Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hey gang. Are the necks on Rick guitars from 1985 to 19?? really thin or what? Lately I've come across an '86 360/12 and an '87 610/12 and they play really awesome. If so, when did they go back to chunkier? Thanks J

Certainly by the late 90's the necks wre chunky again. I feel like i've heard '94 tossed around before as a rough cutoff.

nyrkickazz1 wrote:Certainly by the late 90's the necks wre chunky again. I feel like i've heard '94 tossed around before as a rough cutoff.

+1

I've got an '89 230 RIC and personally I like the modern nexks better. They're easier for me to play than the skinny 230 neck.

I have a 1992 4003 & the neck on that bass is amazing.So good that i retired my 1964 Hofner Violin bass,and sold my other basses i just wish i'd bought a Rickenbacker years ago.

The necks began to change about 1996. By '97 they were noticeably fatter. I had a '91 that had a neck beyond thin. It was so thin I could not play the guitar as my index finger would cramp up. But most people would have loved it.

belloff wrote:The necks began to change about 1996. By '97 they were noticeably fatter. I had a '91 that had a neck beyond thin. It was so thin I could not play the guitar as my index finger would cramp up. But most people would have loved it.

I can't speak for guitars, but my 1984 4003S and my 1988 V63 are amazing.
I had a 1993 that was almost as sweet! My V63 has what feels to be a slightly THINNER neck than my 1971 4001, while my 1995 CS is SLIGHTLY larger than my V63, they started putting on weight as Bob has said, around 1996.

I wonder if we sould do a "measure your girth" thread for guitars as well? It was one of my favorite posts in the bass forum. VERY INFORMATIVE!

Those 1984-1988 bass necks are (I mean WERE) one of the best kept secrets until about a year ago!

I've always been afraid to "... measure my girth."

However, my main Ricks are '90 models, a 360 6 and matching 12. The necks feel slimmer than the BurgandyGlo 12 I bought from Kevin Kuney, but a little more substantial than the one on my 480. I had a BlueBoy 360 for awhile but never really played it and its gone the way of the Dodo Bird now so I cannot compare directly.

JKC

When I picked up a Blackstar bass ('87 or '88), in the fall, the first thing I noticed was the slimness of the neck. Moving from a recent 4003 to the Blackstar is like going from a P-bass to a Jazz. Similarly my old '89 340 had a wonderfully thin neck. It seems like that time frame was a "golden age" for lovers of thin necks.

My '88 350 has a nice thin neck. The first time I picked it up, it reminded me a little of the c63 I used to have. I haven't played one of those in a while so I can't A/B them, but both guitars had a place in the middle of the neck that sort of flattened out and it was very noticeable; almost as if someone had sanded down the thickest portion of the neck.

my long gone 92 360/12fg was THE thin & flat neck. it was thinner than 66 Murph Squire II i have and that is true pencil neck. i would compare that rick 92 360/12 to some Kustom by ross necks but this was 12 string so the tension must have been amazing on that tiny chunk of maple. great guitar was that...and to my astonishment it had old truss rods, no acorn nuts at the butt. it was the most similar neck to 65-68 guitars i had during the years. unfortunately it took dive head first on the concrete stairs of a club we were playing that day in 1995 and the neck was trashed completely. next one was that 95 - or mayby 96 ? 370/12mg from bob bellof - bob do you remeber? and that one already had thicker neck and i would swear that it also had bit bulkier body. so to sum things up if you want rolls royce of rickenbacker look for 195x - 1969 or 1989 -1994. if you want mercedes of rickenbacker take a look at 1994-present because they are very standardised. if you want something between 1969 - 1989 it can be jaguar or toyota.

Steve, I love your avatar ... that's you with Howard and Darren in Oz, right?

doctorwho wrote:Steve, I love your avatar ... that's you with Howard and Darren in Oz, right?

Har!

grazioso wrote:this was 12 string so the tension must have been amazing on that tiny chunk of maple. if you want mercedes of rickenbacker take a look at 1994-present because they are very standardised. if you want something between 1969 - 1989 it can be jaguar or toyota.

Accurately speaking, it's compression. The strings and truss rods are the tension components in this structure.

Re: Mercedes...standardized as far as component locations, body shape, etc. But handbuilt and hand-finished. No robots, so Mercedes is probably not a good analogy. I've been thinking, "Morgan" for the last few years, as an automotive analogy. Except you can order a bespoke Morgan, but not a Rick.

Re: Jaguar or Toyota. Some '60s Ricks do feel like '60s Jags. But I've never seen a Toyota Rickenbacker. The closest I've got is a '75 430. That's more like a Hillman Imp Californian . I do not get any "Made in Japan" vibe of any sort from any Rick, ever.

86kubicki wrote:

doctorwho wrote:Steve, I love your avatar ... that's you with Howard and Darren in Oz, right?

Har!

Jeez...Steve, you took the word right out of my mouth!