Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Here is another one of these Van Campens.

I have a 650 and have no problem with the "bump" at the neck base.

Has anyone ever played one of these?

link

The price ain't bad, BTW.

Timbo

"Van Campen" is another way of saying, "weaken it and pad the invoice".

It's the same as people who go on about the "heel from hell" on 22-fret PRSs. The longer heel does not get in the way - at least it doesn't for me, and I have small hands (and I do very occasionally play right at the last fret too) - it was done by PRS deliberately to make the neck stiffer and eliminate a common dead spot in the very early models which didn't have it. Nonetheless a myth has grown up that it's some sort of problem that needs to be "corrected".

Given that the 650 has a 24-fret neck, even the extended heel is far shorter than that on a Strat, a Les Paul, a PRS, or just about any other guitar I can think of anyway... except maybe an early SG, which are notorious for having the neck fall right off .

It's an answer to a non-existent problem....

Which, in turn, could very well lead to a major problem for which there will be no answer.

Avoid like the plague.

SO unnecessary.

eatswodo wrote:... could very well lead to a major problem for which there will be no answer...

Some time back, a fellow Forumite did wind up with an unfixable problem because of this mod (and an unplayable, unfixable guitar). IIRC, there was a knot or 'grain anomaly' (for lack of better term) in the wood right where the wood was shaved off, and the neck developed an irreversible twist or deflection because the wood was removed. Although it was a new guitar, RIC was unable to help because the guitar had been modified by the dealer, and the dealer, who will not be named to protect the guilty, did not do anything (nor admit to the error created by their mod, IIRC).

firstbassman wrote:It may be "unnecessary" but it is a cleaner look. Others may disagree of course.

The heel, maybe. The nasty zebra humbuckers, on the other hand...

That poor puppy not only has a snarky neck, it's cross-eyed to boot!!!

In a word: No.

Roman = FAIL

Why buy a guitar that you don't like in the first place. Many other choices are available out of the box the require no modifications. If you don't like the heel, don't buy it, as there's plenty of folks who do.

dpowell wrote:

firstbassman wrote:It may be "unnecessary" but it is a cleaner look. Others may disagree of course.

The heel, maybe. The nasty zebra humbuckers, on the other hand...

Yes, I meant the heel. (Or the lack of one.)

Agree, hate zebra pups on any guitar and on the 650, even more so.

whojamfan wrote:Why buy a guitar that you don't like in the first place. Many other choices are available out of the box the require no modifications. If you don't like the heel, don't buy it, as there's plenty of folks who do.

+1

JimK

Those Zebra humbuckers just make the poor guitar look awful. Instead of uglifying a Rick, why don't people just buy something that's hideous right out of the box, such as a guitar version of this similarly finished Alembic bass. I feel sorry for any tree that had to die in order for any Alembic bass to be built. I don't care how expensive they are: http://www.alembic.com/info/fc_kb.html

sloop_john_b wrote:SO unnecessary.

Agreed, JB. What up with that? Regards.....G-foot.