Reliable Source for Rickenbacker Production Totals

[berklee6]

Hello,

Years ago I obtained a copy of Richard Smith's Rickenbacker book and found the production totals table at the back of the book to be an interesting reference, especially when comparing finishes (Mapleglo vs. Fireglo, etc.) within a given year. My baby is a Mapleglo 335 from May of 1967. Of course, there is no data in the book for the 1967 production year! The Smith book is now getting long in the tooth. Is there a more reliable source for Rickenbacker yearly production totals, especially for the mid-to-late 1960s?

[bassduke49]

No.

Even the Smith book's production numbers may not have been completely accurate -- in addition to not being complete. RIC, as a privately owned company, does not release production figures or P&L statements, and has no stock holders to report to. The only production numbers released by RIC have been on the certified limited edition models, and even then there's no way of determining if they are completely accurate. For example, the certificate for the "Redneck" basses of 1987-'88 states a production run of 125. Were 125 actually built and sold? Maybe only 85 or 90 were made before no more orders came in. Who knows?

[squirebass]

My recollection of the Smith book totals was that even Smith himself indicates that they are incomplete, some indicating just a handful of guitars made in a given year. I would not accept them as anywhere close to accurate. I've never seen anything else that had any production numbers though, unless someone has translated that Japanese Rickenbacker book. My Japanese is really bad!

[jps]

Even though it is unreadable (to me) the Rittor book is fabulous!

[gibsonlp]

The register is quite a good source for statistics.
Especially for 1967 where our samples number is incredible.

For example:
1. We estimate that about 5000 instruments were made that year, we know that by looking at the serial numbers, they go incrementally from GA011 (January) to GL4867 (December). If you'll look here: http://www.rickresource.com/register/in ... 67&order=5 you could see that they simply go up.
2. Our sample is a bit over 500 instruments, which means that we can safely assume that we have about 10% of all the instruments made in 1967 in our register. Statistically speaking - that's incredible.


Can you count the number of 335 and multiply by 10? I am not 100% sure but I believe that it should give you a very close number.
These are all the Fireglo instruments that we have in the registry:
http://www.rickresource.com/register/in ... &year=1967
These are the mapleglo:
http://www.rickresource.com/register/in ... &year=1967

You can just use the search function to cut through the database:
http://www.rickresource.com/register/search.php

[berklee6]

Thank you for your reply! When I added my instrument to the Register a few weeks back I was pleasantly surprised to see so many other 335s of the same era represented on the list. The "10%" rule enables me to extrapolate based on the Register counts; the precision is good enough for my purposes as I really wasn't looking for exact shipping totals. As my guitar teacher used to say to me years ago as I was tuning my instrument for class: "that's close enough for jazz!"

[bassduke49]

John Hall has sent me a PM clarifying (somewhat) the limited run basses: (my brackets)

"The only limited editions that never reached the full scheduled production
numbers were the Glenn Frey bass and guitar. We cancelled this series
rather than "fudge" limited edition certificates as his management had
requested we do.

The Lemmy model quantity, on the other hand, was increased by 10
instruments [to 60] because of some problems that had occurred in the order
process, to accommodate all who had placed orders in good faith.

Also, a dozen or so non-certificated (no limited edition sequence number)
Chris Squire basses [1,000 certified] were produced for his record company to use in some
kind of promotional endeavor."