Rice Custom Guitars Owners' Club

I have owned lots of Fender Teles, lots of G&L ASATs, and plenty of teles by other custom makers. But my favorites of all are Rice Custom Guitars teles. I tend to rotate my gear pretty often so I can keep on getting new ones, but I always come back to the Rich and Chris (and now Matt with Rice pickups) Rice offerings. Rice guitars always make me feel like I bought something from a master craftsman in old world Austria or something like that. These guitars have serious TIME put into their creation. Rich and Chris Rice spend countless hours on the necks, the nuts, electronics, finishes, everything. But it is not just time of course. These guys are both accomplished tele players, and KNOW what a tele is and what they want it to sound like. If you want a vintage sounding tele, man oh man, look no further. My latest Rice is just an awesome guitar. It has finally satisifed my frequent longings for a strat, while playing a tele. This one is a one-piece ash body with Lolllar strat pups, and a gotoh bridge and saddles. It has the famous Rich Rice-shaped fat neck, which are the greatest necks for teles I have ever felt or played. It is such a tremendous instrument. Anyway, the Rices deserve a club here, so pitch in with your pix and comments!

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j98/johnnyqb/Rice/rice1.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j98/johnnyqb/Rice/rice3.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j98/johnnyqb/Rice/rice2.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j98/johnnyqb/Rice/rice6.jpg

Great guitars! Here's #42. I stupidly traded it away and miss it dearly. Maybe it will make its way back to me one day.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e308/XKnight/DSC01103.jpg

That guitar was #42 in tribute to Douglas Adams.
I wouldn't mind having her come back to me either! Still love that top.

I'm playing #107 a bunch lately:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/wildricechris/00%20inv/IMG_0442.jpg

#065 (my wife was heavily involved in this one, she brought the body to life from a deceased Fender):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/wildricechris/00%20inv/IMG_0435.jpg

#001 (yes, the very first guitar I built with my dad in '98):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/wildricechris/00%20inv/IMG_0472.jpg

#098 (technically, this is half mine and half my wife's, she designed and co-built it):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/wildricechris/00%20inv/IMG_0486.jpg

#013 (I've been playing this one for a long time):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/wildricechris/00%20inv/IMG_0529.jpg

and #063 (not quite finished, I still haven't put the backplates on):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/wildricechris/00%20inv/IMG_0651.jpg

I have another in the works; a 24 fret, trem-laden, MIDI-equipped Tulip in Lake Placid Blue.
Oh, for some time to actually complete my guitars in less than a year!

Here's #125. Esquire-ish, but with an SD Quarter Pounder under the pickguard, about midway to the neck.

Built in Apr '09 (I think), but I just got the guitar last month, purchased from another TDPRI member.

http://www.ricecustomguitars.com/instruments/images/125_1.JPG

http://www.ricecustomguitars.com/instruments/images/125_5.JPG

Not technically a Rice, but they did put a custom neck on my partcaster that is by far the best neck I've ever played. Maybe I could be the club mascot?

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i311/kalajen/Riceneck.jpg

Don't short-change yourself SF--I think the neck says more about the guitar than the rest of the parts put together.

Beautiful guitar you have there!

Bill

that pink Esquire is so sweet looking. I really want to hear that one.

I shot one video of it back in April:
http://ricecustomguitars.com/mid.html?rcg125
The middle pickup is located in the same place as #122:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y168/dabluzeguy/122%20todd/DSCN6320.jpg

Couldn't resist taking advantage of the October sale for a second Rice guitar, so I bought this one, #145, this week. I never thought of myself buying a somewhat "exotic" looking dark-colored tele like this, but it has everything going for it. It is semi-hollow mahogany, and this works so well, because the guitar is light (about 6.5 pounds) but doesn't feel like a feather. The mahogany gives it s substantial feel. The mahogany wood and neck seem to bring out the best in these Fralins Blues Specials. This is another guitar that is just blow away sweet to play and feel in person. I always have two guitars, and I have never had a pair that so completely met my needs and wants like these two Rices.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j98/johnnyqb/Rice/145_1.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j98/johnnyqb/Rice/145_3.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j98/johnnyqb/Rice/145_12.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j98/johnnyqb/Rice/145_5.jpg

JG--from the site, here ya go:

1pfbZi7pyjA&feature=player_embedded

Congrats on your new Rice--I was looking *really* hard at that same guitar but thought I should wait just a bit after this purchase....good on ya for moving on it!!

Bill

Johnny Guitar, I had the opportunity to fiddle with a number of the rice guitars and I have to say 145 is a fine example of rice craftsmanship and is part of the reason I bought #147

I am lucky enough to own #029:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/barthur99/ricetele.jpg

For anyone interested:
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaster-discussion-forum/59494-photos-rice-custom-guitars-giveaway-prize.html

Thanks again to everyone who has helped us along the way!

-Rich

http://www.ricecustomguitars.com/instruments/images/040_1.JPG This is mine more of a parts guitar they did. very nice. I love it.

I own #052 and all I have to say is: WOW! WOW! WOW! It looks a lot like Springsteen's guitar, so I call it "The Boss"!

I had #105 out the other night, great success!
I need to get some real pictures before I beat the crap out of this guitar...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/wildricechris/IronTide.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/wildricechris/RCG105.jpg

Facebook page here:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=121011341247961
Join the group and post your guitar!

Lots of new pics and a couple of new models on our site! Take a minute, follow the link in my sig line, and have a look- We're constantly building different stuff! :lol:

http://www.ricecustomguitars.com/index2.html

Here's the right link to your guitar Kevyn (http://ricecustomguitars.com/mid.html?rcg046)

Great to "see" you again! Hope you are still enjoying the Esquire. :grin:

Here's the right link to your guitar Kevyn (http://ricecustomguitars.com/mid.html?rcg046)

Great to "see" you again! Hope you are still enjoying the Esquire. :grin:

Hey Rich, thanks for straightening out the link!

I'm alive & playin'

Had a jag off into reso world with traditional 'Delta' blues & slide.

Circlin' back to electric land & all the Esquire goodness. Just stumbled into a sweet Fender 50's Classic Esquire and re-ignited all the love:cool:

The bad part is I wake up dumber than the day before and wonder why I haven't learned that lesson before:mrgreen:

I'm tripping on the whole reso thing lately too.. It's such a cool sound, even when played by a mediocre player such as myself. I guess if I can manage to continue to play one, eventually I'll be pretty good at it. The biggest drawbacks I have are the fingerpicks/thumbpick thing (although I am finally getting used to them), and the lack of speed- sometimes I really like what I'm playing, but would like to be able to play it twice as fast as I can.

This is exciting news for us, the John Mayall tour kicks off next month, and his bassist (Greg Rzab) will be touring with Rice Custom bass #169. He's one hell of a bass player with a very impressive history. Definitely somebody to check out. :grin:

He gave us a copy of Mayall's latest album (I think it's the 57th album Mayall has done), and it is a good album. Amazing when one considers how long this fellow has been playing, but then again perhaps that is how he can manage to keep up such a busy touring schedule.

This is exciting news for us, the John Mayall tour kicks off next month, and his bassist (Greg Rzab) will be touring with Rice Custom bass #169. He's one hell of a bass player with a very impressive history. Definitely somebody to check out. :grin:

He gave us a copy of Mayall's latest album (I think it's the 57th album Mayall has done), and it is a good album. Amazing when one considers how long this fellow has been playing, but then again perhaps that is how he can manage to keep up such a busy touring schedule.

Here's a link to the stats page...

http://ricecustomguitars.com/mid.html?rcg169

... and here she is in action!

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He must be getting more comfortable with the bass- Holy Cow! :shock::!:

Been a while since this thread saw the light of day.. LOL

I haz #103, pine, Don Mare pickups, light and resonant. Very spanky sounding tele.

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/qq123/devnulljp/guitars/tele/rice_103/7552fe29.jpg
http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/qq123/devnulljp/guitars/tele/rice_103/b0c66c41.jpg
http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/qq123/devnulljp/guitars/tele/rice_103/c1ef5615.jpg
http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/qq123/devnulljp/guitars/tele/rice_103/d704a7e0.jpg

Nice one! Does it still smell like a Christmas tree?

Nice one! Does it still smell like a Christmas tree?Find one in every car. You'll see.
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LOL! That pine was so aromatic.. I got two guitars out of it- yours and Osprey #102. I still remember how great they smelled. The shop smelled like a Christmas tree the whole time they were being built. ;)