Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

One of the cool things I like about Rickenbackers is the four large knobs in a square with the smaller blend knob on the side. As some of you know, I have collected the LE posters and have them mounted on my wall in chronological order, and that made me wonder. McGguinn's 30/12RM excluded, why do some of the guitars have the four main knobs in a square pattern and some have them off-set. The Tom Petty, John Lennon and Carl Wilson, which are from the sixties, are square, but the Hoffs and Kay are not. I can see why the 381 might have a different configuration, but not the Hoffs. Also, while flipping through RICKENBACKER by Richard Smith, on several pages (88, 92, 101) they show guitars with non-square patterns, AND on 89 they show a 381/12 WITH square holes!

So, my questions are this. Why did Rickenbacker have her control knobs be off-center. Why were the 381's as a production line the only guitar to feature that as well? Finally, I am guessing now that the pickguards are automatically drilled with a machine that alligns them, but did the factory start using templates to create the hole patterns? These might seem like stupid questions, but the knobs always have held a charm for me. I mean, there are FIVE! How many other standard production guitars had five? Not Strats, or Les Pauls, or whatever. Rickenbacker Rocks!

Mr. Hall, could you comment. I guess it is a silly question, but there are far more silly questions I could ask. Like, when are 331's going to be rereleased!

I think at one point they seperated them a bit because the older oven knobs were touching themselves.

But other then that I have no idea.

Interesting observation Ben. I wondered the same thing regarding the RM. I just assumed the upgraded electronics dictated a different configuration.

As far as I know, the Hoffs knobs are perfectly square and that's the way I see it on the website and poster allowing for some wide angle lens distortion. The prototype one here in my collection certainly is square. Anyway, the bottom plate was a bog standard Model 350 pickguard.

Both the 381JK and 370/12RM have rotary switches on at least one control that have a larger diameter under the plate than a pot that necessitated a rearrangement so as not to hit the wood edges of the control cavity. In the end this is always the constraint that dictates the knob placement on the guitars.

The 325C58 is particularly challenging in this respect because the guitar was originally designed for only two controls, so making it four control with oversize knobs makes for a very tight fit and components jammed against the wood.

To add to what JH posted, on many older Rickenbackers we have opened up to 'explore'(for lack of a better term), we have found small cases of extra routing for that very reason---so that things may fit more precisely....sometimes done with drills and very very small drill bits, but it's all legit factory work.

Earlier left-handed basses are a classic example of this, for the main cavity was hand-done with a forstner bit. On occasion there was a screw hole that had nothing under it but air, LOL....all very interesting.

Thanks. Maybe it just is the poster that makes the 350SH look like its knobs are offset. I understood about thr 370RM. Interesting about the 325c58, though, as I never thought about the historical aspect of 3 to 4 knobs.