Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I believe this is a standard two-tone brown Combo 850 from the last ditch effort to make a go of them. I would guess it is from very late 1958 or early 1959.

I have almost finished adding a third pickup to the '59 315. Can't wait to refinish it black tonight. You don't mind the improvements do you, John?

I finished reassembling the guitar this morning after extensive photographing.

Leftybass has come over and has just now finished putting strings on it. Wow! It sounds fantastic. He commented on how super slim the neck is, the same as the tiny 1960 fireglo 310, yet the neck is perfectly straight ...

Another thing is that there is absolutely no trace or impression in the guitar or lacquer where a trapeze end-plate would have been, and there is no shadowing from a flat trapeze in the fireglo. And I have seen some Rics that were drilled for one thing and then redrilled for another before leaving ...

That's right. It is exactly 1/4 inch longer than standard. Because of the fact that the peghead is more narrow than standard, the difference appears to be more than 1/4 inch in the photos. It's an illusion. The case is standard size. I would guess an effort was made to create the new 12-string to ...

I'm sure the Grover friction banjo tuners were an attempt at keeping the peghead from being too long. They fit very neatly between the single-line Klusons. This peghead is really slender and cute, not as long or wide as the Gibson, Martin, and Fender 12-string pegheads. There are also screw holes ...

I have now examined the guitar, and it is without a doubt...all-original, every last screw, all wiring, etc.. The guitar's most recent (and now former) owner was its second owner. Lefybass will be examining the guitar this afternoon, followed soon by Jwilli.

We should know for sure sometime this morning.

All these great photos also show that in the 1950s, Rickenbacker's soldering was sloppy and the wiring was inconsistent, unlike what some "experts" have claimed in various posts in the resent past about Ric wiring having always been neat and tidy.

Yes, the two on the left are from 1958. The two on the right are from 1957. You can see the different knob positioning. Also, the ones made in '58 are much lighter because of a deeper carve around the edge, and more wood routed out under the pickguard. The 1957 850 with the lighter shade, has ...