Need help on pricing my Rick B6

[Mike Tueller]

[BTW: guitar is sold]


I'd like to sell my Rickenbacher Lap, but honestly I have no clue about pricing. I'm not trying to squeeze out as many dollars as I can, but I also don't want to set a too low price.

From my limited internet research I found it to be made between 1940-43. Serial is C3224, and the magnet width is 1.5''

I've uploaded some pics today:

http://gallery.me.com/micih#100196

When I bought it, the PU was very weak and I sent it to pickup wizard Harry Haeussel for inspection. He detected a short, did a rewound to spec and recharged the magnet. It's very strong now and sounds great.

The copper line you see behind the PU is a removable strip of thin copper. I added this to ground the strings, this reduces the noise big time.

I also replaced the pots, the cap and the wiring with same value modern (new) parts, same wiring as original. The original pots and wiring harness are included, as is the original case (very good condition for its age, all latches working).

I used this Lap for gigs and it's a great instrument, but I'd like to stay with modern instruments, I'm too scared to take it with me.

If it's allowed I'm also open to direct offers, if not I'll post an ad once I figured out a fair price. It's in Europe right now, but I successfully bought and traded instruments with US people in the past. I pack very carefully and am a verified PayPal member.

Thanks for any help on the pricing question. I hope my English is clear enough...

Mike
P.S.: This is my first post, but I'm reading the forum since about 3 years.

[Ray Montee]

Altho' I have 12 Ric Bakelites.......I don't consider myself any kind of an expert.

Personally, with all of the modifications that have been made, I wouldn't consider it any longer to be a VINTAGE instrument, in the true sense.

It looks to me like another of Rickenbachers' 'blends' of prewar and post war. That is not a negative in my opinion. They seemed to have done that quite a bit during the transition.

The fact that you say it plays well.....is a plus if you're merely looking for a great playing musical instrument. Based on that, I'd limit my willingness to pay at $800 to$950.00 American.....IMHO.

[Mike Tueller]

Thanks Ray!

I'm not into vintage and collecting, but I understand that there are rules about what's considered original etc.

The upper end of your price scale seems pretty fair to me (but as mentioned I'm not qualified as I have no clue), and I'd probably let it go for around 1k, still have to think a bit (once it's gone, it's gone).

Just wanted to add, even if it doesn't count: one can restore it to original by merely removing the copper strip (will go without leaving traces) and resoldering the original pots and cap.

Mike

BTW: the ruler in one of the pics shows millimenters/centimeters, 1.5 inches = 3.8 centimeters.

[Steve Ahola]

Just wanted to add, even if it doesn't count: one can restore it to original by merely removing the copper strip (will go without leaving traces) and resoldering the original pots and cap.

This post is almost 4 months old but I would suggest putting all of the original parts back in if you are going to sell it. Expecting a buyer to do that seems kinda iffy to me.

Now if it was an old guitar amp that you had fixed up I think that you would want to leave all of the new parts in (unless you were dealing with a hard core collector).

Just my 2 cents

Steve Ahola

[Mike Tueller]

It's now listed on ebay, number: 260618818285 with what I consider a friendly starting price;-)

[Steve Ahola]

It's now listed on ebay, number: 260618818285 with what I consider a friendly starting price;-)

Mike:

Good luck with your auction! Your starting price is very friendly; hopefully you will get twice that.

You have it listed as a BR-6. According to the Vintage Guitar Info site the BR-6 was a Gibson model and was one of the last lap steels that they made that looked like a guitar and not a plank of wood.

So I believe that what you have is a Model B, also called a B-6 because it has 6 strings.

BTW I was able to clean and condition the single pot on my Ricky by carefully bending back the 4 taps that hold the back of the pot on and first cleaning the resistive element and wiper with Caig DeOxit and then conditioning then with Caig Pro Gold. I really did not want to replace the pot because it is hard to find a modern audio pot with the same taper as the ones used in vintage equipment.

There was no tone capacitor in mine, but the ones in old guitars are of different composition than typical modern caps which are often polyester or polypropylene. Some people swear that caps are caps but others can hear a subtle or not-so-subtle difference. At least in guitar circuits those old vintage caps either work or they don't (like a short or an open circuit) and they generally do not contribute noise when they do work. (I suspect that it was the pots that were causing the noise.) While those old pots will usually last a lifetime or two with proper cleaning and conditioning, some of them do go bad and have to be replaced.

HTH

Steve Ahola

P.S. You probably want to post this in the For Sale section after reading the rules there. Good luck and Happy Fishing! (Ebay buyers hunt for bargains while eBay sellers fish for suckers, er, customers to bid on their auctions. )

[Mike Tueller]

Thanks Steve for the additional info and sorry about posting it here for sale.

I thought about cleaning the original pots (I even have CAIG), but I was afraid of damaging the vintage pots.

[Steve Ahola]

Thanks Steve for the additional info and sorry about posting it here for sale.

I thought about cleaning the original pots (I even have CAIG), but I was afraid of damaging the vintage pots.

Mike:

That's a tough decision to make. Caig is the only stuff I would trust. It is my opinion that it is the modern pots with the "spaced age" plastics that are most at risk with any cleaners.

I was a service tech for almost 30 years and the stuff built in the 30's and 40's was pretty much designed to last forever. For motors you'd replace the bushings before you would even think of replacing the motor. Switches and a lot of electrical devices were taken apart and cleaned rather than just automatically replaced. I have burnishing tools for cleaning the contacts of relays...

The last time I saw a B-6 selling on eBay for less than $500 it was the one with the broken neck. The guy had bought it when he was 17 years old in the early 80's. He figured he could stash his cigarettes and weed under the metal panels. Well, his father caught him smoking and threw the B-6 down a flight of stairs, breaking the neck off at the 10th fret. He had a repairman put the neck back on but never bothered about the cosmetics so there was still a very noticeable "scar" at the 12th fret. Being a lap steel that didn't matter at all...

The stories you read on eBay are often more interesting than the items being sold.

Steve