Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi!

Speaking about slanted frets (481 on rickbid), here is an extremely rare guitar.
According to Mike Parks, who made some research, there is only one ever made.
This 360/12 guitar was made in 1970.



A short history about the slanted frets:

* The idea was to fit the neck to the arch between the thumb and the forefinger on the player's left hand. It worked well when the player grasped the neck with his thumb over the finger board. Its advantages stopped when playing barre chords with the thumb behind the neck. The factory first produced slanted frets in late 1969. They were a standard feature on some instruments and an option on others. On these instruments the nut, bridge and frets were all set on an angle to the edge of the finger board.

The original brochure said:

"This slight slant of the frets across the finger board eliminates the long chord reaches, reduces stretch length, and matches precisely the natural angle of the fretting fingers."

*Source: Richard R. Smith "The complete history of Rickenbacker guitars"



Welcome to Björn Eriksson's Rickenbacker Page for some more photos!

Take care

Björn

Bjorn, I can think of three more off the top of my head, all of them Fireglo and date from 1970-71. In fact, Mike Parks sold one of them to a customer. Roger McGuinn had made for him a light-show 12-string (341/12) with slanted frets.

There was one I can think of from 1969 that may be one-of-a-kind; It is a 360 slant fret in Autmnglo with a bound dot-inlay ebony fretboard, and a bound headstock.

There is a photo in the Bacon & Day Rickenbacker book on page 46 of a '68 Fireglo 360SF with an ebony fingerboard with dots.

I have found one 360SF Fireglo from '71 so there are obviously more than one. This one has the same specs as the one (except for the finish) I mention in the previous post. You can see a photo on page 176 in Smith's Rickenbacker History book. I really should have remembered this one but for some reason I had forgotten about it! I'm very sorry!

John, the three others you mention, are they also "normal slanted" 360's?


The slanted frets 341/12LS is familiar to me and is of course a very rare guitar. However, the thread I started was about a 360SF and the other slanted frets models are not the actual subject.

Can you show me a photo of the 360SF with dots? Is it still called a 360SF or is there any additional suffix that explains the variation?

Take care

Björn

Bjorn, the 360SF with dots is pictured, I believe, in the Bacon and Day Rickenbacker book. As far as it's designation, I don't have any info on this; obviously the guitar is a custom order with a fretboard made of ebony and dot-inlays. Perhaps a 360-S/SF??

Voltage Guitars has a 1970 360SF in Fireglo with a SMALL bound headstock, whearas others have the bigger "Gumby" headstock....And, most or all of these guitars I have seen have 24-fret necks too. Some of them are equipped with Grover Tuners from the factory.

Another interesting thing about the Voltage 360SF is that it has a fret marker at the 24th fret. The other guitars I've seen don't have this....

From Bacon and Day, here is an image of the 1968 360SF.

Peter, it looks like Fireglo in this pic, doesn't it? I dunno, it looked more of a rust-color at one-point...may have been the photo. This is one cool guitar.

This guitar is only 21-frets, it's only one I know of with slanted frets that isn't a 24-fret guitar....

Thank you Peter! A very special model indeed!

However this far I have only seen two 360's with 24 slanted frets. The one John suggested to be found at Voltage Guitars is not a slanted fret model, at least not what I can tell I guess that this is the one (sorry if I'm wrong):


John, I believe that the 341/12LS is not a 24 fret model either.

Tomcat reminds us that Richard Smith has mentioned 22 frets in his book. It would seem, however, that Smith may be in honest error and have meant 21 frets. To be fair, it's hard to see the frets clearly in the photos.
Here is a link:
341/12SF

Take care

Björn

Whoops...my wires got crossed once again. Yep, that's the one, Bjorn. My error----I knew that guitar didn't have slanted frets...EEEAAHHH!!!! Sorry guys. Still an unusual model, eh? That 24th fret marker is really cool.