| Author | Message | ||
     paul wilczynski (Jingle_jangle) Senior Member Username: Jingle_jangle Post Number: 903 Registered: 12-2004 Posted From: 63.193.9.8 |
Anthony, I agree with you. In my three decades in design, one axiom proves itself over and over: if it LOOKS right, chances are it IS right (from a design standpoint). Visually, this thingum screams out for justice with every splinter of its bruised carcass. With all the choices of guitars today with humbuckers, and all the extremely flexible amps available, to hack up a classic for the sake of a half-baked idea is to invite the sort of derision that this thing has had heaped upon it. To do something just because you can is no justification except as a timewaster. | ||
| John Williams (Jwilli) Senior Member Username: Jwilli Post Number: 639 Registered: 04-2002 Posted From: 24.88.72.49 |
Paul, if you don't mind me asking.....which auto school of design do you work for? Guitars and cars are my passion. Well, females are much higher on my list but I am already married with (6) children. :-) Thanks, J | ||
| paul wilczynski (Jingle_jangle) Senior Member Username: Jingle_jangle Post Number: 907 Registered: 12-2004 Posted From: 63.193.9.8 |
John, I work as IDS 3D Manager--full-time Faculty and Administrator--for the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. It's the largest private design school in the USA, with over 7,000 students. Our Industrial Design school will have about 400 come September. | ||
| Benjamin Maggi (Scoobster28) Senior Member Username: Scoobster28 Post Number: 125 Registered: 05-2002 Posted From: 24.92.51.50 |
You guys, what is wrong with you? So they put a Gibson humbucker on a Rickenbacker and you guys think that is weird? True, it is unusual, BUT IT was done by John Fogerty of CCR. Now, I could mention mods that were made to certain guitars owned by, say, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison and you guys would say "lets trick out my 325!" And that is fine and good. W While I think most Rickenbacker mods are weird, it is an instrument. And, this mod is correctly compared in the description to one done by a famous guitarist. I think it is great, and it saves me the time to have to do it. I am not trying to be mean to you guys, but this form has LOTS of stuff about updating Rickenbackers to look like Lennons and McCartneys. I want to win, but the auction I fear the price will rise higher than what I have. Oh well, I will save the money for my 331L Lightshow!  | ||
| paul wilczynski (Jingle_jangle) Senior Member Username: Jingle_jangle Post Number: 911 Registered: 12-2004 Posted From: 63.193.9.8 |
Hey, Scoob, don't put hummers on your lightshow! I think that we aired out our views pretty well. Nothing personal to you, Scoobster! Some agreed, more disagreed. IMO, the original mods that non-tecchie John did to his 325 didn't improve the original design, but didn't hurt it too much. The oven knob/gold guard thing has a visual impact that the silver knobs or Hofner knobs did not have. The addition of the Bigsby was of course a functional improvement and the black paint work could be considered a natural progression with the aim of more stage impact. But there's simply no way you could look at John's 325 at any stage in its mods and be offended. The late '60s was a time of some pretty atrocious taste in clothes, music, and instrument mods, too. To amateurishly strip the Casino and the J 160's in an attempt to "go natural" was pretty ill-advised. The stripped 325 now at the Lennon Museum in Japan LOOKS like a stripped black guitar; it will never glow like it once did. Their attempts at psychedelia on their instruments were also ill-conceived and executed even worse, IMO. We expressed our opinion, you did yours. You buy the guitar, you do what you want with it; it's your property, after all! But don't expect everybody to agree with you or John Fogerty, for that matter. | ||
| Howard Bishop (Ozover50) Senior Member Username: Ozover50 Post Number: 258 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 203.221.30.162 |
Good luck with the auction, Scoobster - if it's what you want then GO FOR IT!! The addition of the Gibson HB no doubt will give you the sound that you're looking for but in my eyes (for what they're worth) it's just not aesthetically pleasing. I bought my two Rics for what they are, not what I want them to be or what they could be. But then again I'm a bit of a purist and won't change. Hope you win and have a great time with it!! | ||
| Adam Swapp (Adam_swapp) Senior Member Username: Adam_swapp Post Number: 394 Registered: 02-2004 Posted From: 68.120.115.108 |
Some of us are a little judgmental, aren't we? As was pointed out earlier, the most famous Rick players in the world (Lennon, McCartney, McGuinn, etc.) modified their guitars from stock. So, what's wrong with this guy doing the same? Why hold him to a higher standard? In 40 years, there might be a cottage industry built around his mods. It's not what I would have done, and it's probably detrimental to the resale value of the guitar, but it's his guitar - and it's only a guitar, and not a rare one at that. One might argue that it's ill-advised from a practical sense, but it falls far short of sacrilege or desecration. And Paul, it seems that your objection to stripping the Casino, J160E, and 325 is based on the quality of the work rather than the concept. Remember, those guitars probably wouldn't even be considered iconic or particularly desirable if not for John Lennon. And I dare say those mods have made a boatload of money for RIC and Gibson. They don't seem to have any trouble tempering their indignation for fun and profit. BTW, I did contact the seller about the new pickup rout. He has no pictures of the new cavity, nor does he know the dimensions. In short, you might be able to cover it with a RIC pupif you were so inclined - but I wouldn't bet on it. So Benjamin, my suggestion to you (which is worth what you're paying for it), is to think twice about this guitar. If you can pick it up cheap, go for it, but if it gets anywhere near the price of an unmolested instrument I'd opt for a stock model. There are a lot of pickups available these days, and it's quite likely that you can get the sound you're looking for in a package that allows you to reinstall the original toaster with no lasting evidence of your experiment. | ||
| Benjamin Maggi (Scoobster28) Senior Member Username: Scoobster28 Post Number: 126 Registered: 05-2002 Posted From: 24.92.51.50 |
Right, my cap is $800, and I have rarely seen a 350 go for under that. I am confident I will not be taking this one home, but if I were to pay around 1,000-1,200, I would rather do the work myself (i.e. get my techie to do it!). And, not to pick on you Paul, but I have seen pictures of Lennon's "modified" V81 with the knobs falling off and while I wouldn't be offended, to some people that might be rediculis looking. Could be John just wore the thing to pieces, most likely, but also most likely if he had stuck with Rick knobs he wouldn't have them constantly falling off. | ||
| paul wilczynski (Jingle_jangle) Senior Member Username: Jingle_jangle Post Number: 918 Registered: 12-2004 Posted From: 24.5.100.79 |
Scoob, if anything, I'm guilty of picking on you, although it's nothing personal and beauty in this case is in the eye of the purchaser! Scoob, Lennon's 325 came originally with the good old "oven" knobs that we can still purchase through any number of sources, which are still being made by the same folks who made them in '58. From what I understand, the "oven" knobs (and their origiinal use WAS as an OEM part for stoves) were too close together for John's liking with the original spacing of the pickguard. They were removed and replaced with two different styles of knobs--one the "chrome" knobs from Curry's (actually spun and knurled aluminum) and also the plastic Hofner knobs. Although Andy Babiuk cites a source commenting that the oven knobs were constantly falling off, These things would have had to have been tinkered with, in my opinion. In any case, I'd be willing to bet that eventually a setscrew was lost. These could not have been easy to find back then for a musician not frequenting hardware factors. Besides, they are Allen set screws, confusing to the uninitiated. The knobs he replaced them with had slotted setcrews, but I'd doubt that the Beatles travelled with either Allen wrenches or jewelers' screwdrivers in those early days. There are photos in existence of John playing at the Star club with not only a knob missing, but an entire pot having fallen inside the control cavity, probably because its hex retaining nut fell off. These are not exactly available at the corner candy store. To me it is much more likely that fiddling caused these fall-offs, since Rick had the tools at the factory to install knobs and torque them properly. At any rate, the knobs falling off were not intentional, but accidental and although a bit shabby looking, lend a real "workingman's axe" mystique to the guitar in those days. The hummer on the guitar we're going on about, was someone's deliberate irreversible modification to that guitar. | ||
| Dave Westheimer (Dave4004) Senior Member Username: Dave4004 Post Number: 1090 Registered: 06-2002 Posted From: 69.91.31.135 |
Scoobster, go for it and don't let the critics here get you down. There's absolutely nothing wrong with modding this, even if it were an original and not a reissue. If the reserve is unreasonably high, it won't sell. |
