Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

My used 360/V64-12 came with Rickenbacker made replacement gold pickguards. The upper guard doesn't clear the bridge pickup properly, and I would also like to bevel the edge of the nameplate to clear the octave strings a little better. Is it possible to reshape these slightly without damaging the gold paint underneath, and if so, how? I need to take about 3/16" off the edge of the guard. As far as the nameplate goes I don't believe the gold will give me trouble, I would just need to keep the edge of the chamfer polished.

I tried emailing the Rick 12 Doctor to ask how to do this or how much he would charge, but I didn't receive a reply so I don't know if he ever got the message.

It looks like the edges are also painted besides the bottom of the plates on my 660/12, so I think you will need to repaint the edges after you do this. I'd like to know the outcome of this as what you are suggesting would help me too.

You're right about the painted edges. I hadn't noticed that because I had the upper guard off. The nameplate didn't appear to have painted edges when looking through it from the top, but upon closer inspection it does. I like the looks of this plate better, as opposed to the raised logo version on my other Rick's, but I tried to adjust the truss rod the other day and the thicker plate makes it next to impossible to remove without loosening or taking off all of the slotted strings. Then you have to retension the neck to check the adjustment.

I hope someone can give some insight into modifying the guards and/or touching up the gold paint afterwards.

I had the same problem when I went to adjust the truss rods. I loosened the strings enough to get the plate off and then I retensioned the strings. Once I adjusted the truss rods I just left the plate off until I was sure things settled and they were as I wanted the neck to be. Then I replaced the plate. A pain to be sure, but it shouldn't have to be done very often.