Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Dear Mr. Hall,
through these posts one will find mixed reviews of the kauffman vibrato system....some good, some bad. What is your personal oppinion of the Kauffman vibrato? I myself like it

It's probably more appropriate for sheep shearing than as part of a musical instrument, but that's the way it was.

As I've said before, it's actually a remarkable study in precise imperfection; it, along with the keys, were a real challenge to engineer as today everything is too perfect and the originals varied widely. In other words, it was quite difficult to intentionally build a ****** part and one that met precise standards of crappiness.

"Doc" Kaufmann said long ago that it was never meant to be a hand opperated unit. He designed it to be opperated by a small elec. sewing mach. motor mounted in the body cavity of his Bac-o-Ricko.
Remember this was invented almost the same time as the elec. guitar. Very high tech for it's time.
Now about those sheep!!!!!!!!!

So the Kaufmann vibratos were the same part that were used by the electric Vibrola?

Thankyou Mr. Hall for that response. But why doesn't rickenbacker just modify the kauffman so its more useable?

There must be someone in the world who likes the kauffman besides me!

Like he said perfectly engineered imperfection. Ric is simply reproducing the guitar as it was sold to John Lennon in Germany on that fateful day.
So if you wanna do what he did and add a bigsby then go for it. If not you could leave it on or just take it off if you don't like it there. They are just trying to make the history folks happy.

IMO evryone loves it, it's just not very usable by hand. Professor Qmoder explained it quite to the point. see above post.

Qmoder, Alex wants to add one to his 330 for a more vintage look. His plan is to plug it to prevent tuning problems.

I think it's been said really well. When I frst saw a Kaufmann (on a RI325) I flipped--it looked so strange and I couldn't figure out how it worked until I realized that it jiggled side-to-side instead of up and down.

Funny about the sewing machine motor making it work, because the Kaufmann looks like a sewing machine part that had been brought from hiding under the table and then chrome plated.

Back in the early 1950s, my uncle, who was a multitalented stringed instrument player, somehow acquired what he told me was a prototype handbuilt multinecked pedal steel (I think 3 or 4 necks). It was built out of clear plexiglas and had transparent red plexi over the pegheads. He played it on TV and at family gatherings, last time in 1962 as I recall. He said he had bought it in SoCal while in the Navy in San Diego in the late '40s.

This weird thing had a mechanism of some sort, powered by a small electric motor, to provide a vibrato, but at the time I was too young to care to investigate.

This is the same guy who put Christmas tree lights in his banjo in 1958 for his TV appearances--early Light Show! He knew his electronics (played through a Magnatone M-20) but not his guitars (played a National Glenwood 3 pickup).

ill post a picture when Im done with the mods...I plan on doing quite a few things to the 330 to make it more distinguishable then others....

Grommets
Vintage Pickups
Vintage Knobs
The Rickenbacker Name Plate with unraised letters
and.....The Kauffman
And I might have a 3rd pickup installed....I have to try a 340 to see how tonally different it is from a 330 model

Alex, very cool!!

I admire you for thinking outside the box!

But-- where you gonna find a Vibrola? If you find 2, let me know!

What color is your 330?

Funny story actually, I won the vibrato in a bet with a friend who wasnt using it because it had been replaced by him with a bigsby.

My 330 is fire-glo....which gives me more of a reason to make the guitar a one of a kind because its probably rickenbackers most popular colour (at least on that model)

**Note to Paul** if you're serious about wanting a Kaufmann ( I assume by your previous post you were talking about one for yourself) I might give up the one I have, reasonably.

Yep. I'll bite. Contact me off list, Stan!

and the rickenbacker circle continues.....wasnt there an announcments thing on this forum>? i wonder where it went....maybe im seeing things

Announcments got purged (right word here?) with Rickenbacker Forum Comments, there's a thread about it there.