I'm a big fan of Steinie XM2's and have owned quite a few in my day. I still have a white one with black binding. just a wonderful instrument. Effortless to play and beastly sounding to boot.
I'm also a huge fan of the Rickenbacker design and lately I've been wondering how cool it would be if Stienie and Ric got together and produced an offspring.
This:

+ this:

If you will.
I know Bill Wilkat out of Montreal has built a few...

...but I was thinking I'd produce an XM bass with a scaled down Ric shape, but keep the binding, electronics, hardware, contours, and all positions true to the XM2.
So, having an XM2, a Ric (Frankenbacker actually), and Adobe CS at my disposal, I started measuring and plotting and here's what I came up with:

Now, I was really intriqued, only where to get ahold of a cheap XM2? Firstly, they're not cheap, and secondly, surely I would not harvest my prized beauty!
In my searches, I happened across one of these for a SONG through GC in Denver:

Same graphite neck, and hardware, but to my surprise, this had the HazLab pre! Score! And I didn't feel too badly about parting it out. I kept what I needed and sold the body, pickgaurd, leg-rest, and gig bag and actually made a profit. LOL! Now I had the goodies to get the ball rolling!

So, I ordered a barrel input, flush mount straploks, PUP rings, a bunch of nitro products from ReRanch, some 1/4" black vinyl pinstriping from AutoZone for my "faux" binding, new string claws to rebuild the bridge, black plexi for the rear electronics cover, and lastly, a slab of basswood...

I took my Adobe file to work and digitally printed the template and "Rickenberger" logo on label stock:

I then applied the template applique to the basswood slab and cut out the shape with my scroll saw (not easy!!) this morning. Thank goodness I cut outside of the line as I would have been ordering another slab. I ordered a drum sanding attachment for the drill press at work. I'll neaten that hot mess up when that arrives. I also cut the electronics cover, but have scrapped that version for a smaller rectangular cavity (XM2's are famous for their overexaggerated cavities) and separate battery box.

So that's where I am at the moment.
Stay tuned...