Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Just curious how people feel when they see a Ric on Ebay stripped, and they sell the serial # jack plate separate from the guitar. I know before I found my stolen guitar, I was worried that someone could have bought one to replace the original. Is it ethical or should they keep the plate with the guitar?

I hate that these perfectly fine Ric guitars and basses are being parted out. i won't but from them. That's for Fender folk!

Meh....I've had/seen plenty of Rics with swapped parts. To me...there is no difference between swapping out a pickguard and parting a whole guitar apart.

The guys on Ebay rarely part out anything "special." For the most part, it's 330/360/320/4003 etc....which you can buy brand new from Ric if you want. There is a serious shortage of available Ric parts, so the more on the market the better......if it was expensive or hard-to-find reissues, I'd probably question it a bit more.

That said, for some reason I do think it's important to keep the body with the jackplate, for some reason. It's part of the guitar's identity and history......no "ethical" dilemna, really.

I bought a 360/6 that was just body and neck.
I have managed to rebuild the guitar with everything original now except for the jackplate.
To be honest, I am not too bothered- as I see it I now have a Rickenbacker that I otherwise would not have been able to afford in one go. Its not like it is a vital component (well as long as a replacement can be found I suppose). However, I wonder why anybody would separate the plate from the body, apart from making money of course. How much does a 360 jackplate sell for? The guitar is still the same guitar, as far as the serial number goes. It's just a shame there could be someone getting ripped-off by buying a faker with a genuine jackplate.

dogload wrote: However, I wonder why anybody would separate the plate from the body, apart from making money of course. How much does a 360 jackplate sell for? The guitar is still the same guitar, as far as the serial number goes. It's just a shame there could be someone getting ripped-off by buying a faker with a genuine jackplate.

You've got it right there--money. A jackplate (same for any ROS Rick) sells for about $80.00-$100.00 on average; I've seen them cheaper and more expensive, too.

The faker-with-a-genuine-plate issue is the stronger of two reasons not to split the body and plate. The other is originality.

I am just being a snob, because we all know only "we the priests of the temple" know when a Ric has suffered enough and parting out is allowed.

I'm not opposed to stripping the guitar per se, though I was surprised to find that there's a market for bitsa Ricks.

On the other hand, the last stripped 330 body I saw on EBay went was pretty cheap, which I wouldn't mind, as I'd like to be able to buy another 330 carcass and have it converted into a WB. I don't mind the carcass being stripped, since I would put vintage pickups, vintage tuners, an Accent, et cetera on the guitar, and all of the modern parts would just end up in a box in the eventual hope that a forum member might need them (the modern parts don't seem to be a hot item on the `Bay min my experience ). Part of the conversion is switching out a single mono jack for an ROS type dual jack.

The disturbing part is, of course the potential for stolen guitars to be parted out, and the aforementioned jackplate issue/serial number issue is a serious concern as well.

Is there a special reason that the serial numbers are on the jackplate instead of stamped on the body or head?

kiramdear wrote:Is there a special reason that the serial numbers are on the jackplate instead of stamped on the body or head?

Oddly enough, my new 4004Cii MG has, what appears to be, a serial number written in the control cavity. Nothing else, just a number. Odder still, it's not the number on the jack plate, it's the jack serial number minus 4. And, odder still, the instrument that has the jack plate with the number that's written inside my 4004Cii is listed in the register as a 4004Cii MG and belongs to a forum member in Ohio...

I wonder if that bass has my serial number written inside it...

cjj wrote:

kiramdear wrote:Is there a special reason that the serial numbers are on the jackplate instead of stamped on the body or head?

Oddly enough, my new 4004Cii MG has, what appears to be, a serial number written in the control cavity. Nothing else, just a number. Odder still, it's not the number on the jack plate, it's the jack serial number minus 4. And, odder still, the instrument that has the jack plate with the number that's written inside my 4004Cii is listed in the register as a 4004Cii MG and belongs to a forum member in Ohio...

I wonder if that bass has my serial number written inside it...

The only one that means anything is the one on the plate.

jingle_jangle wrote:

cjj wrote:

kiramdear wrote:Is there a special reason that the serial numbers are on the jackplate instead of stamped on the body or head?

Oddly enough, my new 4004Cii MG has, what appears to be, a serial number written in the control cavity. Nothing else, just a number. Odder still, it's not the number on the jack plate, it's the jack serial number minus 4. And, odder still, the instrument that has the jack plate with the number that's written inside my 4004Cii is listed in the register as a 4004Cii MG and belongs to a forum member in Ohio...

I wonder if that bass has my serial number written inside it...

The only one that means anything is the one on the plate.

Yes, but it is interesting just the same...

We may switch serial # stickers on the production line for various reasons. The number written in marker was the original one marked in the mill, but it doesn't always end up as the final serial # in final assembly.

I too really hate it when the serial number and jackplate gets removed from any RIC. That's one of the things I like so much about Rickenbackers is that you can tell so much about the instrument, just from a series of letters and numbers...
It is also why the registery is so important to me on this site... Cause I like to know just how many guitars there are that are the same as mine.

And if you have a RIC you assembled from parts sold separately and you put another guitar's jackplate on it, it feels like it is living under a false indentity somehow?

Something shady about it... (Just doesn't feel right to me)...

An extreme example for me would be if I found another pre'83 JG 620. It still wouldn't be the VD1084 guitar that I lost in a fire... And if I put that serial number on the new guitar, I would feel like I was erasing the history of the other instrument... (Who knows if somewhere out there there was someone looking for the guitar that THEY bought in high school, and treasured the way that I treasured mine - Just by removing a plate that other kid's guitar ceased to exist... )Without the ability to indentify a guitar, the guitar ceases to have an identity!! (And what about all the John Lennon fans that would put the jackplate V81 on all of their vintage reissue 325's??)

When I recovered my old (and now battered) '77 JG 320 last month after an absence of 18 years... How I knew that it was indeed my old one was the letters and numbers on the jackplate...

It feels kind of like removing the guitar's "soul" if you will...

Brian

I'm more of the thought that a guitar is a (hopefully) well-crafted tool for making music, and it's up to the owner as to what is done with it and to it. Some people smash them, some burn them, some use them as decorations, and some part them out. That's up to them and none of my (or anyone else's) business, unless they use them to break the law.

RIC_FACTORY wrote:We may switch serial # stickers on the production line for various reasons. The number written in marker was the original one marked in the mill, but it doesn't always end up as the final serial # in final assembly.

I'm confused now!
Does this mean that my 360 isn't necessarily the one that left the factory? I mean, if it's possible that the jackplate had a different serial number to the one in the control cavity, is my guitar's serial number (how can I put it?) less authentic?

The only one that means anything is the one on the plate.

Aggggghh!!!
But I would have thought that the one inside was the important one?
Oh I have soooo much to learn!