Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Since the 480 guitars seem to be all the rage right now, let me weigh in with something I just noticed about my example (an early 1973). I disassembled my guitar immediately upon receipt to begin a looooonng restoration process. I never noticed, until I bolted the neck on recently, that the neck is mounted with an angle relative to the body. This is typical, of course, on many set-neck guitars (most Gibsons, for example), but I've never seen a Rickenbacker guitar or bass with a neck angle. I have a '67 360/6, some newer 620s ('01 & '08), an '05 350v63, a '96 360/12v64, a '90 325JL and an '81 320. None of these guitars have a neck angle - they are all parallel to the body.

So, this begs the big question: Is the 480 (and perhaps the related, bolt-on 481 and 483) the only Rick guitar to have a neck angle? Has anybody else ever noticed the neck angle on these guitars, as I've never seen it mentioned anywhere, and I've done A LOT of reading about these animals.

John H.

I have a 1959 360F that has a neck angle. At first I thought it was a problem with the neck until I read that Rick made a few of these in an attempt to attract the jazz player. I saw another almost identical to mine on eBay a couple of years ago and the seller had some documentation attesting to the factory "correctness" of this angle. Given my guitar, I believed the seller -- maybe wishful thinking. Perhaps others will know.

I have one of each, a 480 and 481, both original and unmolested, and I'm going to put both on a surface plate and check this.

Stay tuned.

I actaully wasn't too fond of the angled neck when I first got my 480, one of the very few actual cons I had against the guitar. I got used to it pretty quickly though and it's great.

4080