Two Years Living With A Rice Custom Guitar

[zombywoof]

It has been just about two years since my Rice Custom Guitar arrived in a non-assuming cardboard box. Gotta admit, I did not gig with it alot this year - only did three gigs - at two of which I had a Gibson acosutic strapped on.

I still love to just look at this guitar. It has a few more small dings in it (Fender should hire me in the relic department) but it remains a thing of beauty. It is a true looker. Rich took the time to match the what I call Fender Paper White color (Rich and Chris call it something else) of my '58 Tele. Broadcaster style body, bakelite scratchplate, and flatsawn neck and board. Although I am not all that sure Rich wanted to go this route with this guitar, he obliged me and lightly reliced it.

This guitar has achieved somewhat of a reputation. When invited to jams or informal goofing around sessions, this is the guitar folks insist I bring. I have a couple of friends who want to borrow the guitar for gigs as they say there are sounds that the Rice puts out which really nails what they are looking for on a couple of tunes (although neither is nuts about the Fat C neck). What I particularly love is that the Rice Custom will not ship a guitar until they have gigged with it to see how it does. On mine, I know after gigging with it they went back to the workbench and tweaked it a bit more. Ya in't gonna get that kinda attention with a big corporate guita maker.

When matched with a low power, tube rectifer amp the guitar has a fantastic warm bloom, clarity and attack. It is easy to dial in sounds from a sweet mid-range snarl to a warm and smooth tone to a serious bark and bite which some folks have described as almost dangerous.

It is the rather diabolical wiring scheme which is the heart of the guitar. Because of the wiring, when the Truetone Humbucker neck pup is tapped it is in "half-tapped" mode - the low frequencies coming from both sides of the pickup and the high only from the screw side. There is no loss of low end when tapped. It remains warm and beefy and is not overpowered by the Van Zandt flatpole bridge pickup.

Although I gotta admit I tend to favor the single coil with the humbucker tapped, the position I have played around with the most in the past year is just the humbucker tapped. I found that I can get a tone that is in the ballpark of one of my big body Gibson acoustics with a DeArmond 210 slapped across the soundhole so I tend to use it for fingerpicked Piedmont and Mississippi Hill Country Blues. I then tried running it through a BBE Green Screamer OD. Although I am not a fan of boxes and usually use nothing but a bit of slapback echo - holy cow. There is abolsutely nothing in my repertoire of sounds that I can compare this too. Kinda like Elmore James or Lighnin' Hopkins on steroids.

Anyway, my thanks to Rich and Chris. I would recommend anybody looking for a guitar check out Rice Guitars as well as other builders such as Ron Kirn. These guys really take the time to make sure you get a great instrument without making you have to dig too deep into your pockets for the scratch.

[holndav]

Nice post and lovely axe, zombywoof.

David

[e-merlin]

Man! That's beautiful!

[buddywayne]

Um, er, Zombie. Can I borrow that for a couple gigs this weekend. Thanks!

[Seanycaster]

That's yours? Whenever I've looked on the Rice website, that's the guitar I've stopped and stared at.

[Rich Rice]

Wow, I'm not sure how I missed this thread.. Thanks for the nice words. I'm so glad you are still pleased.

[Southern Ill]

Stunning guitar from great people.

[NEPATelecaster]

This is THE one I would have loved to be able to purchase!

[Tele Fan]

Gorgeous guitar man. Will resist GAS. Will resist GAS.

[Big Lug]

That is one smart looking guitar. Bet it sounds just as sweet.

For a moment there I thought, "Now if I sold this and sold that I could probably swing getting one ..."

Down boy!

[Wild Rice Chris]

I think the name of the color went all over the place. It's been called Paper White, Old Fence White, and Barnyard Blonde. I think Rich used the other names in passing and they got stuck in my head, so I used them on the website. Eh, it's still the same color!

Big Lug, I know of one for sale used at a great price, PM me if you're interested in the seller's info.

[zombywoof]

Originally Posted by Wild Rice Chris

I think the name of the color went all over the place. It's been called Paper White, Old Fence White, and Barnyard Blonde.

Barnyard Blonde - that is one I had trouble living with.

Again, thanks guys.

[Wild Rice Chris]

Originally Posted by zombywoof

Barnyard Blonde - that is one I had trouble living with.

Again, thanks guys.

Funny how a name can change perceptions, huh?