My First Rick

[fabandgear]

I bought my first Rickenbacker from Collins Music in Clarksville, Tennessee (where a young Jimi Hendrix used to shop) way back in 1979. It is a 1965 365 (EC470). Somewhere along the way it had aquired a set of Grover Rotomatics and a standard strap button on the Ac'cent vibrato. This is where it gets interesting. The Ac'cent is the older "Ac'cent By Paul" unit, which doesn't seem to be original to the guitar. Although the interior is marked "365", at one time it seemed to have had an "R" tailpiece. Two things tell me this. First, there are tell-tale indentations in the finish where the rough part of the tailpiece butt would have been. Secondly, the Ac'cent has two screws holding it in place and there was an aluminum Ace guitar strap button as well (shortly after rescuing this axe, I purchased a proper Rick strap button from F.C.Hall). I don't know if this guitar started out life as a 360 and was converted to a 365 with an older Ac'cent, or was in fact a 365 all along and had been converted to a 360 (due to a broken Ac'cent?). Inside the control cavity in green pen, there is the inscription "Mike DiFiore was here 1969". John Hall told me years ago that DiFiore's Music in Cleveland was a big Rickenbacker dealer in the '60s. Maybe Mike D. was the one who converted it to a 365 (or BACK to a 365) with a leftover Ac'cent. The next restoration issue were the machine heads. Years later I'd seen another 365 (1964 model) with pearl-button Van Ghents, so upon removing the Grovers, I discovered the unmistakable pattern created by the original Van Ghents. I was able to locate a set thanks to eBay (another story in itself) and now my Rick is a little more correct, spec-wise. This guitar rests inside an older Rick case (non-tolex silver/grey with a red interior) which I found at another shop shortly after I bought the guitar. No matter how many Ricks I may own, this is STILL my favorite!

[fabandgear]

Oops! I inadvertedly posted an older pic of my 365 with Grover Sta-tites (I replaced the Rotomatics with these as a temporary fix). Here is the present setup with the Van Ghents!

[kiramdear]

Nice fireglo on that, and I love the Accent too. I know your first one will always be special. Mine is - I still have it.

[doctorwho]

Thanks for sharing the pictures and story!

[collin]

Nice guitar and story, Forrest.

I love Van Ghents. So chunky and funky they are cool.

[billydlight]

Question: on an ac'cent by Paul, who is Paul?

[fabandgear]

Nice fireglo on that, and I love the Accent too. I know your first one will always be special. Mine is - I still have it.

Thanks, Kira! I really had no idea that the newer Ac'cents didn't have the Ac'cent By Paul" on them until I ordered a reissue from Rickenbacker for my brother's 1979 320. Then I took a close look at pictures of John Lennon's second 325 and saw his was plain as well. I do like Bigsby vibratos, but for my purposes the Ac'cent works well and I'm proud to have an older one on my 365. Does anyone know when they stopped using the older "By Paul"?

[jingle_jangle]

They stopped sometime in early '62, I believe.

[analogpackrat]

Nice one! I've got a refin '64 375 with the funky Van Ghents like yours. There's a thread around here with pics (also in the registry). Does yours have a roller bridge with brass rollers? Maybe that would be another clue about the original configuration.

[fabandgear]

Nice one! I've got a refin '64 375 with the funky Van Ghents like yours. There's a thread around here with pics (also in the registry). Does yours have a roller bridge with brass rollers? Maybe that would be another clue about the original configuration.

No, Doug, it has the standard bridge saddles. Of course we all know that whatever is written inside the control cavity isn't necessarily what the guitar ends up configured as (like my friend's 330 which says 340 inside), so my guitar may well have been a 360 originally. Then again, the bridge may not be original, either. Truthfully, the Ac'cent works wonderfully without the rollers. Funny, my old Mosrite Mark I had a Mosley vibrato with roller saddles which were frozen in place, but the guitar stayed in tune fairly well. As to the Van Ghents, here's a pic of them.

[analogpackrat]

Forrest,

Here's the thread with pics of my '64: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=390127

Mine also has the generic markings in the cavity. It had a roller bridge when I got it, but I've since replaced it with a standard one. Are your toasters long or short pole? Have you measured their DCR?

A P

[fabandgear]

Forrest,

Here's the thread with pics of my '64: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=390127

Mine also has the generic markings in the cavity. It had a roller bridge when I got it, but I've since replaced it with a standard one. Are your toasters long or short pole? Have you measured their DCR?

A P

I'd read your post already Doug, and was fascinated by it! It's great to see a beautiful guitar rescued and restored. Not sure about the pole length, I'll have to measure them next time I restring. As for the resistance, I have no idea. I don't have a fluke meter or any way to measure it. I bought my 365 in July of 1979 From Collins Music in Clarksville, Tennessee, sort of a "Gittin' Out Da Army" present from me to me. A little while after I got home, I took it all apart to clean it and set it up correctly with some new strings. My brother and I had to use a hammer and wood blocks to disassemble the Ac'cent, as it's previous owner threaded the strings between the vibrato spring and vibrato retainer! How they futtzin' kept from breaking the retainer is anybody's guess, but we carefully tapped it loose and it didn't seem to be any the worse for wear. The bridge also needed cleaning and I completely disassembled it as well. Funny thing, I clumsily dropped one of the retaining nuts inside the soundhole. I thought it was lost forever, probably lodged inside the bracing, but when I took the pickups off, there it was, clinging to a polepiece, thanks to it's powerful magnetic influence! Once cleaned, restrung, intonated and neck adjusted, it was just a dream! Everyone we showed the Rick to LOVED it! Later that afternoon, I went to a shop in Ft. Smith called Ben Jack's Guitar Center and bought an old Rick case for it. I'll have to take a pic of the case to post later on. It's grey material outside, but not Tolex. Similar to the covering used on Gretsch's less expensive hardshell, but darker. The interior is fluffy red material. Little by little I've been able to get the guitar back to a reasonable amount of originality!

[collin]

Nice one! I've got a refin '64 375 with the funky Van Ghents like yours. There's a thread around here with pics (also in the registry). Does yours have a roller bridge with brass rollers? Maybe that would be another clue about the original configuration.

No, Doug, it has the standard bridge saddles. Of course we all know that whatever is written inside the control cavity isn't necessarily what the guitar ends up configured as (like my friend's 330 which says 340 inside), so my guitar may well have been a 360 originally. .

Bridges and other parts that can be removed aren't reliable, but the easiest way to determine if it was a 360 before it had the vibrato is simply to unbolt it and check if there are telltale screw holes left over from an old bridge. No holes= original 365

This test doesn't work the other way around (as you can add an R tailpiece afterwards), but it works for checking vibrato models.

[analogpackrat]

Forrest--on an old Rick with the rubber grommet pickup spacers you can tell long pole from short by looking into the gap between the guitar and the pickup. If you only see the four screws and the two nuts that hold the cover onto the back plate then it's a short pole pickup. Long poles stick out more than 1/4" below the bottom plate and can easily be seen. Some guitars from that era had a mix--long in the bridge and short in the neck. Mine has all long. Longer poles increase the magnetic field strength which means for a given number of turns on the pickup there will be more inductance and hence more low end response. Of course that series cap on the bridge pickup fixes that!

Collin--I know the bridge isn't a reliable indicator, but if it had a roller bridge it would seem more likely that the Accent was original. How may people would bother to add a rattling roller bridge if they retroed an Accent? Especially in the 70s when these things weren't all that collectible yet. Just sayin'! Of course, having a normal bridge means no additional clues there.

[fabandgear]

All long, Doug. I just checked. While I'm at it, here's a closeup of the Ac'cent. Kind of washy, but you can still make out the wording.