Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I opened up my guitar the other day, to make sure all the pots, wiring, etc. was in good working order and saw the words "Rick K" and a number "4" with a circle around it, written inside the body. Does this mean anything to anyone? I was just curious.

It's code, but since it was on a one-time pad, it's indecipherable.

alright, thanks. you never know with that stuff. with mosrites, it usually means something.

last wrote:alright, thanks. you never know with that stuff. with mosrites, it usually means something.

I think what Paul means (when he says it's "code") is that it does mean something in your 430, but the meaning is not for consumers; it was probably used for communication between departments within the RIC factory during the construction of your instrument; perhaps it was to let people know who was responsible for which work, what still needed to be done, special appointments, etc.

Some of the writing in some of the instruments is (maybe) a little less esoteric; my last 4003 has "WHT" written in one of the cavities, and -- since the instrument is white -- we can guess that it has something to do with the white finish. I've also noticed that many of them have a person's name in one of the cavities, but we can't know the exact purpose/meaning of these codes unless someone like Ben Hall wants to share those details. (Maybe it was the person who did the routing, for example?) Mine also has numerals in several locations, and a few different colors of pen; one mark even looks like someone was scribbling to see if they had enough ink.

Many production instruments have various kinds of code written and/or stamped in places where the consumer won't see.

I'm guessing the reason RIC doesn't share the specific meaning and usage of these marks is because it would aide counterfeiters; if only RIC knows the code, then only RIC can identify (and produce) the "real" instruments.

I mentioned this thread to a former RIC employee, on one of the facebook groups... He did not remember a Rick K.

He did tell me who Maria was though. Maria's name is in the cavity of my 1977 JG 320.

"Maria was the woman that applied paste wood filler to every guitar during the weeks. She did two 'coats' per guitar/bass. The II indicated that she had done both .. so they were ready for taping of the sealer coats to be applied in the spray booth."

I will have to open up my 430 and see what is written there....

I thought that's what he meant, Sean. I was just saying, with Mosrites, for example, people are in the know of what a lot of the various scribbles mean. And I always like to know extra trivia/background/etc. type things about my collectibles. My luthier and I were joking about how Rick K. might have been the best at wiring in the biz (though obviously not, with that soldering job).

Yeah, see that's the type of information I'm talking about, Brian. I find that stuff interesting and cool to learn.

From what I've heard, most of the writing inside RIC guitars is/was meaningful to whoever was working on it at the time, but there's really no "official" meaning to most of it...

last wrote:I always like to know extra trivia/background/etc. type things about my collectibles ... I find that stuff interesting and cool to learn.

Yeah, I generally enjoy that sort of thing too; it's a shame there isn't a database of these kinds of things to compare, but from my interpretation of what somes users are saying (Paul saying it's a "one-time pad," or CJ saying there's no "official" meaning) maybe the method-to-the-madness varies too much to be tabulated in a meaningful way. I would find it hard to believe that there's absolutely no standard, though; there must be some commonly-accepted practices to those internal markings, some details from factory training, etc.

Maybe this is a way to expand the Register; there could be a section for the various internal markings, though the "Comments" section of each listing section is probably sufficient enough for those who want to go into that kind of detail.

You could include some information about the 430's internal markings within its registry listing, Mike; that will give the marks some meaning beyond the factory.

I've got another question. My bridge pickup is a bit thin/quieter than the other. Is that a common problem? I took it to my luthier tonight and he said to look into it, before we dive into it.

last wrote:I've got another question. My bridge pickup is a bit thin/quieter than the other. Is that a common problem? I took it to my luthier tonight and he said to look into it, before we dive into it.

Assuming that the pick up height is the same, one pick up should be quieter then the other in this era. That is what makes the blend knob useful, so you can balance the two pickups.

My 480 is the same - one pickup is noticeably louder then the other.

Of course neither the 430 or the 480 has a blend knob! But it works lovely on my 620...

Check out this thread for info on 430 pickups...

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=388464&p=535831&hi ... 30#p535831

Ontario_RIC_fan wrote:

last wrote:I've got another question. My bridge pickup is a bit thin/quieter than the other. Is that a common problem? I took it to my luthier tonight and he said to look into it, before we dive into it.

Assuming that the pick up height is the same, one pick up should be quieter then the other in this era. That is what makes the blend knob useful, so you can balance the two pickups.

My 480 is the same - one pickup is noticeably louder then the other.

Of course neither the 430 or the 480 has a blend knob! But it works lovely on my 620...

That's kinda what I was hoping (it being normal). It doesn't bother me, as I rarely change pickups in the same song, and have plenty of other guitars, if I want to. Just wanted to make sure, before we spent a bunch of time trying to fix it.