Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Kent, It's great to see that guitar in action.

I should have kept that one!

Hi Kevin.... yup, I too think you shoud have, but I'm glad you didnt! But the guitar is getting a good workout and is happy playing through the Vox AC15.

John... couldn't agree more about the pretty guitar hiding underneath all that white tuxedo paint. Whoever did this refinishing did a great job and there is no way anyone could tell that it's not the original finish.

Kevin... is it possible that this tuxedo 360 model somehow escaped the white paint and originally finished this way by Rickenbacker?

Kent, I don't think so. If I remember correctly, there were some remnants of the original white finish in the sound hole, control cavity, and truss rod adjustment nut area. This guitar also had more of a "gloss" than other Mapleglo finishes I have seen from that same time period.

yea, I noticed that it was a heavy gloss finish. I think I mentioned before that when I first brought it into the band, all the others said that they could definitely hear the difference between this one and my '75 FG (rosewood) 360. Sweeter, clearer, warmer tone was the general consensus. Why maple vs rosewood would make that kind of difference is a mystery to me. But you can feel the weight difference between the two and somehow the lighter weight maple is doing something to the sound.... and that something is a good thing.

this is the '75 360 which has the white plastic painted gold.

I find every guitar has it's own distinct personality.
For the record, I prefer the FG. It's a beauty.
I really love those mid 1970's FG finishes.

me too... hard to see because of the lighting but the one in the picture above has a darker sunburst finish than most I've seen... really goes to a ruby red at the sides. The new ones are way too light and orangy for my taste.

Kent, if the pickups in both guitars are original, i'd say that's probably the reason for each guitar's distinct tone, rather than maple vs. rosewood. Higain pickups went through many changes.

BTW, cool to see a mid 70's 360 - It's rare to see 'em from that era. They were concentrating on the basses back then.

>>>>if the pickups in both guitars are original, i'd say that's probably the reason for each guitar's distinct tone, rather than maple vs. rosewood

good point. I didn't realize that Ric was making changes with the higains. Can you shed some light on how these pickups changed over the years?

I don't think i've played any 70's higains, but I know that the early 80's ones had an incredible sparkle to them - wonderfully trebly. Today, the sound of them has gotten considerably thicker.

Weird.... I wonder why Ric keeps tinkering with a good thing. Maybe Mr Hall (or someone else with inside info) could comment?

I'm not sure what year the refinished Tuxedo is but I think it's a good 10+ years older than the '75 one and the sound is definitely better. Clearer, better tone.

I believe the Tuxedo models were made in 1987.

To explain, a true "Tuxedo" model was the white S model with the white-painted fretboard with black microdot position markers. This was a limited run in 1987 (and maybe into 1988?) with black plastic and black powder-coated hardware.

Lotsa folks misname a white (with black binding and trim) Rick as a Tuxedo, but more properly should be called "white BT."

There were also white with white binding, white plastic and chrome hardware. Maybe these should be called "whiter"? ;^)

Strangely, I don't have a "portrait" of a typical white with black trim, but I do have these: Ted Staberow's Tuxedo and Gary Clauson's white with white trim ("whiter") -- sorry, a bit overexposed. I should fix that in Photoshop one of these days.

Here ya go Paul- the first is my 97 white/BT that I sold last year and the second is someone from the Dudepit's 93 W/BT that inspired me to buy mine. I really liked mine but decided that a 4004 refinned to white would be a suitable substitute.