Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Here's what Larry Davis (of Davis Guitar Works down in Florida) and I have been working on for the last few months:
It's a replica of one of the three Jackson Browne Limited Edition prototypes hanging in Rickenbacker's museum. I first saw a picture of it in Tony Bacon's "The Rickenbacker Book" sometime around 1992.

And for a bit of fun, even though it was never released as a Limited Edition guitar, I had a Limited Edition upper pickguard made for it.
It started out as a 1991 350JG. Larry made a new body for it, had a High-Gain pickup modified, and made a new harness for it, among lots of other tasks.

He did an incredible job on it.

My thanks go to everyone who provided the information we needed to make it an accurate replica - you know who you are - and those of you who pointed me to the '91 350JG!

Way to go Len - you really saw this thing through!

It looks FANTASTIC!

Great job Len! Looks like it coulda come out the factory door yesterday! Nice job on the pickguard markings...IIRC they have the look of the JL LE's style-wise.

I love this. Incredible.

Thanks for the kind comments, guys!

I'm a systems engineer by training - we're good at following through.

Ah, sweet!

Great looking guitar... love the color !

Looks great Len!

I love Turquoise, one of the best recent RIC colors.

Very nice, Len! I can't wait to see what else you've got cooking up!

While I think this is a nice guitar and a job well done, I do have some problems with his proprietary signature attached to the nameplate. Given we never released this product nor was any arrangement made to use his signature, I feel that we simply must contact him to point out that we were not involved in the production of this instrument in any form.

I also hope that your ethics go so far as to be sure the instrument is permanently marked in some fashion as a replica so that in future years this instrument will not be mistaken for one of the genuine articles.

Just wondering- which one of the six different wiring schemes did you choose? Some of those may have been the biggest difference between standard Rickenbacker guitars made previously. I, along with Jackson Browne and Scott Thurston spent quite a bit of time on this aspect.

johnhall wrote:I also hope that your ethics go so far as to be sure the instrument is permanently marked in some fashion as a replica so that in future years this instrument will not be mistaken for one of the genuine articles.

It is marked in the control cavity with the year it was made, so it can't mistaken for an original. It also has some other normally non-visible features that mark the body as not being a Rickenbacker factory product.

Just wondering- which one of the six different wiring schemes did you choose? Some of those may have been the biggest difference between standard Rickenbacker guitars made previously. I, along with Jackson Browne and Scott Thurston spent quite a bit of time on this aspect.

Whoever thought of this wiring scheme was/is brilliant.

The middle Hi-Gain pickup is reverse-wound/reverse-pole, so that when it's used together with the neck pickup, the two act as a single humbucker (like a Fender Jazz Bass).

The switch settings are: (1) Neck (standard Hi-Gain), (2) All three pickups, acting as two Humbuckers (the bridge HB-1 and the combination of the two Hi-Gains), (3) Bridge & Neck (Humbucker and Hi-Gain).

Note that the neck pickup isn’t switched - it's always active, and its level is controlled by one of the pots. When the switch is in the third position (Bridge and Neck), when you fully roll off the Neck pickup you get just the bridge humbucker.

The other pot controls the level of the Middle and Bridge pickups.

There is no tone control on it.

Wow!

John: Would you please describe how the 350V89 is wired?

I really wish that Rickenbacker had an in-house Custom Shop, or a Custom Shop arrangement with a few excellent, independent luthiers.

LenMinNJ wrote: I really wish that Rickenbacker had an in-house Custom Shop, or a Custom Shop arrangement with a few excellent, independent luthiers.

Why? I'd say you did pretty good on your own!

sloop_john_b wrote:

LenMinNJ wrote: I really wish that Rickenbacker had an in-house Custom Shop, or a Custom Shop arrangement with a few excellent, independent luthiers.

Why? I'd say you did pretty good on your own!

Why? To give credit where credit is due.

This guitar was designed by some of the finest artists, guitar designers and builders in the world: the folks at Rickenbacker, Jackson Browne and Scott Thurston. Not one of them got any benefit at all from the conversion of my stock 350JG into a replica of the JBLE Prototype guitar.

Rickenbacker and its dealer did receive payment for the original purchase of the stock 350JG back in 1991. and more recently for some miscellaneous parts we needed for this guitar. Jackson Browne was paid for his autograph that was on a signed lithograph, part of a series he put out a while back.

I think that they also deserve some recompense for their effort and creativity related to this beautiful guitar. A Custom Shop would've provided for that.

I would gladly have paid (and would still pay) extra to receive a Rickenbacker Custom Shop certificate of authenticity, if such a thing existed.

So I'm a bit at a loss.

I've had a guitar made that is based on a design created by others.

I realize that I was within my legal rights to modify my old '91 350JG in any way that I wanted.

But I feel like I owe the designers (Rickenbacker, Jackson Browne and Scott Thurston)some compensation for their efforts.

I can't think of any way to compensate them other than to continue to buy their products.

Any ideas?

You just did what you did, and what you're free to do.
Looks good BTW.
I like the idea of a 600 series guitar with a ramp.
As long as you don't try to pass it off as the real thing, that'll be enough compensation, no?