Looking for Rickenbacher experts... Just got this home made steel in the mail. It looks to be made fairly well & seems quite old. Looks also to be using parts from an old Rickenbacher. It has an old Centralab(?) pot with the shortest shaft I've ever come across. Code reads A 366. The horse shoe magnet measures 1 1/2'' width & 1/8'' thick magnets. Pickup measures 1.64k ohms. Has an old octagonal knob. The nut looks to be bakelite. The tuners seem to be quite old as well with black buttons. The string retainer near the bridge is for a 7 string which is strange. Also features a cool leg cutaway on the back which is quite comfy. Unfortunately the body has a large crack that runs from the tail to the fretboard.
My questions:
Are there any telling features from old Rickenbachers to determine what model theses parts came off of?
Should the horseshoe magnets have a strong magnetic pull? (they don't, though there is some sound)
Also, in regards to glueing the body, should I try and pump some wood glue in there & clamp it, or see about getting a clean full separation and clean the wood.
Looks like somebody wanted a wood body guitar rather than aluminum or Bakelite and took the electronics from an early Rickenbacher. The knob is like those used on the earliest models I’m kind of amazed at how clean the pickup looks. No patent number so before mid-1937. 1.64k seems pretty weak, might need a magnet recharge or a rewind. Tuners look like generic Waverly or Kluson or whatever. Good luck with your project. Let us know how it turns out.
A big THANKS to all my friends, here and everywhere !
I believe this octagon shaped knob was used only in 1935 as the following year Richenbacher used a combination of round and or chicken head knobs. and prior to 1935 there were no knobs on lap steels. The pickup if made by Richenbacher is pre 1946 as the magnet was reduced from 1.5 inches wide to 1.25 inches at that time. My understanding is that these early horse shoe pickups were some of the best ever made. good luck with your project
Hello Sunland!! Looks to be mostly Ric .. pickup ‘bright green cloth cvr†wire is authentic to me. Clips at each side of the HShoe look home fabbed.. not plated steel, not radiused smoothly. (compared to ones on my B7) Should be a # stamp or ‘Pat pend’ if early run, on the player side. These and the other metal pieces seem to be Aluminum fab’d. Tailpiece I can’t see much of it to say it’s origins.
You also can place a “bow tie†shaped wood tab in a trench cut into the pickup cavity, kinda like ‘tounge n groove’ style, as you draw together crack splits. Then with glue and clamps all around the repair, it will never re-split.
The Centralab pot can be pulled apart and refurbished. Some “ Uncle Doug “ YouTube topics are a great source of ‘techie’ procedures. He goes into one, as I recall, using DeOxit. All in all, I think you can make a “Silk Purse†out of a good selection like you have here.
BTW Cody, my high school: Verdugo Hills HS, S-‘65
Appreciate all the input, gentlemen!
It seems to be a modified early ~35 pickup
The body had been glued before & dowels were placed in the body & part that was coming off. The work was not done very well & the piece that was coming away lines up but not quite at the same level, so need to shim part of the bridge that hangs over (or come up with another idea).
Jon, thanks for the tip looking to those Uncle Doug videos. I used to watch them daily.
I grew up in Tujunga but went to CVHS for a couple years! *Would've* been class of '07! Nice weather we had today, eh?
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