Variation in body shapes for 360 guitars

[trosse]

templates for industrial use are made of hardened steel and the router that cuts the wood use a small wheel to follow the contures of the templates. There's no wear on the templates at all.

Good point! And welcome to RRF, Troels!

Still, what could cause the difference - different templates? Sanding?

Thanks for the welcome... great place. I'm a passionate Rickenbacker fan and own and play a 1997 (year) 360/6 FG - but have a nice collection of Gibsons, Fenders and others.

Some "invisible" changes could be made to differ new guitars from vintage guitars preventing a too good base for some creative people for making fraud vintage guitars presented to naive eBay customers.

Anyway, I don't believe sanding makes the difference. You need a LOT of sanding to produce visible changes in the overall shape. The logical answer is different templates - but why it's impossible to take template A and make a copy - template B - and get them identical, is a mystery to me. Still that is what we have seen with for instance with Stratocasters (even the big changes here came when Fender installed numerically controlled routers in the early 70s - and even new "vintage" Strats are off shapewise).

From time to time I've heard the worn template song in relation to Gibson ES-335 and cousins - but here it makes even less sense as the rims of these guitars are assembled with the center block first. Top and back are glued on when the shape is already there as the overall shape of these guitars are formed by the router following the already glued and cures sides of the guitar.

Maybe John Hall can tell us about the small variations.

[doctorwho]

Welcome to the Forum, Troels !

[rickenbrother]

Welcome to the forum, Troels !

[trosse]

Thank you very much. I can ad to what I've already said that I play rock'n'roll and have been doing so ever since 1963... (I'm 57...). So I grew up with The Beatles and Rickenbackers which I believe is the best guitar you can buy for money. They are so nicely build and the sound ... oh dear - we are in the classic department here. Rickenbackers are icons of the 60's music basicly - whereas other famous brands may be icons too but not so clearly associated with a perticular era as Rics are. That's what makes Rics special to me.

I've made a few records as musician and composer over the years and have one record of silver from 1991. On that one I actually do play a Rickenbacker a 460 I gave to a friend some years ago. That said I'm a journalist and work with TV broadcast. But music and guitars are my passion

[stringman]

Joe Guzzo G7flat5 Joe thanks for your post about the 360 os double checked bound and bound F Hole. I didnt know there was even an option for that back then. But I read the 1979 catalog and ordered my 360 12 WB Checked bound the same way you did. Only I waited for delivery. To bad that guitar is not in your posession now. That would be a rare one, and a beauty. Have a look at some pics of mine.