Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Why is this guitar, or any Ric for that matter, constructed with RH position markers???

Because that's the way they were made then. In fact they have only just started doing L/H inlays this year.

Always struck me as pretty lazy actually. It seems lefties have traditionally got a raw deal from RIC on features like that (tailpieces, TRCs...)

Now excuse me while I cower and adjust to my new position as Rickenbacker pariah....

No pariah, Rob.

Consider the EXTREMELY small percentage of players who were lefties in the past. Seems like it's becoming more common, since new players are inclined to go with their natural inclinations, not to mention follow some idols like Hendrix and Cobain.

To tool up for a lefty "R" tailpiece would be economically unfeasible; it still would take decades to recover initial costs.

The fretboard situation simply had to wait for the CNC programming to happen; it's happened and we should celebrate.

Good points Paul - the beauty and relatively complex design of some Rickenbacker features clearly doesn't lend itself to quick and economical "mirroring" as it were.

So spoilt we are by the unique awesomeness of Rickenbacker that we want MORE!!!

Now I must away - for I have some Cure basslines to thunder out on my full-width-inlayed 4003!

jingle_jangle wrote:To tool up for a lefty "R" tailpiece would be economically unfeasible; it still would take decades to recover initial costs.

The fretboard situation simply had to wait for the CNC programming to happen; it's happened and we should celebrate.

IIRC, JH quoted a number once about tooling up a lefty 'R', it was a hefty 5-figure sum....

OK - mainly cost savings then. Just looks kinda strange to my eyes. BTW, this one's for sale on ebay right now - it looks pretty nice...

tooling for tailpiece hefty 5 figures? like 10 000 or 90 000? it can't be that expensive. it is not it steel - it can be sandcasted pretty cheap. ....i would second that opinion that it is just raw deal for lefties. at least the trapeze can be just flipped over.

No pariah Rick. In the outside world Ric does not have the best rep for being a very together company or user friendly company, although I haveealways had good experiences on the phone with them. True or not they build the coolest guitars, and part of what makes em cool to me is that they are so different from one guitar to the next. Just thanks goodness they aren't owned but Fender or Gibson, like those other two great 50's guitar companies.

Just speculation: with modern prototyping equipment, it might be less expensive to produce a mirror-image tailpiece prototype ('flipping a file' digitally, more or less) that could then be used to create a master mold. Of course, part of the expense is the minimum production batch size.

Somebody help me! I don't know how much longer I can hold out before snapping up that CW.

Buy it! Does that help, Richard?

grazioso wrote:tooling for tailpiece hefty 5 figures? like 10 000 or 90 000? it can't be that expensive. it is not it steel - it can be sandcasted pretty cheap. ....i would second that opinion that it is just raw deal for lefties. at least the trapeze can be just flipped over.

Have you done much design for manufacturing or studied materials and processes, Dusan?

Sandcasting would never work for a part such as this--it is typically prone to voids and impurities that would seriously compromise the strength and durability of a complex part with thin sections under lots of stress, like this one.

Sandcasting would probably not be able to successfully replicate the string anchor detail on the underside of this part, especially on the 12-string version.

Sandcasting also requires a whole lot of hand-finishing, and typically, no two sand-cast parts ever look alike, once they've been plated and polished.

(I daresay if sandcasting was EVER an option, we'd be seeing Italian counterfeits of THESE for sale on Ebay.)

The only way to produce this type of part at this point, for a reasonable price, is the way it's being done--by pressure-casting in a high-strength alloy.

doctorwho wrote:Just speculation: with modern prototyping equipment, it might be less expensive to produce a mirror-image tailpiece prototype ('flipping a file' digitally, more or less) that could then be used to create a master mold.

...aye, there's the rub!

I would think the biggest hurdle in making a lefty R tailpiece would be the redesign of the R itself. Instead of the right side of the R towards the strings, you'd now have the left side towards them. It would make the R look totally different.