Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I recently bought a Rickenbacker 365 which the seller said was made around 1970-1972. I put some pictures here:
http://sciliterature.50webs.com/Rick365project.htm (first 3 pictures)
As you can see, all of the hardware was removed. One question I have is if I were to rout out the headstock to put 6 more tuners on it to convert it to a 12 string, would anyone be worried about reducing the value of it? Another idea I had was to put a headless guitar style bridge on it which has 6 tuners without routing the headstock to convert it to a 12 string guitar.

Don't do it!

Honestly, it's not going to work well or look good and ALL value will go out the window.

A 12-string headstock is bigger than a six-string to accommodate the additional tuners and dual routes for octave strings. To properly fit tuners, you'd need to cut down the headstock, add wings of fresh wood, route and then drill tuners. It's so much work that you're better off building an entire new neck for the guitar, as a 12-string and save or sell the original neck.

I've seen people try to do this without converting the headstock and it doesn't look right, likely doesn't work well and cuts the value down to nothing.

It would be crazy to do this to a nice vintage guitar like that. The early 70s Ricks are the end of the original 60s specs and wonderful guitars, don't ruin this one!

collin wrote:The early 70s Ricks are the end of the original 60s specs and wonderful guitars, don't ruin this one!

+1

Completely agree with Collin and Jake. Even when done very well, they just don't look right.

http://www.gbase.com/gear/rickenbacker- ... 68-fireglo

godber wrote: Even when done very well, they just don't look right.

http://www.gbase.com/gear/rickenbacker- ... 68-fireglo

That's the very example I was thinking of - that guitar would be worth $8k or so before the mods and the dealer has had it for ages and keeps dropping the price. Nobody will touch that thing near $4.5k, and I don't blame them. What a hack job!

I don't like the idea of routing the headstock, either. I was thinking about a bridge with tuners might work for adding an extra 6 tuners like this one here:
http://store.hipshotproducts.com/cart.p ... tail&p=390

John, your Rick husk looks to be in excellent condition. My recommendation would be to sell it towards a Rick 12. Please don't put that Hipshot bridge on a beautiful vintage Rickenbacker.

Sell the body and buy one like this one.... Be cheaper in the end...

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/ms ... 50842.html

If this guitar is so important, why did someone take everything off of it including the finish and just leave the body and neck? All the other original parts are gone. I tried out different Rickenbacker guitars in music stores over the years. They all seem a little different. Most of the time I never found one I really wanted to buy. I did come back to one store to see if they had one that I was ready to buy, but they sold it. What I liked about it was the resonance effect it had. The main reason I got this guitar was for experimentation which I've done for years with other guitars and various electronics. I've always considered the sound to be the most important thing. I don't even own a guitar amp. I use a tube preamp I made with spring reverb and a hifi monoblock tube amp connected to a custom speaker cabinet my brother made. I never planned on working in the music business professionally. One thing that got me back into playing the guitar is vacuum tubes. I think my guitar amp system sounds superior to anything I've heard in music stores. Their amps sound too dirty. Also, I'd like to try some multi-tracking.

If this guitar is so important, why did someone take everything off of it including the finish and just leave the body and neck? All the other original parts are gone. I don't know for sure if its from 1970-1972. I'm just taking the seller's word for it. I tried out different Rickenbacker guitars in music stores over the years. They all seem a little different. Most of the time I never found one I really wanted to buy. I did come back to one store to see if they had one that I was ready to buy, but they sold it. What I liked about it was the resonance effect it had. The main reason I got this guitar was for experimentation which I've done for years with other guitars and various electronics. I've always considered the sound to be the most important thing. I don't even own a guitar amp. I use a tube preamp I made with spring reverb and a hifi monoblock tube amp connected to a custom speaker cabinet my brother made. I never planned on working in the music business professionally. One thing that got me back into playing the guitar is vacuum tubes. I have a collection of tube amps and listen to records and a tubed FM radio and sometimes CDs through the tube amps. I think my guitar amp system sounds superior to anything I've heard in music stores. Their amps sound too dirty. Also, I'd like to try some multi-tracking.

Some people just like messing with guitars I understand that, if it were mine I'd restore it as a 6 string and hope there wasn't a problem with it that left it unloved and in disrepair.

I'm trying to make it into a 6 string guitar right now. Maybe its not worth restoring. I looked down the neck carefully a couple times. It might be slightly twisted which might make it useless for professional use (I haven't tried adjusting the truss rods, though). On the other hand I might learn something from it.

Tube_Fan wrote:I looked down the neck carefully a couple times. It might be slightly twisted which might make it useless for professional use (I haven't tried adjusting the truss rods, though).

That may be the reason it was stripped of parts and sold as a husk.

Is it possible it came from the factory without being finished?

Tube_Fan wrote:Is it possible it came from the factory without being finished?

No.