Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

In Oct. I purchased a 2004 Ric 360 MG project husk with truss rods, nut, bridge, original jackplate, plus vintage tuners for $500. After scouring the earth looking for reasonalby priced parts I needed, I finally got everything together New Year's Eve. I now have 7 Rics & decided I need to start adding them to the register. Upon attempting this first one, I was prompted to contact the register administrator for permission to do this as a record already exists for this item. After checking the existing link out I see that it states: beware-butchered carcass stripped for parts. When I spoke to the seller before buying I was led to believe the guitar was sripped in preparation for refinishing. I thought I would have to finish sand, prep, paint & seal coat, buff...What he meant by stripped was many parts missing. I was quite surprised that the finish is nearly perfect & original, & no structural damage whatsoever. Which makes me wonder why somebody would do this to a fine instrument? Maybe a pickup went dead, or the R tailpiece snapped. Unknown. Now it is the one I enjoy playing the most. 0425853. Let me know If I need to do anything else to add this to the register or update.

Congrats on bringing her back to life, looks awesome!!

Why people do this? Well, who knows? There are a couple of people on ebay, one in particular who's been nicknamed around these parts as "The Jersey Butcher", who buy guitars and "part them out." In general, you can probably get a bit more money selling all of the parts separately, especially hard to get parts like the truss rod cover and "R" tailpieces. So, most of these are probably done just for the money. Sad, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

As for getting your guitar's record assigned to you, send a PM to "admin" or "gibsonlp" and they will get you set up.

And, great job on putting your 360 back together and making it playable again!

Thanks for the compliments. I became painfully aware how expensive & hard to get some of the pieces I needed have become, especially TRCs & R TP. I could understand stripping it if the neck was snapped or some other structural defect developed that was beyond the skill level of the average person to repair. But I try to live by the rule "If I can't create it--I can't destroy it." In the past I was never crazy about MG--It seemed "unfinished" to me. But this one is so nice I've changed my mind. If the finish had been down to the bare wood I might have attempted or had someone try for me an Autumnglo finish. This MG finish is perfect with very appealing grain & character--not as ornate as some 381s I've seen, but so nice it shouldn't be messed with. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Plus the fretboard has 3 dark streaks/waves/veins down the length I have never seen before.

Yeah, some colors, especially the transparent finishes are great, but when you've got a great piece of wood, nothing is better than Mapleglo for showing it off...

egosheep wrote:Congrats on bringing her back to life, looks awesome!!

+!! Glad to see it back in "running condition"!

Nice work in putting this 360 back together. Looks good !

Wayne - Did you get the correct Jack plate with the auction? The one that has the correct SN for this instrument?? (EDIT - by your first post I see you did)

The reason - I think - why it is important to track "butchered" instruments is to flag that the SN may not be on the instrument that left the factory.

I too have bought and rebuilt a RIC from this seller. http://www.rickresource.com/register/vi ... ine%3Dtrue

Even though it was expensive I made sure I got the correct jackplate with mine.

Yes I got the original jackplate with it. I probably would have passed on it if it didn't. I have had 2 more opprtunities since Feb. to purchase stripped or damaged Rics but both were missing the jackpates. Plus they were beyond my abilities & budget to refurbish, so I passed on them. Maybe they shouldn't be allowed to sell a carcass on Ebay without the original jackplate? But if you really needed one to complete your project, where else could you get one...? and not spend a small fortune?

Sounds like the work of that "Gibson Dependable" guy.

hallewa wrote: But if you really needed one to complete your project, where else could you get one...? and not spend a small fortune?

All parts sells a mono jack plate for $3. Buy two of them for deluxe guitars and have fun.

It's just a plate with numbers....