Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I recently purchased a RIC Deluxe Keywind to replace a damaged one on a friend's 325V59. I noticed that this keywind was different from those that were originally installed from the factory. The bushing on the new machine head did not screw into the base of the shaft of the keywind but rather pushed into the hole for the keywind and is held in place by friction. Also the bushing is round rather than hexagonal. My question is when and why did these tuners change?

Mr. Hall, would you have any idea when and why the RIC Deluxe keywinds changed?

You must be looking at a very old V59 if it had the old Schaller ST6K keys on it. I won't swear for sure regarding the date, but we must have stopped using those by 1990 in favor of a more correct replica. There was also a small number of Grover's abortive Kluson replica used as well in the early days but those are very rare.

I guess I'm a little puzzled by why there can be generic "Kluson" clones?

Why is the external design of this tuning machine not the "copyrightable/intellectual property" of Kluson?

I know that the machines on my 360/12v64 are "supposed" to look like Kluson Deluxe machines, but they aren't made by or licensed by Kluson (I asked Kluson last week in a conversation regarding another generic copy made in Japan and used on my '57 RI Gretsch Duo Jet).

Kluson went out of business many years ago. It's only been a few years now that someone else has gained control over the trademark on the name "Kluson".

However, during the time that the original company went out of business and the current owners acquired the ownership of the trademark, no one was policing the use of the Kluson configuration which might have had some claim to trademark beyond the name. This went on for so long that the design is now generic or public domain.

This is precisely why we are so aggressive about the use of any of our trademarks, whether they be a name or the configuration of a body or head. The courts place great value upon the owner's enforcement of his own marks and to not do so is to lose them. That's why you see so many copy guitars in certain styles- various owners have not been diligent at certain times and it's probably impossible to put the genie back in the bottle now.

John: The V59 in question is a 1988 model so it would seem that it was at the tail end of the Schaller ST6K keys. At least we can say with confidence that there were at least some of these sets of keywinds around in 1988.

Thank-you sir. I didn't know that the company had gone out of business. I guess in the industry I'm in, when things start to look shakey, you go in search of a white knight or other interested party and get what you can before you bail.

So-called "intellectual property" (ie: copyrights, trademarks, patents, etc...) can result in a relatively useful "war chest".