Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

The NJ butcher has responded to our tracking the guitars he destroys... Now we won't know the Serial numbers of them anymore...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rickenbacker-2006-F ... 3|294%3A50

'More than one flaw' = 'Excellent Mint'? Quite an Orwellian way with words...

"We will no longer be revealing the full serial number due to buyer privacy."

Yeah, right. Since he always sells the jack plate separate from the body, the buyer really has no way of knowing the serial number anyway...

cjj wrote:"We will no longer be revealing the full serial number due to buyer privacy."

I don't fully understand the philosophy behind censoring serial numbers. Comments?

Well, it allows one to put an old serial number on a newer guitar and increase it's "value" to unsuspecting buyers. Perhaps he wants to protect the privacy of such people by making it harder to find out the serial number is from a butchered instrument...

cjj wrote:it allows one to put an old serial number on a newer guitar and increase it's "value" to unsuspecting buyers

This can be equally, and more convincingly done without using a genuine serial number. Anyone who knows the format can make up a number to fool an unsuspecting buyer, and more importantly, using an existing number increases the chance of getting caught by the owner of the original. I'm with Kenny on this issue in my lack of understanding.

The only time I can see it making a difference is if someone tried to pass a 1998 off as a Pete Townsend or a regular 370/12 as a Roger McGuinn by using a genuine PT or RM serial number. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I see my first paragraph applying. Using a genuine serial increases the chance of getting caught, and using a fake serial on a limited edition could only ever be verified by RIC, who are not in the habit of such verifications.

The reverse of this situation, though, can cause some hassles. If a guitar gets stolen, then it's beneficial for the every Tom, Dick and Harry to know the serial number. I can't see why it wouldn't be appealing for an owner to apply this principle before the guitar gets stolen - the more people who know the serial number, the harder it would be to sell the stolen guitar.

I really can't see how a guitar's serial number can affect buyer privacy any more than the pictures and the description of the guitar published on eBay. The fact that a buyer of an expensive guitar may be traceable through thier online habits is far more concerning to me than its serial number is to my privacy!

I was just trying to come up with some sort of plausible excuse for the Jersey Butcher's decision to not give out serial numbers any more. The swapping serial numbers idea was partly done facetiously as I think it's a pretty lame excuse. In reality, I can't think of any reason to not publish the serial numbers. I've personally added a lot of his butchered guitars to the register mostly to make sure there's some record that the serial number is from a stripped guitar. I have no idea if anyone has put a serial number on a guitar to try to pass it off as something it's not, but it's done with TRCs, so I imagine someone's done it with serial numbers too.

poor little ric guitar didnt deserve that...

I wonder what happens when a stolen jackplate, (from a stolen guitar), is installed on a different guitar! If the jackplate is the only means of identifying your stolen Rick, you may get a totally different guitar back!
Any chance these "butchered" guitars are stolen?

gregga41 wrote:I wonder what happens when a stolen jackplate, (from a stolen guitar), is installed on a different guitar! If the jackplate is the only means of identifying your stolen Rick, you may get a totally different guitar back!
Any chance these "butchered" guitars are stolen?

I don't think that that is the case for that eBayer, but there have been at least a couple of auctions with what were suspected to be switched jackplates that came from damaged or destroyed instruments.

Again another Wow moment for me. I had no idea this kind of thing was going on. I'm really happy you are registering Rics and glad I registered mine. I hope you can bear with the newbie.

Ted, we encourage everyone, including the newbies to register their Ricks!

This sounds like my old buddy "gibson parts dependable", who tried to get me to change the negative feedback that I left for him on eBay, after the wiring harness I "won" from him went missing because he sent it with no tracking.

He told me fib after fib and was downright obnoxious and insulting in many emails over the course of a few weeks. I did eventually get the part, after hours spent with my local post office on the phone and in person, but I left the feedback negative. Guy's a jerk and one of those sociopathic personalities you hear about on the crime shows...

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=392875&p=593774

...my post on this is toward the bottom of the first page of the above thread, in italics...