Rice Custom Guitars

[Chris Rice]

As we start into our fourth year of building for the public, I'd like to share some of the joy that my father and I get from guitars and the wonderful people who play them. Capturing the joy of an inanimate object in a photograph is an art unto itself, which I am thankful to be improving in.

We've been seriously expanding this past year, developing our new models and expanding the scope as our customers challenge us to new levels. When we started together in '98, it was with a hand router and used necks/hardware/electronics. We now have the capacity to do just about everything in house, maintaining a level of control that we could only dream of in the past.

To start off the thread, here's one that we shipped out today.
It's a 2" deep 5/8 hollow mahogany Custom T Style.
The soundhole is inspired by Juha Ruokangas' Mojo guitars.
Custom Lollar pickups, unique wiring scheme, and a killer vibe.




Thanks for reading!
Chris Rice

[Twin63]

That is a beautiful guitar...outstanding!

[John Mayes]

cool! Explain the "unique wiring". love Mahogany!!!

[Chris Rice]

Thanks guys! I've been getting very good light at my new place, need to drag my background vinyl over here and lose the carpet background.

The neck pickup is split by the mini-switch, adjustable from a true split to a partial split (based on the G&L L-1000 Bass) by a pot mounted inside the control cavity. Plus a few other special twists in the voicing.

[todd richman]

Chris, that is a beautiful guitar. Probably my favorite Rice yet. Best wishes for many more years in the business and hopefully you enjoy each and every one.

[Chris Rice]

Thank you.

New week, new guitar.

This Osprey #104 was built from a (pine) board sent to us from the customer's grandmother's barn.

It was sliced to make the 1-piece top and back, the center is gnarly ash (slight spalting/worming/mineral streaks). Birdseye maple and kingwood make up the neck.


This guitar features Fralin pickups and has a similar partial split to the mahogany #033 I posted above. Extra-thick semi-hollow body and dual soundholes. Pigtail bridge and rosewood knobs.

[todd richman]

Chris, as a wannabe moderator, I must command you to stop with the Guitar Porn-it is very bad for my G.A.S.!!! Another cool guitar-the Osprey has grown on me since I first saw pics-kinda like a Tele meets Danelectro 56-U2 single cutaway.

[Chris Rice]

We tend to work off of a few types of builds. Custom (ordered by and built for a specific person), House (built for sale on our website), Personal (built for ourselves).

Let's continue with the hollow theme..

#049 was a house build that was grabbed up before completion, turning it into a custom.


We had a customer who wanted a 1.75" nut width on a 2-piece birdseye maple neck.
We did two necks and he chose the smaller one. This is the larger one.


The other neck was finished in a very orangey/yellow tint, we decided to do this one stark white to contrast the dark piece of Cocobolo on the top.
The binding is flamed maple and the back is alder.



The bridge pickup is a Manlius Landmark PAF-style (wound different than standard) paired with an AllParts minihumbucker in the neck (surprisingly great pickup). Volume/Tone/3-way and a series/single-coil/parallel miniswitch.

[Red Jumpsuit]

update on the pink cts!

[Chris Rice]

It's sitting, waiting for some time to complete our house builds. Custom orders take precedence and it sometimes takes a long time to bring a house build to fruition. I'll try to shoot a pic later today and post it in one of the RCG sale threads.

[Chris Rice]

No changes on the pink one over what's posted on the RCG forum.

The guitar for this week is #044, which was our first aged guitar.



It was originally mine, bought by a forum member after he saw me playing it at an outdoor concert. It featured an early set of Don Mare's 2324 Nancy Roy Buchanan pickups, lightweight swamp ash body, Glendale round-bottom saddles, and an extra thick maple neck with no trussrod.



Rich's years of antique furniture restoration came in handy while aging the finish.

[mojocaster.com]

All are gorgeous. I love this thread already

[Chris Rice]

We occasionally come upon some old wood that screams to be turned into a guitar.
These tables came from my brothers' boss (an upholsterer). The construction of the body was documented here:
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaste...ng-woohoo.html







Built with a "recycled" theme, the only parts we purchased for this build were the electronics and tuners. The rest was leftover from other builds that went in different directions (pickguard, neck), used (pickups, saddles), or jst extras we had in the shop.


Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3vADHNBGx4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reNwiqam1R8

[trinian1]

You guys do awesome work. I'll be up in Chicago in a couple of weeks, but I don't think I'll have a chance to stop by to see one of these bad boys "in progress," which is too bad. Keep up the good work--hopefully I'll have the opporunity to snag some of it someday.

[Chris Rice]

Thanks trinian. If you have a few hours free while you're in the area, give a call (phone number's on the website). We'd love to have you.

Here's our prototype Tulip guitar. The Tulip is loosely based off of classic Japanese budget guitars, with many improvements. This one has a pair of Seymour Duncan P-90s and a poplar body.