Interesting 8 string bass neck

jps · Post by **jps** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 3:18 pm

On page 139 of the Rittor book is a photo of an Electro factory worker installing frets on a neck with full width inlays, '60s shape headstock (not potatohead) with walnut wings and eight holes for tuning keys. What bass did this end up on?

johnallg · Post by **johnallg** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:51 pm

Is there a year associated with the picture?

jps · Post by **jps** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 5:45 pm

Maybe, but it is in Kanji!

hieronymous · Post by **hieronymous** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 7:11 pm

Can you scan it? I can read Japanese.

cheyenne · Post by **cheyenne** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 1:59 am

Pic?? I dont have the Rittor book

jps · Post by **jps** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 3:50 am

I'll try to do that today, I don't have a scanner so I will copy it just like I copy old, rare photographs at work.

www.labwork-bw.com

jps · Post by **jps** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:59 pm

(c) Rittor

Who is that in the photo?

dale_fortune · Post by **dale_fortune** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 7:04 pm

I can't remember his name, he left in 1973 after I started. This is the fret bench that we used. A claw hammer was standard for fretting, I used a ball peen hammer to set frets. I'll make a phone call or 2 and see if someone else may remember. What a happy face.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 7:46 pm

Gotta be somebody else, Dale.

The Rittor mook is February 1995...that picture could not have been over 23 years old at the time.

I was under the impression that the "factory tour" portion of the mook (pp.137-146) was from '94. The rest of the photos in the tour section look like '90s pics, not '70s.

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 8:18 pm

Just because we can't identify him by name is no reason to refer to him as a "mook"...

dale_fortune · Post by **dale_fortune** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 8:35 pm

Well I started in late 72, this looks like the same bench I worked at. We had some long hair guys that looked like this fellow. One in mind was Paul Bennett. That's the same kind of claw hammer we used for frets. I don't know anything about the Rittor book except it was printed in Nippon. A lot of Walnut Wings on those peg heads, looks like pre 1973, but aren't those Maple fingerboards on some of those necks? Those weren't made when I worked there. I couldn't say for sure, I parted ways in 1976.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 2:55 am

Also that headstock tilts back ... that is a modern feature ...

dale_fortune · Post by **dale_fortune** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 3:58 am

Yeah Dane, he could be a Mick or a Mac for all we know....

jsod · Post by **jsod** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 4:05 am

That does look like a more modern photo...

It doesn't have that "70's" look to it, if you know what I mean...no plaid, no paisley, no thick-rimmed glasses, etc.

Definitely '90's-era. That's how I looked then...and now!

So did Rickenbacker have a custom shop in the '90's?

dale_fortune · Post by **dale_fortune** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 4:58 am

The closest thing to a Custom Shop was in the60's/70's when a Dealer could order a special instrument with say a Bass and 12 string (4080) in a special color or Ebony Fingerboard. Most everything had to be picked from what the sales catalog offered. Some of the employees were allowed to make a custom instrument for ones self. As for plaid and paisley, the way this fellow is dressed in a white T-shirt and jeans is the way most all of the wood shop crew dressed. Working with all the machinery in the shop, tight fitting clothes with tucked in shirts was a safety standard.