Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi, Australian Rickenbacker player here. Broke the tailpiece on a 360/12 (right hand, fireglo) on sunday night. Have contacted the Australian importers (CMI) and Jay at rickenbacker Hq, but could be quite a wait. Do any of you fine folk out there have any idea's(ie, spare 360/12 tailpieces, names of US or asian dealers who could do a prompt change over etc...)

Is this another exploding R, folks?

As per your comment bob, you are just what i need, a smartie. I have a busted 2 grand guitar and little help from the Aussie Importer, and Rickenbacker Hq (they sent me here to find a solution, not another problem!!!!

Paul,
First of all welcome to the Forum, before we can help we need to know what kind of tailpiece it is.

Paul, I think that you misunderstand Bob's comment.

It has been reported here a number of times over the past couple of years that some of the "R" tailpieces have broken or failed, when they never should have. Some refer to this as "exploding".

Your posting just brings to light that there's still a problem with some of these tailpieces.

You may have two options here, either replace the "R" tailpiece with another, or replace it all together with a trapeze tailpiece.

If time is short, perhaps someone on the forum could work with you to get you a new tailpiece. It could be mail directly to you.

This forum is here to help guide you, and not provide you with "another problem" as you say.

Cheers,

Paul....

Welcome to the forum!! As Jon said, Bob was merely making a comment to the rest of us pertaining to this issue. As someone who has seen quite a few of his posts, I assure you he was not being "a smartie" with you....

As to your problem....again as Jon stated previously, I recommend the trapeze tailpiece.

Paul: You have come to the right place. You have mail.

I too would recommend the trapeze tailpiece. Its bracket covers the holes made by the R tailpiece bracket.

However, once you go this route there is no way to go back to the R tailpiece, without filling the screw holes made by the trapeze bracket.

I have never heard of this before. Are these failling tail pieces current ones, earlier vintage, or both?

I believe the problem was only with black tail pieces. There was a thread quite a while ago either here or on AGR. I think JH commented as well.

Found the post on AGR:
"This problem is limited entirely to black tailpieces, which are not as
strong as the chrome ones, due to the heat applied in the powder coat
process. Since the coating simply isn't resistant to scratching like chrome
is, it's possible to nick or scrape it, which is like scoring glass prior to
breaking it to size. The zinc becomes relatively brittle from the heating
and one knock can then cause it to fracture along that scratch.

Even though it's not a defect, since it is caused by the sequence of
scratching and/or bumping it during use, we will replace any of these which
fracture during the warranty period. Fortunately for everyone, it's a very
rare occurrence.

Cheers,
John Hall"

The whole post is here:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&th=17303dc344e2894&seekm=39D0E011.76747E12%40mindspring.com&frame=off
Cheers,
Bill

I've seen on the parts page at Mike Parks' website that a replacement tailpiece now requires exchange, like truss rod covers. So Paul, don't through the pieces away!

Gee, I wonder if RIC makes replacement R tailpieces for 4005 series basses.