Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Wow. Amazing info coming out on this topic. The number of versions of these 12 strings counting the gold and white guards is climbing. I like the deLuxe verion with the white guards.

I'm kicking myself for not bidding more aggressively when several of them came up on EBay a few years back........

Bob: That 1993 is absolutely gorgeous. Looks like the same Fireglo on my '89 1997VB. Superb!

Oh, it was nice. WHY do we sell these things? WHY?

Bob: I don't sell 'em. I've never sold a Rick since I bought my first one in 1979. I'm up to (13) right now, along with (20) other guitars. Too many guitars, too little time!

As far as the 360/12V64 with f hole from 1999, the story I heard is that Norm's Rare Guitars obtained this guitar from RIC as a "Thank You" for placing a Rickenbacker guitar in a TV advertisement for an oil company. There is a photo of it here:
http://www.rickbeat.com/modelslibrary/36012v64fhole/360vs.jpg

I believe there were only three 360/12V64 with f hole guitars produced at that time with the other two being exported to Japan. Here are photos of one on a Japanese collector's website.
http://ricmania.main.jp/modules/tinyd5/index.php?id=6

WITH had one for sale on their site for awhile and it may have been the same one shown in the collection or possibly the third one.

I received my copy of the Rittor book today. Thanks to the Forum member who made this happen. It is tremendously appreciated.

This means I can now tell you that the book has 2 1993 reissues, branded as "Late '80s 1993 Fireglo", on page 47. One has a dot neck and R Tailpiece, and the other has a bound triangle inlay neck and trapeze.

this is a great discussion topic. I didn't realise there had been several runs of 1993's in several varients. One in traditional '64 configuration with aged fireglo would suit me just fine, one of these days.

Congratulations on getting a copy of the elusive Rittor book Bob. I've been looking for years to find a copy and havn't even come close. (If anyone happens to know of another, I'd be grateful to hear about it. (Willing to trade rare JMI amp parts)

Very best wishes for the holiday season to all on the Forum. May the New Year be safe, joyous, and bring contentment.

Same to you Glen.

I can not believe my luck. It's a fabulous find. I pored over it tonight with a friend...what great guitars in there.

Now I have all the relevant Rickenbacker reference books. That's a really great thing!

Not exactly what you guys have been talking about, but I found this while surfing.
Just in case anyone might be interested...

http://cgi.ebay.de/Rickenbacker-360-12_W0QQitemZ7375602487QQcategoryZ23300QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

That is a cool one, Andrew, a very mellow finish, like butterscotchglo or something...

Given the fact that so many people have problems with the narrow necks on the 300 series 12-strings, these wider-necked guitars would be considered very valuable to a lot of us out here for that reason alone, aesthetics aside.

Just as an estimate, could someone guess what these guitars (f-hole + wider neck) would bring at market compared to vintage Rics and other V-64s?

Also, Bob, do you have any idea why is Ric is so reluctant to make this neck option for regular customers, but only did so in this case? To make that neck a little wider would be so practical...

"Why RIC is so reluctant to make a wider neck an option..." (to paraphrase).

If RIC had a longer option list (especially a difficult one like a wider neck), we'd be waiting longer--much longer--for our guitar orders. You can't have it both ways.

RIC is not a custom house, but for such a small company, they build a wide variety of instruments, and adding in the currently-offered options, it's a wonder that they keep on producing and keep quality up and prices reasonable.

They satisfy the great majority of their market. To satisfy 100%, they would become very inefficient as they worked twice as hard to capture the remaining 5-10%.

I think that's a fairly good answer as to the reluctance to change the neck width.

The wide-necked f-hole guitars would be quite the belle of the ball. I am willing to bet that the right guitar would fetch $3500 or possibly a little more.

Currently, I think that 360/12V64s are a bit overpriced. I do not see them dropping though. It's a mystery to me as to how a supposedly "incorrect" (though very nice to MY eye) guitar could cost darn near as much as its replacement, which is supposedly DNA-correct.

Thanks guys. $3,500 is high but certainly reasonable in light of what people pay for Custom Shop Les Pauls or Strats, which don't even provide substantive structural differences from the base models.

I guess my question about Rickenbacker's policy is better discussed in other forum topics. I take your point, Paul; a special order option would make the whole process slower for everyone. But I don't think the fact that Ric sells everything guitar it produces changes the fact that there are a huge number of players who are put off exclusively by playability problems. Outside the small world of Ric connoisseurs, I've had a number experiences with guitar players whose attitude towards Rics is basically, "they sound awesome but I simply can't play them." So it's not about simply satisfying an outlying 5-10%, but expanding/diversifying the 100%. Just a thought.... I'm just glad to know that there's an alternative out there, even if it comes at a premium.

An update on the guitar I posted a photo of here on Dec. 20,2005:

I was able to contact the original owner recently. He stated he consigned the guitar to Norm's Rare Guitars earlier in 2005 and it was sold to a professional musician.