When Were Jackson Browne Prototypes Manufactured?

[LenMinNJ]

Does anyone know what year the three Jackson Browne (Scott Thurston) prototypes were produced?

Anyone know why they never went into production?

Would this be a good description of the turquoise one pictured on page 62 of the Bacon book:

A 610MG with the body finished in turquoise, bubinga fretboard with pearl dots, three pickups (HB/Toaster/Toaster) with the two toasters wired in HB, two chrome barrel knobs (one volume and one tone), 3-way toggle with a black cover, "R" tailpiece, and gold two-level pickguard and truss rod cover?

Did I miss anything?

Was the 3-way toggle wired as bridge HB/both/two toasters as a single HB?

Anyone know what kind of tuners it had?

[jdawe]

I can't answer your questions, but you might be interested in a video currently up on the RIC board in which John Hall gives a guy from Premier Guitar a tour of his collection. At around 15:40 they discuss the Jackson Browne prototype.

[LenMinNJ]

Thanks! The close-up shots added one more piece to the puzzle: it's wired mono.

Can anyone read the date code on the black one? The first letter might be an "F".

In the video John said that the Jackson Browne model was the most recent of the limited editions. Does that place it around 1992?

Anyone know how the torquoise body color transitions into the clear-finished back of the maple neck?

[LenMinNJ]

Looking at the pictures and videos again, I realized that the pickup configuration is Humbucker/High Output/High Output - no toasters at all!

And the switch cover looks to be nickel or chrome.

[LenMinNJ]

In the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKPuWv-e ... r_embedded), the serial number is shown at around 15:52, and in HD video it's actually readable. I read it as F5 6938, which the serial number decoder on the Rickenbacker web site says is June 1992.

Anyone know if that's right?

Two more notes on the JB prototypes:

They have 24-fret necks, and so the bridge is further away from the tailpiece than it would be on a 21-fret 610.

In a previous post John Hall noted that the two single coil High Gain pickups are configured as a single humbucker. By that I think he means that they
are always used together, and that one of them has its magnet poles reversed and is wound in opposite direction to maintain phase relative to the other
pickup, but cancel induced noise. Interesting!

[sloop_john_b]

Len, these are featured in the original Tony Bacon Rickenbacker book, which I believe came out in '94, so '92 should be just about right for the date on those.

Are you thinking about converting a 650 into one of these? I have always thought they were really cool - a wonderfully balanced combination of modern and classic Rick designs.

[jdogric12]

That's where I first fell in love with TUR w/gold guards.

[LenMinNJ]

Len, these are featured in the original Tony Bacon Rickenbacker book, which I believe came out in '94, so '92 should be just about right for the date on those.

That's a good piece of supporting evidence - thanks!

Are you thinking about converting a 650 into one of these?

A 650 is a likely candidate but really, none of the previous and existing 600-series guitars are similar enough to the JB prototypes so that a conversion is easily doable. Closest is probably the 610, but it has the wrong length neck and no tailpiece carve.

I have always thought they were really cool - a wonderfully balanced combination of modern and classic Rick designs.

I agree!

[jps]

In a previous post John Hall noted that the two single coil High Gain pickups are configured as a single humbucker. By that I think he means that they are always used together, and that one of them has its magnet poles reversed and is wound in opposite direction to maintain phase relative to the other pickup, but cancel induced noise. Interesting!

That is how a Jazz Bass is wired, when both volume controls (on the Jazz Bass) are in the same relative position (such as both full up or both halfway up) the two pickups act like one big humbucking pickup, but if the two volume controls are not the same you will get hum. The second scenario would not occur on the Jackson Browne guitar as those two pickups are always tied to one volume control.

[egosheep]

The 600's aren't thick enough, right? It looks like it has a thicker body to accommodate the ramp. Like a 325 thickness, maybe.

[LenMinNJ]

They're thick enough to do a tailpiece carve, but with the shorter 21-fret neck the bridge ends up pretty close to the carve. It won't look the same as the Jackson Browne prototype.

[shamustwin]

[quote="LenMinNJ"]In the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKPuWv-e ... r_embedded), the serial number is shown at around 15:52, and in HD video it's actually readable. I read it as F5 6938, which the serial number decoder on the Rickenbacker web site says is June 1992.

That is a very good interview, those electric violins were miles ahead of their time. Still look modern!

[jps]

...those electric violins were miles ahead of their time. Still look modern!

Very much so! Especially, a headless instrument back then.

[LenMinNJ]

That's where I first fell in love with TUR w/gold guards.

Me too!

[LenMinNJ]

I wonder how the JB prototypes' bodies were made.

Are they like the rest of the 600-series, simple 1-1/4" slabs? Or are they semi-hollow, thicker, more like a current 300-series with a 1-1/2" thickness, or even like the 325C58 with its 2.03" thickness.

When I look at the jackplate, from the pictures and video, the body seem to be thicker than the standard 600-series, but not as thick as the C58. That makes me think they were made more like 300-series guitars than 600-series guitar, even though the body style is 600-series. The 300-series seems to be made from a routed out 1-1/4" slab made from two bookmatched pieces, with a 1/4" flat back glued on.

If we saw a picture of the prototypes' backs, we'd have more clues. Does anyone have a picture?

Any thoughts?