Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Scott, Did McGuinn's guitar come from the factory with the keys facing that way?

Ken, it did not. Roger put those on in 1970 or so, if I recall the story correctly.

Scott, that is a wonderful headstock collection. When I see that 360/12BG LH from '67, I wish I was lefty.

McGuinn's "improvements" look like an explosion in a hardware store...

We were never able to get an exact date on when McGuinn changed the tuners. It was sometime between late 1969 and early 1970. He, or whoever did it for him, did a lousy job. I don't know why he wouldn't have had the factory do it for him.

If I recall correctly, Tomcat put the #2 Byrd Rick getting into a fracas in Mexico sometime,in '69, apparently this is when the neck got the crack in the back of it. Seems logical to me that if enough force came at the guitar to crack the neck, perhaps the original Kluson tuners caught much of the brunt and got bent, dented, or broken, necessitating replacement.McGuinn told me he figured it was likely a roadie that changed out the tuners for him, but otherwise couldn't recall why they were installed "backwards"..I saw the Byrds in Feb. '70, and from my front row vantage point at that show, I caught"non-stock" tuners on it, and for years could not figure out What they were.These are likely Grovers that were still American made.They are the guitar version of the big "square box" ones found on 70s Rick basses. Also they used them on 70s Martin "S" model 12 fret slotted headstock acoustics.Called the "Slimline" tuner, the early ones, like on the Byrd guitar, had rectangular buttons on them; later ones, as found on Martins, had the round/oval button, like a Kluson button.

Could they possibly been installed that way to facilitate tuning?

Anyway, you can see from the pics that screws are loose and they are not sitting flush with the headstock.

I think the tuners are on that way simply because they would not fit properly the correct way. Not that they really fit well this way either. Based on the other hack jobs we know he personally did to his instruments I would be surprised if someone other than Roger did this.

I have seen these tuners as factory-installed hardware on Rickenbacker guitars, but not gold-plated as they are on Byrd Rick #2. most of the examples have been from the late 70's-early 80's, one was a 320.

Lots of guitarists are not techs, but poor coordination and lack of patience result in such memorable bodges!

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