Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

No, I'm not a Raiders fan, I'm curious about instrument cases.

With which years and models did the different cases come standard issue?

A simple reply would be: Silver started in '64 and ended sometime in '67.

What year was first for TKL?

Do you mean SKB?

Yeah, the acronym one.

Anyone know?

I believe they started in the mid-eighties, but I'm not sure.

A case history from JH. This is from an old forum thread between Peter and John.



McCormack: I am wondering if it would be possible to get a timeline on Rickenbacker guitar cases? I would like to write a short piece on the cases used by RIC over the years, in terms of the type of covering, construction and plush interior.

Hall: This is an utterly impossible project as there were simply too many variations even on a week to week variations. It all depended on the
case maker's supply of materials.

McCormack: Are you able to comment on the types of cases in general terms, the manufacturers and the types of linings that were used over the years?

Hall: This might be slightly easier.

Grey cases - I believe these began to switch to silver about 1962 although this would have been a very long switchover due to the wide variety of case types in inventory.

Don't forget that Electro guitars had brown cases.

Silver cases - (red lining, blue lining, blue luminescent lining)

These continued probably into the early 70's with the same changeover problems as mentioned above. But then, of course, they were brought back
again in 1984 for the vintage series. Linings varied with the textile markets and supplier- not only the color but the textile pattern as well.

Black tolex - These continued until the mid 90's when we began to try several different type of molded cases.

Here's info you probably don't have- the case makers themselves:

1. Victoria Luggage- The original silver and black case supplier. Out of business. Strange story. Owner, Sid Handler, was son of Mattel Toy
founder, Ruth Handler. When she was bumped due to SEC violations in 1974, family empire collapsed.

2. DeCuir Sample Case- Alternate supplier of black cases. Out of business more or less due to death of owner.

3. Geib Case- Alternate supplier of black and molded cases, major supplier to Gibson since the 1930's. Chicago based until 1980s, they moved to California. Out of business due to death of owner, Nick Geib. World respected yachtsman, endorser of Bacardi Rum due to many wins of
the Miami-Havana race.

4. G & G Case- Alternate supplier of black and silver cases in past, continues to be supplier of silver cases. Founded by Ben Germain, factory manager of Victoria Luggage when they closed.

5. SKB- Molder cases only. Saunders, Kottman, and Brown. Brown was owner of very large music store, funded Saunders and Kottman in their small
enterprise. Brown bought out and SKB becomes very large case supplier to gun, golf, sporting, and scientific community, remaining in music
products as well.

Hope this helps a little. Cheers, John Hall

Well, I was only a decade off.

This kind of info-nugget is intriguing and entertaining, too!

Incidentally, although Electro cases may have been brown (and I've seen a couple to bear this out), my October '83 ES-16 (possibly from one of the last batches of these ever built) has a hi-gain pickup and a black case with blue plush lining. I got it from the original owner, so I'm fairly certain that the case is original, too. It's a gorgeous case for what is classified as a "student" guitar!

jingle_jangle wrote:This kind of info-nugget is intriguing and entertaining, too!

Incidentally, although Electro cases may have been brown (and I've seen a couple to bear this out), my October '83 ES-16 (possibly from one of the last batches of these ever built) has a hi-gain pickup and a black case with blue plush lining. I got it from the original owner, so I'm fairly certain that the case is original, too. It's a gorgeous case for what is classified as a "student" guitar!

One of the things I regret most about selling my '99 425V63BG (and it's a long story anyway!) was the silver case - I couldn't bring myself to separate them, even though I would have liked to have kept the case. It just looked so cool with the little minimalist guitar in that blue lining.

Never mind, I got another with my '03 660/12JG .

Thanks for the info.

My '93 330 has one of the black Tolex-covered cases. It's actually a lot like the vintage case except the blue lining is fuzzy, not crushed velvet. I like it more than the SKB-style, but it seems a bit more fragile.

Your 660/12 was optioned, John. Mine came standard with the molded plastic one.

Do you recall the serial number of the 425? I wonder if I've got your old one...not too many of those puppies ever barked.

jingle_jangle wrote:Your 660/12 was optioned, John. Mine came standard with the molded plastic one.

I know - that's one of the reasons I bought that specific one, apart from it being in perfect condition and not too expensive. I think it was just after I'd heard that the silver case was no longer an option on any guitars apart from the reissues.

Do you recall the serial number of the 425? I wonder if I've got your old one...not too many of those puppies ever barked.

You'd know about it if you did, and probably curse the idiot former owner!!

Like I said it's a long story, but here goes... (with apologies in advance)

I had always wanted a 425, from that picture in the Richard R. Smith book (p.99) - I just thought it looked like the coolest little guitar, and at the time I had a thing for 'student' guitars - Les Paul Jrs, Fender Musicmasters, etc. But they're extremely rare in the UK, so when I heard that RIC were going to reissue them, I ordered one. It's the first and only guitar I've ever ordered new. I was overjoyed when it arrived in the shop, it looked absolutely stunning.

The shop had also taken a 450V63JG as well for stock, and I was interested to compare them... the 450 sounded MUCH better, not just more versatile with the two pickups but simply better in every way. The shop even would have allowed me to buy that one instead, but I convinced myself that the 425 was what I'd always wanted, so I should stick with it and I would probably 'tune in' to the sound if I used it a bit. (They sold the 450 quite quickly too, so I lost that option.)

But I could not get used to it - it looked fantastic, played fantastic, and sounded fine acoustically too... but the amplified sound was just annoying, it had a clangy midrange overtone that I could not get rid of no matter how I set it or the amp. I tried rewiring the tone control the right way round, changing the cap value, doing other things with the switch... no good.

I tried putting a High-Gain in it... better, but still clangy. I got more radical - I made a stacked humbucker out of a Gibson P100 that fitted under the Toaster cover (it does, if you cut down the Gibson bobbin slightly). I actually like P100s normally, but it still didn't sound right in this guitar.

So I somehow convinced myself that the problem wasn't the electrics, but something to do with the bridge/tailpiece - if I listened closely it seemed that the 'clang' was still present acoustically. So... I fitted a Bigsby-style vibrato to it (actually a Japanese copy with a straight bar at the back, since a real 'horseshoe' Bigsby won't quite fit), which involved cutting a hole the same shape as the vibrato through the pickguard, and of course four screw holes into the body. It's maybe not quite as bad as it sounds because a new pickguard would cover it all up. And I had to drill and screw down the bridge since it would move around when using the vibrato otherwise.

And of course, it still sounded the same . I fought with it for about two years in total, but eventually I decided to sell it.

At the time, I did not realise that RIC would only make 36 of these guitars in BG.


I still don't know what the problem really was, whether it was some sort of resonance in the wood, or the single-piece bridge saddle (which I didn't change) or whether it was the pickup placement itself - which seems to me not to be quite the same as the originals, it's a little further away from the bridge I think.

And I still miss it somehow - I'd almost like to have another go at it... or maybe to restore it to original as a way of saying sorry . I would actually probably buy it back if anyone knows where it is and if it's for sale - it was last seen in Edinburgh, Scotland in about 2002 or 2003 (I can't remember exactly, I've probably tried to blank the whole experience out .).


Flame suit now on! Maybe this should be another entry in the 'what is wrong with people' series .

hmm, that's a pretty cool read.

I always thought (as Fender themselves have told me) that G&G have been around since the early 50's, and have been the same provider for Fender, Mosrite, Rickenbacker - the big California companies. Cool to learn that G&G is actually a spinoff company from Victoria Luggage, who I assume made the early Fender cases as well (same type of construction as modern G&G).


I also recently bought what was advertised as a Ric case, Black with Red plush- recently figured out mid seventies Rics came in cases like this. Other than the blue (three types as well- furry, short thin original style, and the cool "poodle type" nowadays), I also think some early 70's models, most notably the Lightshows, had like an autumn gold colored interior cloth.


Man, I think we're becoming anoraks here...