Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

...that if you butchered your 1996 RM back when you were 16, you basically destroyed its value.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rare-1967-Rickenbac ... 240%3A1318

It's rare alright!

This particular guitar is getting attention all over the board. Let's just say he's optimistic on the price.

"...the humbuckers give it that vintage gibson sound with a special touch of Rickenbacker."

And that would be what, exactly? Single-coil pots and caps with huge 'buckers...not sure I'd be a fan...

"...The humbuckers naturally are deeper and wider than the Rickenbacker pickups so I had to deepen and widen the area where the gibson pickups were going..."

Uh-oh...

"Being only 16, I used a blade Ah, Jeez, noooooooo...... and you can see a slight 1/8 of an inch area where the blade came past the pickup no big deal really. I'm melting, I'm melting...aaaaaahhhhhhh... The middle Rickenbacker rhythm pickup was removed,and because the black finish of the guitar is so slick and shinny, I was able to just place a piece of black plexi between the two Humbuckers..."

Too bad about the youthful butchery...and it looks refinished, too, judging from the "zombie shine" gloss in this photo, which is what lacquer or enamel looks like when it hasn't been color-sanded and buffed:

I am afraid "butchery" is a mild description; in my lexicon "hack butchery" would be more like it.

We all do "dumb stuff" when we are 16, it is part of the job description; however, it is a crying shame that he chose this particular instrument upon which to practice his sonic "creativity".

As far as the asking price goes... well he must have a connection that provides him with the "good stuff"...

JR

jingle_jangle wrote: Too bad about the youthful butchery...and it looks refinished, too, judging from the "zombie shine" gloss in this photo, which is what lacquer or enamel looks like when it hasn't been color-sanded and buffed:

Mmmmm... Orange peel....

I would just like to ask, "why not make the plexiglass pickup cover out of brass for more sustain? "
"Optomist" is certainly the nicest thing one could say about it's BIN price. I feel bad for whoever buys this thing thinking that it's worth even a tenth of the asking price. I would think that the 3 Rick pus and the 2 Gibson ones would be worth more on their own than the rest of the guitar, if they are in fact, genuine.

Paul, Dale, or whoever, don't be surprised when you get the call to restore this puppy, as well as refinish the orangepeel hazy finish. Hopefully your potential customer doesn't have a major cow when they find out what is really required to restore this guitar to its original stock condition.

If you want a Gibson, buy one. If you want a Rick, buy one. No reason to carve up a nice guitar to get a weak approximation of something it can never be. It's like routing a Les Paul to fit a Strat pickup in between the humbuckers. You completely kill the resale value, and never sonically achieve what you were initially after. What a waste, IMHO.

I bought a Gretsch Pro Jet back in '75, which had had the dumbuckers pulled out, and a nice set of new Filtertrons installed. It was an Ebay purchase; the guy represented it as having been "modded with FTs by Neil Young's guitar tech", which I assumed referred to Larry Cragg. I was relatively new to Gretsches at the time, so I went to the guy's house (fellow in his 40s) and picked it up; didn't think to pull the plastic trim rings.

Got it home, opened it up to clean and buff it, and, lo and behold:







When I called the guy to ask about this "professional misrepresentation", he allowed that it could have been his 16-year-old son who did the mod; his memory was vague on this...

Following a lot of correction work:





...and a complete refin, a new scratchbuilt pickguard, and new Sperzel locking tuners (the ones on it had been installed with a pair of Vise-Grips and were chewed up and cross-threaded), I had a 120th Anniversary Pro Jet:





So, all's well that ends well, but it was a rotta work.

BTW, I painted the binding on this one...it was before I learned how to bind...

Fortunately for you Paul, you know how to do this work, and ended up with a sweet guitar

whojamfan wrote: ....If you want a Gibson, buy one. If you want a Rick, buy one. No reason to carve up a nice guitar to get a weak approximation of something it can never be. It's like routing a Les Paul to fit a Strat pickup in between the humbuckers. You completely kill the resale value, and never sonically achieve what you were initially after. What a waste, IMHO.

That's been my feeling on the matter.

JimK

jingle_jangle wrote:I bought a Gretsch Pro Jet back in '75, which had had the dumbuckers pulled out, and a nice set of new Filtertrons installed. It was an Ebay purchase;

Ebay was around in '75? Where the hell was I?

Beautiful job on the Pro Jet, Paul. What can you tell me about that black Double Jet in the last picture with the B5 on it? Looks like you had your hand in modding that one, too. Wanna sell it? (I think you've probably already figured out that I'm a sucker for Jets).

Like those Jets, hey, Daniel?

(Are you ready for this? I'm not sure if the double cut Jet came to me with the FTs or if I did them! But for sure my 16-year-old son didn't do it...because I don't have a 16 year old son.) I do recall buying it from a guitarist in a local AC/DC tribute band, who moved upscale to a real Gretsch Malcolm Young.

Anyway, it's not for sale, but thanks for asking.

Daniel, offer Paul this in trade and he might cough up (sorry, Graham) the Jet of your desires.

jps wrote:Daniel, offer Paul this in trade and he might cough up (sorry, Graham) the Jet of your desires.

As luck would have it, Jeff, I just traded my last one of those for a set of vintage Duncan yo-yo's. So I'm all out. Gonna head back over to the local dealer after Christmas, though. Gotta re-stock.

Yeah Paul, I dig those Jets. I was drooling uncontrollably over that Pro Jet you modded for Aitch a couple of years back. Man, that looked the bizniss...and I bet it was light as a feather, too. I thought it couldn't hurt to ask you, though. I figured the worst that could happen is you'd say "no".

I'm curious, though...were you kinda cheesed off to discover that you should've relocated the hole for the master volume on that Pro Jet so you could've fit a normal shaped Jet pickguard on there? You certainly could've done that while you were fixing the pickup routes. Or were you already aware of it and just wanted to put a different shaped PG on it. Being the purist type guy that I am, I would've wanted to fit a regular Jet guard and would've been a bit peeved to discover it wouldn't fit after doing all that refin work and whatnot. But she still looks great the way she is.

A purist would never have painted the Jet Bamboo Yellow and Copper Pearl, or fitted a banjo armrest, Daniel... and that sumbitch was not hollowed out like Aitch's Jet was; the body was not really cut apart like I did to Aitch's deVille. So the control stayed where it was. Didn't bother me one whit.

Yeah, I suppose you're right Paul. I didn't know how extensively that Pro Jet was chambered (if at all), so it sounds like it would have been more trouble than it was worth. I'm not really so much of a purist when it comes to colors, though...a nice finish is a nice finish (and the bamboo yellow looks great, IMO). Regardless, the guitar is a beautiful piece of work and I certainly wouldn't mind having that one in my arsenal, either. So if you ever get the itch to part with either one of those Jets, well, you know where to reach me.