Believe it or not, Rick winds his own pickups right here, too:
Man, this guy is into a lot of projects.
As if that weren't enough, here's a tiny replica of a Gibson Super 400 that Rick is building. He's incorporating another Turner innovation -- a sort of flying buttress affair designed to make the neck block more rigid in its location to resist the string tension and reduce future need for neck resetting:
The two carbon fiber rods make that end of the guitar really stiff without influencing any other part of the instrument. Pretty clever, Rick.
Here's Rick showing us another of his passions:
It's a Howe-Orme patented guitar made by the Elias Howe Company of Boston about a hundred years ago. It has a neck that pivots on the body, so you can adjust the neck angle and action without even removing the strings. There's a little "clock key" adjusting screw right in the heel of the neck, countersunk so you can stick the key right in from the outside.
These instruments have an exaggerated cylindrical "hump" running the length of the top. They are beautifully made and have a unique and high class sound. Rick says he's been collecting them for years and someday would like to make some replicas. I'd like to see those when the time comes!
He invited us to his home to see his collection of Howe-Orme mandolin family instruments. Here's the wall in Rick's living room:
You can see the "humped" tops in reflected light. These are really spectacular. Starting from the smallest they are mandolin, tenor mandola, octave mandola, cello mandola. (These are Howe-Orme's designations; the cello mandola is smaller and lighter than other mandocellos.) Only the guitar has the adjustable neck.
It's great to see someone on the cutting edge of instrument development who also recognizes the milestones of the past.