Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi again ... I'm the new Ricster on the block. Now ... I had never actually seen a 325v63 up close before I recently bought a used 1998-year model, so I didn't notice anything funny immediately about the way it was strung.

I wanted to change strings to Ric 95106. I had the worst possible time doing this. Trouble was more "de-stringing" than stringing .... getting the old ones off. After a couple of hours of this I was saying to myself ... " somethings wrong here ... can't be like this ... no one would design a stringing system like this!"

Photos I have seen of 325v63s show the strings coming OVER the Accent vib heading for the bridge. My strings, however, were coming out of the MIDDLE of the vib. That piece of the vib to which the arm attaches is like a potato chip bag reclosing clip ... you know ... has jaws with some spring action. The strings were fit through holes and through these "jaws" so the vib jaws more or less clamped down on the strings.

Well ... it didn't look weird, not knowing what to expect ... but getting the old strings off is a misery! Getting new ones on isn't so cool either.

Can someone give me a clue. I am in bad need of being "de-confused."

Thanks ever so much!

-Highly strung in Chicago

Accents are so much fun to deal with .So are their cousins on 1960 Gibson SG's .

I am sorry to inform you that there is NO magic trick to stringing that I know of .

All that I do is , Slide the D string on first , and then install the G string , working your way out to the E strings .This keeps the thing from moving around -too much.

You need to use a set of strings with a wound G however , due to the short scale .

Thanks, Mark! Would you run the string OVER the top of the vibrato plate or just under the plate, in between the two plates? If the later, as was the case with this guitar when I bought it ... it's a devil of a time getting the strings on/off. After they're installed this way, the thick end of the string close to the ball gets so jammed in, takes congress to get it out. I think something's amiss here.

Also ... I guess I need to do more "searching" on this and other sites but I just need to be pointed in the direction of basic info regarding this guitar. For example ... after stringing/tuning, my bridge is really tilting toward the neck ... figure this isn't right. Stuff like that.

I guess this will be OK after I get the hang but right now it's rather dominating my life. ha

And thank you so much for your words of wisdom!

-Jululu

When you change strings, try depressing the vibrato handle as far as you can. I've seen this open the gap enough to get the string ends out a bit more easily.It may or may not work for you.

Got the stringing thing all figgered out.

Thanks to all! Especially Mark!

-Jululu

Thanks Don! Don't think I'm gonna feel like changing strings too often on this guitar! ha

-Jululu

This may sound stupid,but could that be one of the reasons JL switched to a bigsby so soon after purchasing his Ric?

NO,,,,,,,The original tailiece was a "Coughman" er, Kaughman , no Kauffman .Hows that ?

The tailpiece that 'Doc' Kauffman made was fine for the 1940's ........but back then there was limited input into the guitar parts business and Paul Bigsby was sort of the only guy in th estates really making a product that was "after market" for this purpose .

He was in Downey and Doc was in the Santa Ana area and also some one whom FC Hall knew .