Re: 12 string problem
Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 10:15 pm
Rickygirl, If I offended you or your friend in anyway, it was quite the opposite of my intention, and I apologize. I'm sure your friend is competent with the instruments he's worked on, Les Pauls, Strats, Teles, and the 4 million guitars that are similar. You get in a comfort zone when repeatedly working on these types of instruments, and Ricks can really kind of throw you a curve ball due to the uniqueness of its components, non standard wiring, limited availability of replacement items(especially outside of the USA), and the whole Ric-o-sound and 5th knob deals.
This makes working on these guitars by the average(not skill level)guitar tech one finds in a music store, a scary and or overly cautious experience. Many very experienced and qualified techs who have never worked on a Rick, don't want the experience to possibly question their credibility, or lose the respect of a friend and or customer. Your 70s model Rick, for instance, requires a different way to adjust the truss rods than virtually any other guitar. If you try to do it and don't know how the older rods work, you can potentially cause a lot of damage to your guitar. This is one of many reasons I suggest seeking someone with signifigant Rick experience, not a stab at you friend. RIC changed the way they work in the early 80s, I believe.
The latest Guitar World magazine has wrong information in it in the "Tech Education" regarding a Rickenbacker repair, and this was a correction of wrong information they posted in the previous edition. I have another post about that one.
Now those of you who are reading this who could do anything with their Ricks with their eyes closed,my hat is off to you. I would bet that someone at somepoint help you out and answer some questions either by watching them perform the task, or through extensive communication. Anyone interested in learning how to work on Ricks has virtually no resources, as I cannot think of a single book on guitar repair that covers Rickenbackers. The service manual is really not very current or informative, and the McGuinn video is better, but still doesn't answer the basic questions that an unfamiliar tech would have in "dialing in" a Rick, much less any signifigant problems they might run into. Then, all of the sudden, your left with tapdancing in a mine field of uncertainty in a situation that "shouldn't" be that difficult.
This website, and RICs, have turned out to be a great resource, and highly recommend going to Joeys Bass Notes for any of you bass owners. Joey really has a cool site that gives step by step instructions to some common issues, and is quite involved in the community. His site helped me remove my bridge cover properly and easily, thanks Joey.
Working for over 10 years in 2 proper music stores with both good onsite techs, and high end professional grade luthier builder and repair outsources. I learned how to do the 3 main types of guitars that come across the repair table, and the various switching and aftermarket options available. I learned a lot of good stuff and felt quite competent in handling any wiring or setup job that came across our counter. I had diagrams for a zillion guitars and options, but nothing for Rickenbacker. Both of these stores had big book sections and I have never seen anything on setting up or repairing Rickenbacker instruments.
In this 10 years time, I had only 2 Rickenbacker instruments come in for repair. 1 was a bass that had a big crack in the neck, and the other was a 330 that someone had fitted a full size dimarzio super distortion pickup in, and they wanted it returned to stock. Both items were sent to luthiers who had worked on Rickenbackers, and were familiar with their unique qualities. All that time, all those guitars, and this was in southern California, not the sticks I live in now.
BTW, the first store that I worked at was an authorized Rickenbacker dealer, and our top tech(who builds his own guitars)didn't touch them . They came set up pretty well, and we sold them not long after they arrived. This guy expressed his happiness in never having to fix one, as he didn't want to learn it on a customers instrument.
I find working on my own Ricks to be somewhat frustrating at times, as I can't really apply the skills I used to be so good at(Ithought, anyways)to dial them in. The whole dinking around with the tailpiece that loves to drop your string out and bridges that love to rock and roll on their own can make you invent some new words sometimes, but usually I can get it to be cool in the end. Overall, I find the experience exciting, and usually enjoyable since they are so different than anything else I've worked on. My Ricks don't pull any punches sometimes in reminding me of what an idiot I can feel like. I wish there was a good book or video that really addressed the quirks and offered real options and solutions.
My point to all of this yakitty yak, is that I don't want you to be offended, and I can totally relate to Micky being over cautious with your beloved guitars. Obviously, he knows how important they are to you and values your friendship. In my reply to your post I was just trying to help him feel confident in applying his knowledge to the specifics of your guitar, and maybe you guys might make a friend in the tech who has experience working on Rickenbackers.
Good luck with getting this sorted out, and sorry if some of the elements of your search for help here was offensive.
This makes working on these guitars by the average(not skill level)guitar tech one finds in a music store, a scary and or overly cautious experience. Many very experienced and qualified techs who have never worked on a Rick, don't want the experience to possibly question their credibility, or lose the respect of a friend and or customer. Your 70s model Rick, for instance, requires a different way to adjust the truss rods than virtually any other guitar. If you try to do it and don't know how the older rods work, you can potentially cause a lot of damage to your guitar. This is one of many reasons I suggest seeking someone with signifigant Rick experience, not a stab at you friend. RIC changed the way they work in the early 80s, I believe.
The latest Guitar World magazine has wrong information in it in the "Tech Education" regarding a Rickenbacker repair, and this was a correction of wrong information they posted in the previous edition. I have another post about that one.
Now those of you who are reading this who could do anything with their Ricks with their eyes closed,my hat is off to you. I would bet that someone at somepoint help you out and answer some questions either by watching them perform the task, or through extensive communication. Anyone interested in learning how to work on Ricks has virtually no resources, as I cannot think of a single book on guitar repair that covers Rickenbackers. The service manual is really not very current or informative, and the McGuinn video is better, but still doesn't answer the basic questions that an unfamiliar tech would have in "dialing in" a Rick, much less any signifigant problems they might run into. Then, all of the sudden, your left with tapdancing in a mine field of uncertainty in a situation that "shouldn't" be that difficult.
This website, and RICs, have turned out to be a great resource, and highly recommend going to Joeys Bass Notes for any of you bass owners. Joey really has a cool site that gives step by step instructions to some common issues, and is quite involved in the community. His site helped me remove my bridge cover properly and easily, thanks Joey.
Working for over 10 years in 2 proper music stores with both good onsite techs, and high end professional grade luthier builder and repair outsources. I learned how to do the 3 main types of guitars that come across the repair table, and the various switching and aftermarket options available. I learned a lot of good stuff and felt quite competent in handling any wiring or setup job that came across our counter. I had diagrams for a zillion guitars and options, but nothing for Rickenbacker. Both of these stores had big book sections and I have never seen anything on setting up or repairing Rickenbacker instruments.
In this 10 years time, I had only 2 Rickenbacker instruments come in for repair. 1 was a bass that had a big crack in the neck, and the other was a 330 that someone had fitted a full size dimarzio super distortion pickup in, and they wanted it returned to stock. Both items were sent to luthiers who had worked on Rickenbackers, and were familiar with their unique qualities. All that time, all those guitars, and this was in southern California, not the sticks I live in now.
BTW, the first store that I worked at was an authorized Rickenbacker dealer, and our top tech(who builds his own guitars)didn't touch them . They came set up pretty well, and we sold them not long after they arrived. This guy expressed his happiness in never having to fix one, as he didn't want to learn it on a customers instrument.
I find working on my own Ricks to be somewhat frustrating at times, as I can't really apply the skills I used to be so good at(Ithought, anyways)to dial them in. The whole dinking around with the tailpiece that loves to drop your string out and bridges that love to rock and roll on their own can make you invent some new words sometimes, but usually I can get it to be cool in the end. Overall, I find the experience exciting, and usually enjoyable since they are so different than anything else I've worked on. My Ricks don't pull any punches sometimes in reminding me of what an idiot I can feel like. I wish there was a good book or video that really addressed the quirks and offered real options and solutions.
My point to all of this yakitty yak, is that I don't want you to be offended, and I can totally relate to Micky being over cautious with your beloved guitars. Obviously, he knows how important they are to you and values your friendship. In my reply to your post I was just trying to help him feel confident in applying his knowledge to the specifics of your guitar, and maybe you guys might make a friend in the tech who has experience working on Rickenbackers.
Good luck with getting this sorted out, and sorry if some of the elements of your search for help here was offensive.