Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

collin wrote:Nice guitar and story, Forrest.

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

Here you go, Collin, better pix of my Van Ghents. Note the finish missing where the Grover Rotomatic washers were. This guitar could be a candidate for professional refinishing, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I'm a stickler for original finishes. Besides, overall, this guitar looks better in person that in the pix!
Now the story of how I aquired the Van Ghents. A few years ago, I met a guy named Steve Beshears(sp?)who told me he'd worked for Rickenbacker. He had an almost MINT '64 365 with VG tuners. I asked about them and he told me they were original . After taking off my guitar's Grovers, I noticed the unmistakable elongated triangle impression of covered Van Ghents in the original finish, not to mention the three screw holes (center hole is for the machine's cover screw). I set about browsing eBay for a replacement set, but they were either 6-in-lines, or way more than I wanted to pay for them. Finally, a set of 3+3 VG's showed up, but they had the large plastic classical string barrels on them. Now having owned tons of Gretsch guitars, I'm intimately familiar with VG's. I know that the parts are quite interchangable, so I bought them (at a tenth of the cost of the non-classical set). A week later, a set of the lesser VG's came up (smaller white plastic buttons) but with the proper string barrels. I bought them for a song and then swapped the barrels out with the pearl button set. Voila! Instant '64, '65 spec keys! After lubrication and breaking them in with a few twists, I installed them and they work great!

OK so who is "Paul" on the Ac'cent??

billydlight wrote:OK so who is "Paul" on the Ac'cent??

The manufacturer's name. Certainly not Paul Bigsby. I wonder if John Hall would know more about the original Ac'cent manufacturer?

Very neat story Forrest! My favorite part was the control cavity inscription "Mike D was here". I guess in theory if someone was very well known in the guitar circles as a top notch guitar tech - having such an inscription would not hurt the value of a vintage guitar as much as changing the pots, etc. would normally affect the value of such a guitar.

Yeah, Greg. I thought it was pretty cool to see a link to the guitar's past. Of all the vintage guitars I've owned ( several hundred, easily) that's the only inscription I've ever found that was not a factory mark. Has anyone here ever bought anything from DiFiore's Music? They're still in business, I believe. One of these days I'm going to give them a call.

I haven't been to DiFiore's Music in a few years; they were the place to go in the '70s.

GSRIC wrote:Very neat story Forrest! My favorite part was the control cavity inscription "Mike D was here". I guess in theory if someone was very well known in the guitar circles as a top notch guitar tech - having such an inscription would not hurt the value of a vintage guitar as much as changing the pots, etc. would normally affect the value of such a guitar.

Here's the control cavity inscription!

fabandgear wrote:

GSRIC wrote:Very neat story Forrest! My favorite part was the control cavity inscription "Mike D was here". I guess in theory if someone was very well known in the guitar circles as a top notch guitar tech - having such an inscription would not hurt the value of a vintage guitar as much as changing the pots, etc. would normally affect the value of such a guitar.

Here's the control cavity inscription!

Now that's history!

Here's another clue to the guitar's originality. Under the Ac'cent vibrato I found the original hole for what I guess was the butt for an "R" tailpiece. As you can see by the picture, there was an endpin hole which was plugged, and a newer hole drilled. The Ac'cent has two screw holes drilled into it's end (they are 7/8" apart, center to center, slightly offset from the Ac'cent's larger mounting hole.) Also note the roughness of the finish where an "R" tailpiece's butt would have been. My conclusion is that although the control cavity is marked "365", judging by the evidence of the older screw holes, not to mention the non-roller bride and older than 1965 model Ac'cent by Paul vibrato, this guitar probably left the factory as a model 360. Of course I enjoy having a vibrato on this guitar, so I guess it'll stay a 365.