Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Greetings from Plymouth (UK),

This is my first post after joining yesterday and I'm just getting used to this fascinating site with so many sections to trawl through, so I hope this is the correct forum to pose my question.

Back in the sixties I played in a band (that's me aged 19 in 1967 wearing the kaftan and my Rick - I was (and still am around 5ft6", if that helps judge the size of the guitar). I'd bought it from our local music shop in Southampton and believe it probably wasn't new as it was listed at £120, which I believe is less than the then retail price, but it was advertised in the window as a 3 pickup short scale jazz. Having said that, some guys here in the UK have pointed out that in the photo it looks to be a standard length neck so everyone's having difficulty deciding which model it really was - maybe the shop didn't know the correct model description.

As you can see, it had white binding around the edges and around the dash cutout, dot neck inlays, accent tremolo (is it - the arm looks a bit longer than others I've seen?) and although my hand's in the way you might just be able to make out the shadow from the top of the middle pickup. Apart from the five knobs and pickup selector switch there appears to be another smaller knob just below the selector - or is that something else? Sorry it's not the best quality photo that someone took that day.
General opinions so far have suggested this may have been a one-off Rose Morris import (they said it could have been a special order for someone in the UK and wasn't an unusual occurrence back then) since they aren't aware of a standard issue model with each of the features mentioned. I seem to remember it being Fireglo but I have no colour images of it and the outer shading seems much darker near the white bordering - could it have been Autumnglo, if that's the correct name for the darker brownier colours? The fingerboard was definitely the same attractive red rosewood type finish seen on modern examples, but my memory isn't what it was and I just have a feeling the body may have been less bright red than some of the current fireglo colours - could be wrong, of course.

Sadly I sold it to my next band's guitarist when I switched to keyboards but I'm keen to buy another Rick and would dearly love to find an identical model - some hope, I suspect.
If only I'd noted its serial number but such things didn't seem important back then. Any thoughts on this guitar's pedigree would be most welcome.

I'll probably have loads more questions to ask as I search for a new Rick so please be patient with this old strummer.

Martyn

It appears to be some kind of RM 1998 / 370 OS (with binding)...

http://www.rickresource.com/register/ga ... =0&month=0

http://www.rickresource.com/register/ga ... =0&month=0

Having a look at these galleries should help figure it out...

Hi Brian,

Hadn't seen those pages before and didn't realise just how many combinations and options they incorporated over the years.

I believe the dot inlays rather than the pearl dashes was a Rose Morris UK import request - no idea why as the alternative necks look more striking, in my view - maybe cheaper to produce?
I'll study those pictures and later today I'm expecting a book on Rickenbackers to arrive in the post so that may help further.

Thanks for the pointers.
Regards,
Martyn

Collin's 1993 had binding added on the soundhole. I'd say it was done as a modification by some previous owner.

egosheep wrote:Collin's 1993 had binding added on the soundhole. I'd say it was done as a modification by some previous owner.

May well have been the case - I seem to recall the sound hole binding looked slightly wider than the body surrounds and you can just see this in the poor quality photo I added. The binding wasn't white but more of an off white/cream shade. Gets more intriguing by the minute . . .

I think that there is something funny about that photo.The line on the slash hole `seems` to go over the sleeve.This looks like glare from the flash or overhead lighting maybe.Have you cropped this photo maybe their is a bigger image if you have one? the dot inlays look quite large.Cant say ive seen one of these before.The spray pattern looks a bit thin on the upper horn but that could be down to a bad photo.

Looks like the binding (body, sound hole) could have been painted on...

egosheep wrote:Collin's 1993 had binding added on the soundhole. I'd say it was done as a modification by some previous owner.

Yeah, it did....I took care if that little issue in about two minutes.

Cool guitar, whatever it is! Wish there were more photos of it.

Hope this guitar will surface one day, who knows..

Could be the blurry photo, but the dots on the fretboard look too big.

Here's a pic of the fretboard of a 1998/345S:

I think it's just a blurry photo. Looking at the Fireglo, the ramp, the toasters, the Accent, it just doesn't seem reasonable that in the 60's you would see a copycat with so many features correct. Maybe I'm wrong, that's just my impression.