Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

When talking to a friend and playing my Rickenbacker 12 string we wondered why the slots to the tuning pegs did not got through the headstock to make stringing easier. It certainly provides for a nicer look from the back of the headstock. In the end, it was assumed that this arrangement was chosen was to provide for a stronger headstock. I am wondering if anyone knows if this is the correct thinking on the matter. Also are there prototypes out there that may have the slots routed completely through the headstock.

I'm pretty sure Arnquist has done this to Rick headstocks, and that little bit of wood you'd remove to make it go all the way through doesn't add that much strength.

McGuinn's 1970 Rickenbacker 370/12 has had its slots routed completely through the headstock since at least 1974. It was very visible when I examined the guitar at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum back in 1995. And although the McGuinn wiring harness and pickguard were long gone off the guitar (replaced by a more conventional Rick-O-Sound pickguard, etc.), that see-through slotted headstock remains one of the most permanently identifying features of the guitar -- aside from the woodgrain, of course.

Well I'm back from the turkey eating feast ...

YES ...I have done this to many Rick 12 string headstocks .
I have found that it does ,in many cases help the stringing and restringing of them.

WARNING !!!

This does NOT work on all 12 string Ricks !Some of the tuner layouts land into the slots (these are all mostly 1970's .The tuners hang into/over the slots and some of these guitars have the tuners laid out so poorly that the casings were filed to allow the buttons to NOT hit the other tuners.There is absolutely no way to use a peg winder or anyother winding tool on these guitars without surgery.

This did not structurally weaken the headstocks nor did it cause any tuning problems (as far as something like headstock wobble)

I have done this to the 12string that I personally own and love it .

Mark: Have you heard why the slots were not designed so that they might be cut all the way through for all the 12 string headstocks?

no idea ...this is for John Hall to answer.

I will speculate though...
The layout was to keep the weight of the tuners close to the headstock to not throw weight away from the headstock.Meaning this would seem like less weight to the player.
Secondly and I'll bet more practically ,this headstock was conceived to use basically the same tooling and maintain a look plus not force the buying of another case from the suppliers and help to maintain a lower cost.
As to the slots not going through all the way ,I'm sure that this was a structural concern .Plain and simple.I have not had to deal with too many broken headstocks on Rick 12 strings .So I will leave it at that ,if John would like to clarify the headstock and whether or not his Father came up with it ,I'm sure we would all love to hear the tale.
I personally feel it is one of the most clever designs in the guitar industry.Unique and extremely functional.

Thanks Mark. I couldn't agree more that this was one of the more interesting design features to show up in a guitar, anywhere. I would like to know more about how the idea was conceived and perhaps John Hall has some additional information to add. Mark, how about sending a photo to the Rickenbacker Registration Page of your 12 string headstock so that it could be posted for all to see.

I believe that Richard Burke came up with the alternating key design for the 12-stringer.

There's no reason the slots couldn't/shouldn't go through, except that as Mark pointed out, with some older keys, they would be in the way. Certainly the head is stronger without the cut-outs, especially from the standpoint of splitting, but I don't think the difference would be much of a consideration.

There are two schools of thinking about headstocks. The first, typified by Ned Steinberger and Sperzel, suggests that the head should be as light as possible in order to minimize it's influence on string motion. The opposite view is put forth by Aspen Pittman who offers a screw-on plate (the clever name of which I've forgotten. Headbanger? Thickhead?) to increase the head mass. I personally believe the best is somewhere in the middle, a balance between mass of the body and the head. By my theory, the hollow body heads should be cut out, while the solid body guitars would have solid heads.

Maybe we'll have to play with that one a bit again someday.

This is all in reference only to guitars, by the way, as I tend to agree with Ned as far as minimizing bass head weight.