Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

This afternoon I pulled the police report on the accident. He blew a .175 blood alcohol level. That's a bit over twice the legal limit of .080. He's also 20, so he was drinking under the 21 age restriction. It appears he has no insurance. So it's mandatory that he loses his license. I'll be filing a civil action on Monday to recover my losses. He won't be able to get his license back until the judgement is paid.

Because this isn't going to be a quick turn around and this has left Theresa without a car (she can't drive a manual trans, so she can't drive my truck) I'm putting a couple of my personal left handed instruments up for sale:

1) 1967 Rickenbacker 360-12 JetGlow. I've posted pictures and the story on this one in the past. It shipped in 1974 with a 1974 serial number plate, but has ALL 1967 features, including THE neck profile (Graham knows what I mean), checkered binding, toasters, Klusons, full width sparkley inlays, and the internal 'convertible' block.

2) 1980 MusicMan StingRay Bass. I know, it's not a Rick, but it's a killer bass. It took me years to find one this nice. Black with a rosewood fingerboard. Very few in this combination. Most of the lefties were Maple/Natural for some reason. Great condition and all original with original case. Leo Fender era B01 series serial number. NOT an Ernie Ball made bass (they are nice, but not the same beast.)

If anyone is interested send me an email and I'll send photos.

I've listed the bass on eBay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7360205898

It seems the guy does have insurance, so now it's just fighting with his company's claims dept. I'd imagine that fact that he was too drunk to remember he had insurance should help expedite things.

Because of this bit of good news I'm no longer selling the 360-12.

Scott: Glad to hear you're keeping the 360-12. It sounds like a great guitar.

Scott - Glad to hear some good has come from this, and I hope you can keep your MM bass in the end too. It's a real drag to have to sell some gear to pay a bill. Believe me, I know that feeling...

I also know what it's like to deal with car accidents and settlements too. All I can say is give it some time and let your insurance co. lawyers (and personal lawyer if you need to) deal with it.

My wife was involved in an accident (not her fault) that totalled her car and put her in a hospital, but not at first. The day after the accident she was hurting more and went back to he hospital and found out she had a few broken ribs and a broken collarbone. Which, surprisingly, she'd never been x-rayed when taken to the hospital in an ambulance directly from the scene. Real strange considering her car was basically t-boned from a 45 degree angle into the driver's side door and was crushed halfway into the passenger's area.

Anyway, I saw the pics of the car, and anybody in their right mind would've called it totaled. Except the insurance companies, of course. They paid more to rebuild it than a brand new replacement would've cost. Let's just say it's not a pretty sight to see a Mazda Protege smashed up by one of the old style (BIG) Chevy Blazers...

Oh, she also had to deal with a lot of medical bills too. Including surgery a few months later. Not to mention the guy driving the Blazer had borrowed it from his brother and neither one of them was insured. Took almost two years to settle everything.

All in all, she ended up with all med and legals fees paid, as well as having the car rebuilt (we still have it, and it's fine), as well as receiving a $40+K cash settlement on top of all the rest.

The money's nice, don't get me wrong here. But the hassle is not something I'd want to be involved with again...

They picked up the Jeep yesterday. They totaled it. Fine with me. Hard to get any trade value out of a vehicle that's been rebuilt.

Now it's down to the check they're willing to write. They've already made a low offer to each of us for the 'inconvenience.' It's of course not even close to the money we've lost by dealing with this instead of work.

The one down side for me is Theresa won't let me use the cash from the insurance company to buy the lefty 4005-6... sigh. Something about not being able to drive an old bass.