I have had a guitar for several months. This axe is way too easy to bond with. I strongly recommend Rice Custom Guitars to anyone who wants more than just another guitar, this one, feels like an old friend.

[Pa'ani]

Congrats on your new Rice Custom Thinline Tele.
From what I can see it looks awesome. More Pics please!

[zombywoof]

That looks like a sweetheart but c'mon, more Rice porn is needed (oh geez, who knows what Chris will now submit). The biggest compliment I can pay to RCG is that it is the guitar that finally allowed me to semi-retire my '58 Tele - my #1 geetar for over 35 years.

[Chris Rice]

OK zomby, all my shots of the blue beastie:
http://ricecustomguitars.20m.com/ins...bluebeast.html

[Kyle vs. Guitar]

Some of these Rice guitars are seriously cool looking! Are they built from premade parts (USACG, Allparts) or completely from scratch? At any rate, from the things I've heard they sound like total steals at a ~$1500 price point.

[Rich Rice]

Originally Posted by Kyle vs. Guitar

Some of these Rice guitars are seriously cool looking! Are they built from premade parts (USACG, Allparts) or completely from scratch? At any rate, from the things I've heard they sound like total steals at a ~$1500 price point.

First, thank you for the compliments. We love guitars, love to play them, love to build them, look at them, hold them, etc...

There are many rumours about our builds, and the question pops up from time to time. How much of the guitar is built from scratch depends entirely on the size of your budget, your needs, and your time restraints. Obviously, it would be impossible to deliver a completely scratch built guitar for the price point you describe. However, we have domestic suppliers who can provide us with components built specifically for us, to our specs. Of course, we then refine each component by hand in our shop to get it where we want it. While I like the consistency of CNC, I dislike the feel of machine made - so I typically recarve, reshape, and hand finish everything. If somebody needs to save money, we are open to using premade parts. Each project has been planned individually, to meet our customers' needs and desires.

[leftyaxeslinger]

Wow. Very cool wiring on that one! Congrats on the new axe.

My Rice 066 is the best sounding guitar I own!!
http://ricecustomguitars.20m.com/ins...xeslinger.html

[Kyle vs. Guitar]

Hmm, very interesting. I saw some pics on the site of apparent neck construction, so I take it that less expensive guitars tend to use pre-made necks/bodies while fancier ones have necks/bodies made by you guys. Sounds like a good way of doing business.

[theviking]

Thanx for the conggrats and everything. This is truly an exeptional guitar. I brought it to the studio yesterday and today, and I am still blown away by all the possibillites it has. Usually I bring 3-4 guitars to the studio, today I brought just this one. It does everything well from soft mellow whispering to nasty cruchy screaming.


Oh btw lefty, that is one seriously fine finish on your axe.

[Rich Rice]

I liked that blue beastie alot. It was really hard to not play it..

[theviking]

.... when you guys build the next axe for me, you can keep it an extra month or so just so you get to enjoy your own builds haha