Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

dpowell wrote:Geez, I just put the ball ends in one at a time and wind 'em up...push the arm down if the gap isn't big enough.

The Ac'cent is way better than the Strat vibrato, IMO, because of its sheer simplicity...no springs, no blocks, no trying to get the string end through those stupid little holes in the back...

But you've gotta admit, an Accent would look kooky on a strat. I think they're both beautiful in their relative simplicity and fit on their respective makes and models perfectly. But seriously, it's so easy to string an Accent. Common sense my friends

I never had any trouble with an Accent (except for the very first time), but the Trapeze is still way easier!

Well duh, it's just a flat piece of metal with holes in it! The R tail is definitely the hardest. As long as you leave a couple strings on while you're changing the rest it isn't so bad though.

I love the Accent. All my Ricks (except the 360/12, of course) have one.

Yeah, I agree- the trapeze is the best (easiest), especially for 12 strings, it makes so much sense.

My mention of the strat Vibrato ( ) was because I like how you can adjust it, depending on your style by adding extra springs etc. It is also quite comfortable to the hand and actually stays in tune!

I used to have a '66 Mosrite, you are correct Paul- it looks amazing, even the arm. I thought it was terrible in use though, it seemed like there was only an inch or so that it could go down before hitting the strings, and wouldn't stay in tune for beans. Could have been some other issue with the guitar though, it needed a setup.

Thanks for the tutorial PW! I've only restrung my accent once so far, and it wasn't too hard, just harder than other Ric tailpieces.

dpowell wrote:Geez, I just put the ball ends in one at a time and wind 'em up...push the arm down if the gap isn't big enough.

The Ac'cent is way better than the Strat vibrato, IMO, because of its sheer simplicity...no springs, no blocks, no trying to get the string end through those stupid little holes in the back...

Yeah, that's how I string mine up on the accent as well, but I bend the ball end down with my index finger and thumb before I slide the string into the slot so that the ball end locks in on the underside of the notch and doesn't slip while I'm winding the string.

I too love the elegant simplicity of the Stratocaster vibrato unit, on a Stratocaster, of course.

Update:

New nut


New plastic bits. I like vintage knobs, they're cleaner


I'm also working on getting the black paint off the edge of the soundhole. Going good so far.

Nice pics.

I thought the soundhole edges on the OS models were supposed to have black paint.

paologregorio wrote: I thought the soundhole edges on the OS models were supposed to have black paint.

Well, if they did it certainly wasn't this black paint. This is the same stuff someone painted in the soundhole. That stuff is harder to get to though, so I started on the easy part.

1965 wrote:

paologregorio wrote: I thought the soundhole edges on the OS models were supposed to have black paint.

Well, if they did it certainly wasn't this black paint. This is the same stuff someone painted in the soundhole. That stuff is harder to get to though, so I started on the easy part.

They are painted black on the edge of the soundhole though, it'd be worth getting proper paint put back on it after you've cleaned the old paint off..

(ps..the UPS countdown begins soon for mine! )

The stuff on the edge was flaking off a bit already. It looked pretty bad, you could actually see the brush strokes in it. Repainting it will be cake compared to getting all the other paint out of there. Still haven't quite figured out how I'm gonna do that. I don't want to send the guitar away to sit in someone's shop for 6 months though, so I'll most likely be attempting it myself.