Rickenbacker Factory in France

[winston]

It would appear that his site has changed substantially. The bit about the castle is still there though.

http://williamyoungguitars.com/

[jimk]

Well, I clicked on the link to have a look............................................... page not available

It looks like JH's lawers went in there with guns blazing!

Eden.

That's the immediate conclusion I drew when I tried to dial up the page and couldn't.
JimK

[xpitt]

Well, I clicked on the link to have a look............................................... page not available

It looks like JH's lawers went in there with guns blazing!

Eden.

A serious metal gun blue letter with a checkerbound stamp on it was sent to a french castle..

[jingle_jangle]

The non-Rick pages are up again, along with the home page. Instead of--what--16 guitars? there are now 3.

However, look at the background on his photo on the home page--do I see Rickenbacker everywhere?

Have a gander at his Zenith conversion, though---real woodworking talent there!

[scotty]

However, look at the background on his photo on the home page--do I see Rickenbacker everywhere?

Mmnnnn hard to tell its all a bit sketchy.

[robbo63]

However, look at the background on his photo on the home page--do I see Rickenbacker everywhere?

Mmnnnn hard to tell its all a bit sketchy.

Agree, he needs to crop the photo of himself to get the left-most background of Rickenbacker plans out.

I liked looking at his construction photos and build explanations and wish I'd saved them. Not to build a Rickenbacker replica, mind you! (as if I could ) But rather to see how guitar construction and wood working is done. The photos could have been of any type of guitar as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure I can find examples on plenty of other sites and books, though. He obviously has talents in the world of faux (I liked the part about dipping things in strong tea to stain them the right color). But it was wrong of him to make Rickenbacker replicas and it does RIC and everyone else a disservice if his guitars got on the market and clouded the issue of what's genuine, and what isn't.

[paologregorio]

This is a bit tangential to the whole infringement issue, but I was curious about what the builder meant by "extra wide binding" on his GH replica, which looked wider than Rick binding in the photo. I haven't held GH's 12 in my hands, but I've seen a number of other OS 6 and 12 string models from the same era and they have standard-looking Rick binding to my eye. The photos I've seen of Mr. Harrison's 12 show what looks like standard Rick binding to my eye. Was the builder referring to wider binding than other brands have, or wider binding than other Ricks have?

I thought his approach to one pice CB/WB rather innovative, but again, that's tangential to the trademark infringement issue.

Talent aside, builders who manage to build-infringe and do so under the radar are creating a big headache for RIC protecting its brand integrity and for buyers of vintage Ricks. It's stealing from RIC, and any would be purchaser alike, but then I'm stating the obvious, and preaching to the choir. If I were in the market for one of these models, even with all of my exposure to Ricks, I would find it really difficult to tell the fake from the real guitar.

This thread is just another example of the benefits of membersip to this, as well as the RIC, forum. I would never have learned about fake TRCs, fake Ricks, among other things to be wary of. This is in addition to all of the positives wrt tech tips, refinishing, finish care, setup, electronics, confluences, and the best part, friendship! Thanks Peter, for creating this forum!!

[wim]

That whole checkerboard thing just makes little sense, except to a masochist. All this to avoid a nearly-invisible seam between the CB and outer binding?

The end result gives up a lot of accuracy and the visual regularity of precision-made checkerboard binding, for a disturbing irregularity that makes me squint at my computer screen. It would have taken him a lot less time to investigate sources and write a check for a few bucks' worth of CB.

he could've bought this
http://cgi.ebay.com/Rickenbacker-Checke ... 415495ef2b

[cjj]

Or, this:
http://www.shellex.de/index.php?p=shop& ... =44&area=1

[paologregorio]

I didn't look that closely-didn't notice the irregularity; I just thought it would be cool if CB/WB could be precision made all-inclusive in one strip, so that only one routing channel on instrument bodies would be needed, but that's just thinking about it from a lay perspective, and having read from forum builders and RIC about the two different sized routing channels required and two separate applications required for the CB and WB. If it were all in one it would save a couple of steps, but obviously, if the result is inferior to the separate binding strips, it's not worth it.

[Ivan3000]

Our IP lawyers were in Europe last week, working with their European colleagues over there to arrange a little surprise for this guy and a few others in the U.K. and Germany.

Nice!