In Praise of those old RS4's

[headsup]

This has been a personal project of mine for a couple years.
Finally it's nearing completion, and it has some bizarre history (what else would you expect from me?)

Local shop knows I'm a bit of a fan of Larrivee's, manager comes out of the back one day and hands me a stripped down body, with a busted headstock.
not a single piece of hardware on it, he just says take it, oh, and it used to belong to Bunny ( a local sax player I've done shows with.)

I've posted it before, with out the headstock, as it was real bad, no Larrivee on the headstock, no pick ups.

For the past while, I've been slowly collecting parts, a call to John Jr in Vancouver proved futile (not even a pot to be found).
I Did find the two back covers from Nystrom, the guy in Europe who used to sell these guitars.
One pick-up came from ebay, the others ones from another source, and they the ones Jean used to wind at his dining table after dinner (see Matts interview with David Wren at Namm when they introduced the "new" RS4.
Finding a Floyd rose and grovers was easy (although they would have used schaller mini's which I also have.)

repairing the headstock, then putting a venneer over before applying the Logo was a challenge,
The name/logo was made for me after I sent the specs, pictures etc to the person who does that stuff.

It's coming along, it's not perfect but the story goes.
it was stolen from Bunny when he was in a band in Toronto,  (80's) and he never saw it again.
It ended up in Kingston completely stripped and busted.
here it is slowly coming back to life.
I have to re size the pics of the headstock, veneer operation, with the cutting of a template, adding the decal etc.
it was quite a job. the body as you can see is stunning, the ebony fingerboard is superb, the neck through body is very cool.
More pics coming, but I just poured a 12 year old scotch to celebrate finally winning over the crazy Floyd Rose set up, and getting strings on it and tuning it up. Electrics will happen soon.....

[JOYCEfromNS]

Looking forward! These are my favourite type threads on The Forum.

[ducktrapper]

Yes, looking forward to the completed project. I love the old electrics!

[George]

If they don't start building the new electrics soon, even the newer RS2's and RS4's will quickly become "old electrics"...

[Mikeymac]

Very cool project! Looking forward to future updates, as well.

I was recently tempted to do a similar project with one of the '80's Larrivee basses - a left-handed four string. As I'm not really a bass player (I plat AT the bass...), I decided to pass on it, although it was cool and needed some TLC...

I absolutely LOVE this body shape - which Larrivee used on it's first round of recent Strat-style guitars. Sorry to see them move to the traditional (and pretty boring) Strat body shape.

[vates]

It shall turn out really nice. Subscribed :)

[rangerdave1]

Very nice. Do you have any photos of before or a link to the original post?

[rangerdave1]

Very nice. Do you have any photos of before or a link to the original post?

I just found your other post...