Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Now you've named it - the 483 - brings me back to a question I once had when I still had my 480.

Underneath it's pick-guard was space routed out for the third pick-up. Which seems always a bit weird to me - do all 480s have this?

If this cavity is what you're referring to, I have no idea why it's there, but it's not big enough for a pickup.

Spike- wrote:If this cavity is what you're referring to, I have no idea why it's there, but it's not big enough for a 3rd pickup.

Yeah, that's the hole, alright.

I should've known the middle pick-up is lowered into the body the same way as the neck PU; it would need more space then, indeed.

A very beautiful 480, btw!

Oh man, all this 480 porn is really getting to me. I'm gonna have to get one of these some day...

OK, I know, If only they had binding like a 4003. Yeah, that's it, since they don't I can resist... must resist... uh... oh no.... I see that some do....

OK, mapleglo with black trim... wow, that's just so perfect! Too bad they're so rare...

Yea, it's too small for a pickup so I have no clue why it's there, it's a mystery!

In response to cjj, the 481 was sort of like the 'deluxe' version of the 480, but I don't really think calling it that is appropriate because it's a completely different guitar.

The 481 had the nicer, heavy duty grover/schaller tuners, triangle fretboard inlays, and body binding which would be seen as 'deluxe' features, but the slanted frets and humbucker pickups with phase-reversal make it a completely different animal with an entirely seperate tone. Personally, I think the 480 is asthetically superior for a few reasons, mostly based on my own opinions. I think the bass-style pickguard looks good with the setup on the 480, but not on the 481. It dosen't look right fattened up to accomodate those humbuckers, I think they should have re-created the pickup design instead of just 'modding' the bass style.

That and the slanted frets which i'm not a huge fan of, but even then it's hard to say. Having seen the un-slanted 481 I still probably would go with the 480 simply because I prefer the sound of the singlecoil hi-gain pickups, my Gibby already covers the humbucker department. Now, a 480 with bound body and triangle fretboard inlays....

Well, I imagine it would look something like this Ibanez copy.

cjj wrote:Oh man, all this 480 porn is really getting to me. I'm gonna have to get one of these some day...

I'm feeling sad I sold mine... oh well, it did help in getting me a 340 FG.

Erik, whenever I see a 481 I have to look the other way - the slanted frets make me feel unfomcy.
It just looks wrong...

...and I like the 481 sooo much, that my BG 480 looks like a whole other animal, which it is...a solid body with high gains.

The 481's slant frets look all right to me, so does the guard, and those pickups are stonkin' hot. It's a completely unique instrument.

Werner, I've got 3 MG/BTs but only one is a 481. The other 2 are a 360/12 WB/BT and a 4001 MG/BT.

Wildberry wrote:Now you've named it - the 483 - brings me back to a question I once had when I still had my 480.

Underneath it's pick-guard was space routed out for the third pick-up. Which seems always a bit weird to me - do all 480s have this?

It's been a while since I've had the pickguards off, but I'm almost positive neither my '73 or '75 have that additional routing. I'll have to re-check at the next string changes and report back.

I knew Ibanez did a lot of knock-offs but I never seen a 480/481 (dare I call it a 480.5? ) copy before.

Here's some more porn of my two :

Y'know, I tried one of these (I think it was a 480, JG) in a music store years ago, and I figured it was a 'faker, what with the bolt-on neck. D'oh!

- Scott

There were a few other Ric's with bolt-on necks as far as I know.

Random action shot.

those slant frets make my eyes go out of focus!

Nice picture Erik!

Did you do any photoshopping to this one?

Trav wrote:those slant frets make my eyes go out of focus!

Right, for me too... but, only on 481s

Wildberry wrote:Nice picture Erik!
Did you do any photoshopping to this one?

A little, the only thing I did was boost the red & yellow saturation in the image to give it a nice warm hue.

While I had the strings off today to put on a new set I performed a small 'mod'. The four corner screws on the bridge pickup (which hold the baseplate together) had some pretty bad rust going on, probably from a screwdriver chipping the chrome off. So what I did was swap those four, with the four from the neck pickup, which have been concealed under the pickguard for the last 30 years. As a result, they've aged to a nice patina colour without rusting from wear and tear, and the beatup ones went on the neck pickup which nobody sees.

Pretty incredible what such a simple mod can do, and now it matches the rest of the hardware which has all aged nicely without rusing, save for the saddle adjustment screws but it dosen't look terribly bad and it's hidden under the bridge cover anyway. It's amazing how much the bridge cover improves the asthetics of the guitar and adds to the overall "classyness". I know alot of people remove it (or maybe just lose it ) because they say it impedes their ability to mute notes but I haven't had any problems with it. Maybe it's because i'm just used to resting my hand on the bridge on my Gibson and it's pretty much identical on the Ric.

Spike- wrote:

While I had the strings off today to put on a new set I performed a small 'mod'. The four corner screws on the bridge pickup (which hold the baseplate together) had some pretty bad rust going on, probably from a screwdriver chipping the chrome off. So what I did was swap those four, with the four from the neck pickup, which have been concealed under the pickguard for the last 30 years. As a result, they've aged to a nice patina colour without rusting from wear and tear, and the beatup ones went on the neck pickup which nobody sees.

Pretty incredible what such a simple mod can do, and now it matches the rest of the hardware which has all aged nicely without rusing, save for the saddle adjustment screws but it dosen't look terribly bad and it's hidden under the bridge cover anyway. It's amazing how much the bridge cover improves the asthetics of the guitar and adds to the overall "classyness". I know alot of people remove it (or maybe just lose it ) because they say it impedes their ability to mute notes but I haven't had any problems with it. Maybe it's because i'm just used to resting my hand on the bridge on my Gibson and it's pretty much identical on the Ric.

Nothing wrong with a mod, as long as it's reversible (IMO). Look at mine!

Not sure I understand your comment on muting the bridge on the Gibson as they don't have a cover, at least that I know of. My LP doesn't.