Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Mark or Peter,
How good are the Accent and Bigsby B5 vibratos at staying and tune and keeping good intonation? If I where to install one or the other, which one would you suggest I use? Should I install a vibrato at all?

Stephen: It will be interesting to read the responses to this question. B5 and Accent folks let's hear from you. My two cents is that your instrument will stay in tune as long as you don't use your vibrato. Very few people seem to use the vibrato for this reason. Unless you really have to have the "original" look for the 325 from the factory or Lennon's modification I would stick with the trapeze or R tailpiece. I have never seen a quote from Lennon that he used his vibrato on his Rickenbackers and can't hear anywhere in his recordings in which he might have.

Hey Peter,
Sorry for bugging you with the incessant questions. I was thinking if I did opt for the non-vibrato tailpeice, I would like to find the vintage Rick. Does RIC have them out on the market or do I have to find them at a parts reissue dealer? Who could hook me up?

Stephen: You can find what your looking for here. Don't forget to tell Mike Parks that we sent you.

My '66 335 plays fine with the Accent. When I get my new 360/6 I'll have something to compare it to. I always had a hard time keeping it in tune until I had a good intonation job. I also did not realize that when changing string gauge, the guitar needs to be re-intonated. Thanks to Mr. Rhoads for that piece of advice. Once again, I'm just an amateur -- but I wonder how many average players out there also do not understand all of the reasons a guitar could be out of tune. Well, maybe I was the only one!!

In my opinion due to my experience of owning 4 Strats with trems, and an SG and Guild with Bigsbys, it is essential that you put locking machine heads like Sperzels on the guitar. This eliminates all the necessary string windings around the post where there is all the 'play' in the string for it to go out of tune. If you don't have to do any modification to the Ric headstock great, but if it's a vintage or brand new ax it's a judgement call. A few years ago I found a really nice early 70's SG with a Bigsby that was all original in a pawnshop. Even without using the Bigsby the tuning wasn't right because of the placement of the nut. So I had to make a decision- do I want to keep it completely stock or do I want to be able to play this on stage? Seeing it wasn't a particularly valuable model I had the nut redone and had locking Sperzel's professionally installed (it required some drilling). The result- a guitar that stages in tune all night all the way up the neck and the Bigsby never makes it go out of tune.
If you do a bunch of string bends on a guitar with locking tuners then immediately play a chord it will still sound out of tune sometimes, but if you push the trem arm again it'll come right back in tune.
I have a 360V64/6 and it wasn't staying in tune when I first got it. I was getting that "string ping thing" at the nut with the G string. You know, you'd be tuning or bending the G string and you'd hear this creaking ping sound at the nut because the string just slipped on the nut because there's too much friction there. Anyway I was doing the pencil lead scraping thing there for a while but I think its okay now that the guitar is getting "broken in". Anyway, it stays in tune now.

Like RKB, I too have a '66 335. The accent vibrato works great on mine.

Thanks guys, I will take this all into consideration when I try to get the right tailpeice. I will keep you all updated!

Just wondering -the nut on my RIC is black. Is it made out of graphite?

I have just a recieved a Fender American Tele (Olympic White) with the B5 and the Jazzmaster bridge on it. I now see how badly out of tune the guitar can get now. I will get Sperzels when I get the money. Now, would any of the other Bigsbys be short enough to install in the ramp of a Rick?

Allen,
a slightly late answer for you on the nut; they are Not graphite[though to the uninitiated, the black color could lead you to that conclusion]
but Phenolic[Bakelite], a material used for years for electrical insulation applications,and a host of other uses.

I've used a Bigsby on my 325v59 and didn't like it that much. I've never used a Ric Accen't Vibrato, although I believe that Gibson's Maestro Vibrato was pretty similar, and that I DID like. The Maestro has the same bent metal recoil effect as the Ric Vibrato, and I think would have the same affect. With the Maestro I never had serious problems with and it stayed in tune pretty well...IF I didn't try to do any "dive-bombers". Just my 2 cents.

If I remember correctly[?],the Original 60s Accents and the Gibson Vibrola were made by the same company, hence, the sameness of function.
Possibly due to the tempering of the metal or[???]whatever, on both Ricks with Accent, and ,say, a Gibson SG with a Vibrola,at least in my experience, all things considered,including these units' obvious limitations, I've played guitars that had these vibratos, on which they worked very well, stayed in tune, etc.,and generally were fine.OTOH, I've also played guitars that had them, that functionally speaking, totally sucked.As they say, YMMV....