Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I know it's sacreligious to do that but is it possible? Finding a 360WB is tough these days and I'm having better luck finding the V64s however I love the "R' tailpiece. Suggestions???

-OD

Completely doable, but you'll need new holes in the body to accommodate the R tailpiece's bracket. There will be two things different as well: full-width inlays (normal width on a WB), and 21-fret neck (24-fret for a WB).

One could also do this: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=381592

Dale's doing a similar project for me in JG

I've gotta ask, do you really think the 360WB is better looking than a 360V64? I can't think of a single thing I prefer on the 360WB to the V64. The R tailpiece is an easy fix, what else do you like better about the WB?

Soundhole binding?

I like the 24 fret models myself; I don't like the pickup spacing as much on the OS models, and the way the neck ands right where it joins to the body always gives me a visual that it's so fragile that it's goig to just snap off. Some of the "before" repair shots of snapped off 21 fret necks on this forum have reinforced this vision...

Even so, the V64 is a pretty cool guitar that many of us wish RIC still made, of course(RIC staff's eyes roll as they read this post): FWI, VP, small peghead, vintage keywinds-all nice features. Really, the only thing missing is soundhole bindng. I don't really miss the "R" tailpiece. I usually swap mine out for an Accent VB.

I do actually like the looks of the 24 fret neck overlapping onto the body better than the 21 fretter which ends at the body and I don't particulalry care for the neck pickup being right up at the edge either. From a purely visual, artistic point of view, I think it better design and a better piece of sculpture. In a basic design/composition class I'd give the 24 fret neck model the better grade every time. The various elements in play just blend to form a single composition better than they do on 21 fretters. I was a sculpture major in college and these days I'm continually amazed at many of the custom shop guitars and basses that I see which exhibit wonderful workmanship with incredible wood, yet turn out to really be lousy pieces of sculpture. I was playing a fretless Warwick in a store the other day. Fancy wood, nice clean workmanship, played great, wonderful action, sounded great and it had a truly butt-ugly body shape. If I owned one, the first thing I would do is take it out in the driveway, get out the sabre saw and try to cut the body into some sort of decent-looking shape. Those of you who are used to my general state of craziness know that I'm not kidding.

Does this mean that I wouldn't own a 21 fret Rickenbacker? No, I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid. Given the choice though, I'd rather have 24 frets and the overlapping neck. I just think it looks better and is better art.

I respectfully disagree. I think the 21-fret neck ending at the body is much more beautiful, and also unique to Rickenbacker (except the les paul jr. double cut). The overlapping neck looks like an overly-large forehead to me and totally kills the gestalt of the classic RIC designs. The 24-fret neck sticks right through the sloping curve of the double cutaways whereas the 21-fret neck completes it. I'm extremely particular about design, especially guitar design, because it's one of the things I'm probably most passionate about.

"The 24-fret neck sticks right through the sloping curve of the double cutaways whereas the 21-fret neck completes it."

This is where we disagree. To me it takes two very different design elements (the curvy body and the straight long neck block) and simply butt-joins them together. They're so close that they have to have a visual relationship, yet there is no effort made to create one or form a continuous composition. Their relationship is that they don't have a relationship. Some folks like it that way, others don't. Some people consider that to be the intended artistic statement, others think it the lack of one. Last time I checked though, there was room in the pool for everybody and a good supply if Ricks out there to fit either preference. The one thing that does bug me though, is the somewhat snobbish attitude that I see from time to time fron the 21 fret crowd - as if their opinions on the subject (or their Ricks) were somehow better or more valid than anyone else's. The world would be a pretty boring place if everybody agreed with everybody else all the time. The best you can do is state your opinion with whatever explanation you care to give and understand that other opinions and reasons may be different, but just as valid to those who hold them. In the mean time, I can certainly live with being on the less popular side of the equation here. It means fewer people that I have to bid against every time I want to buy another WB

Well, of course my opinions are better than yours. And yes, the world would be a boring place without opinions. But hey, we're already pretty far out there for liking Rickenbackers in the first place, right?

Wow. I was just looking for a yes or no. LOL! Thanks guys.

SkyBlueSky wrote:I know it's sacreligious to do that but is it possible? Finding a 360WB is tough these days and I'm having better luck finding the V64s however I love the "R' tailpiece. Suggestions???

-OD

Geez, if you're finding lots of V64s, I'll be more than happy to trade you my MG WB for one, so long as the V64 isn't FG

I'm with Wes on this one!

21 frets = classic

24= classic (after a few beers)


I mean the WB's are awesome guitars- I've only played one before and it sounded/played very well, but every time I see one I'm thinking..."if only this part was different.....or....shame about this little detail" etc, compared to the v64 (which I own).

But..in their defense, they are a more modern version of the OS 21 fret models, so just as all the Ric models progressed over time, the changes are understandable. Nice that we get the choice after all!



Cheers,
-Collin

21 frets!

I love the V64 - totally classic. The 360WB just looks like an 80s attempt to recerate it to me. My V64 is my favourite guitar, as I've posted on numerous occasions!

I admit that the "R" would improve it though. I think the one on the cover of the Tony Bacon book is essentially what a V64 with an "R" tailpeice would look like no?

The whole "classic" (or should it be faux-classic) thing may also be one of the reasons that I don't jump on the bandwagon. I was around when most of this stuff was not classic - it was all we had and at times it was not half as romantic as people today seem to think it was. Having to deal with amps that blew up, difficulties finding anybody anywhere who could competently work on your guitars, inability to find and obtain the strings you wanted, recording on four-track machines where you had to constantly be mixing stuff down during the session (losing all abilities to adjust it later) and the unproven, experimental nature of a lot of the new equipment of the day wasn't an awful lot of fun. Imagine that you're a guitar player and you have no stomp boxes, an underpowered amp with no gain control and no way to feed it into the PA. If you want some distortion, you do it by pushing your amp and speaker to the limit and hope you get through the evening without blowing it. Same deal with playing bass. I don't even know how many speakers I blew before I finally got JBL D-140's and later my Sunn 118's. Classic looks a lot better now than it did back in the day when the van would break down in southern Illinois and your biggest fear was that the rednecks might kill you because you had one of them "Beatle haircuts". I'd certainly love to own some of the old gear I had, my B-15N in particular, but for the most part, I'm quite happy with modern equipment.

Way to tell it!

I've brought my guitar to more than one luthier who's stated without qulification that guitars made today are the best ever; a lot of things that were hit and miss before are known quantities now. Are there cheap guitars and amps out there? Yes, but well built, quality instruments are the best ever.

"The real purist will argue that the point-to point, hand wired method is superior. The fact is if the low cost PCB was available to Leo in 1959 he would have used it"
-Aspen Pittman, The Tube Amp Book, Deluxe Revised Edition, p. 26.