New trend??? butchered 620!

[scotty]

Everything has a bid apart from the case!!

[godber]

Er, Scott, that's the eBay Napoleon technique...the Napoleon Bidapart.










I'll get me coat.

[godber]

The gusett is only two bits, by the look of it.

Napoleon Bonaparte.jpg

[lennon211]

The idea of chopping up a guitar like this is lost on me as well. Why do it? It really does seem that with the market being what it is at the moment that it could move well as a complete guitar as opposed to this parting up. Like others have said though...at least it's not something really rare/valuable.

[doctorwho]

I think of it as "chop shop mentality" ... if it were not profitable, it wouldn't happen.

[scotty]

What wine were you drinking Mark? Sounds good!

[jcreasy]

This post prompts some comment... Apologies in advance for the length of the reply. If you look at his eBay listing, he is promoting the customization (if that is a word) of Ricks.

I've got several semi-custom guitars. Such as: A great Strato w/ TX Special Pickups, Pearloid Pickguard, Chrome Knobs and a Fishman "Acoustic" Bridge; A Vintage Strings and Things Custom with Coil-Tapping Pickups; A Chandler 555 w/ Seymore Duncans. (I've also got a basic, but very nice Les Paul Studio, all black with Pearloid Pickguard and Chrome Knobs. I am probably going to put a Fishman Bridge on that one too. You have to drill a pin-hole in the face of the guitar but it's only a Studio).

All of these guitars are great fun because you can get sounds that are familiar but a little different. The Strato can get some sparkle and jangle to it, the Strings and Things can get thin (Rick almost) or sound like a Tele, the Chandler has some Rick Jangle but with more drive, and I'm betting the Les Paul will sound really cool with a Fishman added.

Ricks are a novel and distinct sound anyways, but I've spent many nights strumming and dreaming up configurations, running them by Kenny Howes or my guitar tech and so forth. However, because of the unique construction dimensions, and the reluctance of aftermarket companies to make quality replacements/parts, our options are limited. (Unless we carve up the fronts of our guitars and put P-90's in).

Just some thoughts to throw out there...

Can the Seymore Duncan mini-humbuckers be tastefully mounted on Ricks? (I've not measured, but it sure looks close).

Are the Rick humbuckers splitable? (I've seen comments about there being an extra lead, but I'm not a tech guy).

Is there any way to get an acoustic power bridge like a Fishman? Imagine using the 5th knob to roll in acoustic tones! The one on my Strato is wired to always be on. I have one volume and one tone and the lowest knob is the Fishman volume. It makes that thing incredibly versatile and I've had several people come up to me during breaks and ask me about the guitar. Even if you had to drill a pin-hole on the front of the guitar, you could put it right up against the bridge plate and no-one would notice. I've looked at the Gibson Fishman Bridge to see if it could be adapted and so forth, but wouldn't that be killer?

I guess the point of the post is that I have great fun playing out with these guitars (as well as my Rick) because the sound tech is always thrown off since I am not playing the standard fare, and I wonder what kinds of custom mods you guys have tastefully made to your guitars.

JKC

PS A few weeks ago, we played an outside show at a Country Club. I had set up and was waiting for the drummer to finish so we could sound check. My 360-Rick was sitting on its stand, gleaming in the setting sun. I'm standing off to the side with my bandmates having a beer and this guy walks up to my guitar with a buddy, so I start turning my ear and listening and he's going on and on explaining to his buddy that my guitar was a Rickenbacker and how special they were. Walk up to him, talk to him, plug the company and the guitar. Later at sound check, he's telling his wife about it and pointing to it. Totally cool experience to know you are playing a really special guitar and have others notice.

[whojamfan]

Hey now, lengthy posts are my territory!

Seymour pickups are custom shop only and have a few options of the type of sound you want , and humbucker or single. As far as I know, they are direct replacement, and some people who have them love them. Untill the RIC toaster went up to 150 bucks, I thought the SDs were a bit pricey, but now seem comparable. I have never heard or seen one in person to give you anymore info. I am sure someone here will chime in on their experiences.

I believe they(RIC) offered a piezo bridge on their discontinued Laguna, but it was a bolt to the face of the guitar type deal and not the "R" tailpiece and bridge combo. I have no idea how they sounded.

The HB-1 split,IMHO,was not to my liking, and didn't brighten up the sound like other humbuckers do when split. In regular mode, I didn't like the sound in both the bridge and/or neck positions of my 330FG. I was hoping for a higher output toaster sound with no 60 cycle hum and a little oomph to give the bridge a little more krrang, but not at all in that ballpark. I threw it in the neck thinking I could roll the tone back for a good "Cream" style woman tone, but no dice there either. Some folks here put them on their 330s and love them, but they weren't quite giving me the sound I was looking for.I understand they sound great on the solidbody guitars, and wicked on the basses.

There has been a lot of discussion on the RIC forum lately about folks wanting pickups that are reverse wound so you could buck the hum with both on. Many in depth opinions/arguments/wishes that you can go there to read about.

The higain pickups that came on my guitar originally sounded muddy, and apparantly it is a popular opinion of ones made in the mid 2000s before these new adjustable pole piece high gains came out. I have one of the new ones in the bridge of my 4003AFG(this pickup kicks serious butt ), and replaced the neck with a toaster for the best of both worlds.

These new high gains are really supposed to be the bomb as they are described as having the clarity and brightness of a toaster, and the power and bite/growl of a high gain. I am planning on getting one of these new hi gains for the bridge position of my 330, as the toaster is great there, but if I can get a little more cash register ring out of my 330(think "Modern World" album by The Jam)I would be a happy man.

There are some Asian copies out there that fly under thr RIC radar you see from time to time, but they are slightly bigger and sound like overly microphonic ****(IMHO).Don't waste your money on those.GFS had some toaster copies they made untill RIC legal shut that down(legally their right.)

Companies are not willing to make aftermarket parts if there is even a chance RIC will put the legal boot down on it. This, combined with the fact that all of the major harware(pickups,tailpieces,bridges etc) are completely different in both size and design, make offerering aftermarket parts for these instruments a rarity. RIC is a great company that has managed to do a very good job of protecting it's copyrights, but some, if not many, feel they take things a little too far sometimes.

So, in a nutshell, you get what you get, a top quality handmade American instrument that can give you a lifetime of joy and pleasure. You can contact Sergio on this site about modifying your existing pickups as he is highly regarded for his expertise in these matters.

Whatever you do, please don't hack up your guitar to fit full size humbuckers, aside from all of the "taboo no nos" you'll hear, you will drastically reduce the value of your instrument. I had a guy come in to a shop I worked at years ago with a 330fg someone had put a Dimarzio Super Distortion full size humbucker in the bridge, and it was a sorry looking guitar. It was like "What's this, the Ace Frehley Signature model?" Really was a shame.

Good luck, and hope this helped you out.

[jcreasy]

I don't mind Rick shutting stuff down and I'm familiar with the bolt on Piezo bridge. (Not available any more). I've got those Seymour Duncans in my Chandler 555 so I can measure them... Great sounding, by the way.

Thanks for the feedback.

JKC

[rickenmetal]

Why are you saying it's butchered? It just has all the parts removed, it's naked. If it was butchered 95% of all guitarists are butchering their instruments whenever they need to fix the electronics or something.

I guess he probably thinks he can get more by just selling the parts, or it's "hot", as has been stated.

[grazioso]

it is not hot guitar - he's got it on ebay not long ago. and frankly when rick is not going to sell parts outright what do you people expect?

the same happened with some computers about decade ago. e.g. silicon graphics would not sell some high end parts unless you had support contract and owned their machine. now sadly sgi is almost gone and i would attribute part of their demise to these policies..

i have recently had exploded r tailpiece on my fav 1992 360/12 and i tell you even getting phone call through to rickenbacker is not easy so really there is market for these parts.

and btw reversing toaster is about the simplest operation with soldering iron and pair of pliers it takes about 15 minutes to complete re-assembly and hum free middle position.
piezo on 12 string is good mod, i put one ovation bridge piezo saddle pickup with blend pot on my old hotrod murph 12 string years back and it is still there.

[jingle_jangle]

the same happened with some computers about decade ago. e.g. silicon graphics would not sell some high end parts unless you had support contract and owned their machine. now sadly sgi is almost gone and i would attribute part of their demise to these policies..

I love my unbreakable SGI monitor, even though it's a dinosaur. But, if you're metaphorically predicting the demise of RIC due to their parts being sporadically unavailable, that's a bit of a stretch, don't you think?

i have recently had exploded r tailpiece on my fav 1992 360/12 and i tell you even getting phone call through to rickenbacker is not easy so really there is market for these parts.

Hmm...if you call (714) 545 5574 and ask for "Kenny", he will do all he can to help you out.

[grazioso]

hey paul !well sgi was the coolest ever that is for sure before they went to experiments with micro$oft and intel. btw u got 1600sw there? (still the best panel on the market 10 years after its release) if not you should try it it is 1600x1024_60 and best best best and they go for like $100 on ebay the only drawback is proprietory interface. i use them for all my work beside some rgb _s for that i still have sgi big tube.

i was not hinting rick will go bust for having this policy on parts. that would be too much of a stretch, if they will ever go bust it will be due to something else like all this generation of us ric lovers going senile and this economy trend going deeper and deeper on top of that..or yet another improvement of california "pro_manufacturing policies and tax code"

i called rick several times - no real person ever picked up the phone (and i still do live on pacific time even here on east coast) so i left message and nobody called back ever. so i got replacement from chris clayton.

[jingle_jangle]

If you're calling from inside the USA, it is odd that they don't pick up...I have never had to leave a message. Best time is mid-morning PST or early afternoon. They run early hours at the factory.

[gibsonlp]

hey paul !well sgi was the coolest ever that is for sure before they went to experiments with micro$oft and intel. btw u got 1600sw there? (still the best panel on the market 10 years after its release) if not you should try it it is 1600x1024_60 and best best best and they go for like $100 on ebay the only drawback is proprietory interface. i use them for all my work beside some rgb _s for that i still have sgi big tube.

Actually - the 1600sw was a nice LCD 10 years ago, but it is definitely not the BEST panel now, any panel (especially IPS/S-IPS) today will be better in every parameter, Don't forget that the 1600sw is a TN (!) panel which is the "worst" panel in terms of color and viewing angle. Add 40ms response time and you get a very bad monitor (in today's terms).
As for the tube SGI monitors - these are simply OEM Sony Trinitron monitors, we had them in the army unit where I served around 1999/2000. We also had Sun and IBM monitors, all 21" CRT, all the same spec, same image and even same operation menu... Great CRT monitors though...