Set Neck 450/12

[chronictown]

My '64 460 is neck-through. I had no idea that there were set-neck 450s and 60s out there - very cool.

[jingle_jangle]

I was born in Wicker Park. Lived at Oakley and Wabansia for a decade. Dad and Mom were from Bucktown; St. Hedwig's.

[chronictown]

They are all set necks. Quite a nice feature for the "low end" Rickys.

Some are neck-through.

+1. More were thru neck rather than set neck. I have seen 6-string 460s that were a set neck as well, from 1966.

Hey John - I'm curious...if you remember, did those set-neck 460s have top binding that went all the way around the body? The binding on my thru-neck is interrupted around the bottom strap button where the thru-neck ends.

[xcoyle]

Paul, Hedwig area is my hangout. I have a few good friends who live there and there are some good low key taverns right there. How long has it been since you were in Chicago last?

[leftybass]

Hey John - I'm curious...if you remember, did those set-neck 460s have top binding that went all the way around the body? The binding on my thru-neck is interrupted around the bottom strap button where the thru-neck ends.

Good question, Chris. I remember a May '66 460 in MG that sold on ebay sometime ago that was a set-neck example, but I don't recall how the binding was laid out on the body....Hmmm....we'll have to see we can get a pic of one and check it out....

[Janglyman]

I found out what vato is. I'll take it as a complement.

[Janglyman]

Can we define terms here? I understand a set neck to be like a Gibson, where the neck is made of one type of wood and the body is typically another and the neck is glued or "set" into the body. The neck throughs I have seen are one piece of wood or one piece with body sides added.

The 450's pictured do not appear to be all one piece of wood, but I could be wrong. I would call them set necks. Now I have to look again and see if there's a heel joint. I thought RIC generally made separate bodies and necks and attached them similarly to Gibson.

I still like vato.

[Janglyman]

Went back and looked at the guitar again. I would call David's guitar a set neck, because the body is 2 piece and there is a heel joint. It is set into the body. This guitar is not a "neck through" as I understand the term.

[jingle_jangle]

Paul, Hedwig area is my hangout. I have a few good friends who live there and there are some good low key taverns right there. How long has it been since you were in Chicago last?

For any length of time, 1982! But, a couple of days back in 1997, occasionally between flights. When I fly to Brasil, I try to get O'Hare as my connecting terminal and grab the El to the old neighborhood.

I notice The Hideout in the news lately. I had a studio not far from there back in the '70s.

[xcoyle]

Russell that is correct, and neither is a bolt-on. Whether one is better or not is debatable, but Ric advertised the idea of their solid bodies having a neck-through design as superior to other guitars very early on. Ric first used the set-neck on the Electro's, which also indicates they considered it a short-cut or a cost saver. I personally had never seen a 450 with a set-neck, just Electros and some 420s. I did a image search yesterday on the web and found one other set-neck 450 from 1966 for sale in England for 1000 pounds or best offer (not bad). So I guess Ric toyed around with the idea of changing the construction method 1966.

[xcoyle]

I hadn't read that about Tuten, pretty cool.

[BobKat]

Officially, Electros were set-neck and RIC 400s are neck-thru, but there were a lot of "unofficial" guitars both ways in the '60s, from what I have seen. Similar to the situation in the late '70s where you will see a lot of '79 4001s basses with set necks. They simply added a pickup to an existing cache of 4000 bodies that they had lying around. I believe you can see one in the colro section of the Smith book. OT a little but a similar "unofficial" type of RIC.

[chronictown]

Hey John - I'm curious...if you remember, did those set-neck 460s have top binding that went all the way around the body? The binding on my thru-neck is interrupted around the bottom strap button where the thru-neck ends.

Good question, Chris. I remember a May '66 460 in MG that sold on ebay sometime ago that was a set-neck example, but I don't recall how the binding was laid out on the body....Hmmm....we'll have to see we can get a pic of one and check it out....

Finally found a pic to answer this question...there's a refin set-neck 1966 460 at Olivia's right now with "all-the-way-'round" binding: