Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Welcome Dave, Great Post!

HI again,

My black Ric isn't a copyright infrigement since it started out being an official Ric made by Rickenbacker, it's just been modded out like crazy and almost completely rebuilt since it was in such bad condition when I bought it. I would have left the stock pickups in there had they worked when I bought the bass, but the neck pickup was DOA and the bridge pickup was some off-brand cheapo thing, so I just put DiMarzio J's in there since I had them in my parts drawer (plus. . I didn't have to carve out any body wood to mount them, the existing pickup cavities were already plenty big enough to accommodate them).

My Ed Roman was a little bit of an issue with Rickenbacker for a minute since it does appear to have a Ric shape, but they eventually allowed it because it is a similar (not exact) body replica, with the legally required 10% minimum variation. Plus, the headstock is completely different, and there are no other physical trademark similarities (truss rod cover, pick guard, logo, etc).

To keep them from going after Ed I sent them a photo of the Ed Roman next to a photo of my old white one, and when set directly side by side like that the two bass bodies look very different. The Ed Roman looks like a Ric that went on a diet.

On a different topic, just recently I replaced the two DiMarzio J pickups on my black Ric that were in the Ric positions with the Seymour Duncan Ric Replacement pickups as an experiment. Wired in series as they come from the factory, they don't sound like Ric pickups at all, but I wired mine up in single coil / parallel mode and they are pretty killer that way, very Ric-ish but with less hum than stock Ric pickups.

I chuckle at that "10% variation" stuff. Ten percent of what, exactly?

Nothing personal, Dave...

It's always puzzled me what their unit of measurement is, on a compound-curved part...

On car sheet metal, it would seem that 1% would prevent a fit in most things.

jingle_jangle wrote:It's always puzzled me what their unit of measurement is, on a compound-curved part...

Well, when you get a bunch of lawyers involved, it probably doesn't have to have much relation to reality...

Well, then the unit of measurement would be the retainer...

How exactly DO you measure a 10% difference of an instrument?

Welcome back, Dave. Have you heard the RIck HB-1 humbucking pickups? Still have the Rick tone and character, but more ballsy, deeper, and authoritative. And quiet.

dmeros wrote:HI again,

My black Ric isn't a copyright infrigement since it started out being an official Ric made by Rickenbacker, it's just been modded out like crazy and almost completely rebuilt since it was in such bad condition when I bought it. I would have left the stock pickups in there had they worked when I bought the bass, but the neck pickup was DOA and the bridge pickup was some off-brand cheapo thing, so I just put DiMarzio J's in there since I had them in my parts drawer (plus. . I didn't have to carve out any body wood to mount them, the existing pickup cavities were already plenty big enough to accommodate them).

My Ed Roman was a little bit of an issue with Rickenbacker for a minute since it does appear to have a Ric shape, but they eventually allowed it because it is a similar (not exact) body replica, with the legally required 10% minimum variation. Plus, the headstock is completely different, and there are no other physical trademark similarities (truss rod cover, pick guard, logo, etc).

To keep them from going after Ed I sent them a photo of the Ed Roman next to a photo of my old white one, and when set directly side by side like that the two bass bodies look very different. The Ed Roman looks like a Ric that went on a diet.

On a different topic, just recently I replaced the two DiMarzio J pickups on my black Ric that were in the Ric positions with the Seymour Duncan Ric Replacement pickups as an experiment. Wired in series as they come from the factory, they don't sound like Ric pickups at all, but I wired mine up in single coil / parallel mode and they are pretty killer that way, very Ric-ish but with less hum than stock Ric pickups.

Personaly, I have no issue with the Rodman bass, and think its one hell of a great sounding and looking bass, the sound and tone of it is absolutely killer, atta guy Dave, like your style, Rock on brother, stay safe...