Help with Ric Bakelite steel info & prices

[Andy Volk]

I'm interested in getting a Bakelite Ric steel but could use a little reality check from my fellow forumites. What's the ballpark range these days for these guitars? I just missed the one listed last week for $395 and held a fairly dog-eared one in my hands this afternoon for which the owner wanted $750.

Also, if you played a pre-war and a post-war model side by side with your eyes closed, could you REALLY hear the difference in tone or is that just a steel guitar myth?

Oh, yeah ... and do they go out of tune if you turn on a light?<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Andy Volk on 11 April 2000 at 05:53 PM.]</p></FONT>

[C Dixon]

Andy,

Look to see or ask is there a patent number on the metal plate next to the magnet adjusting screw. If it says "patent pending" instead of a patent number, it was manufactured before August 10, 1937. And it is worth more than one made after this date which has an actual patent number. Please do not confuse this number with the embossed (in the bakelite), patent number of the guitar itself. The stamped in metal patent number is the patent Rickenbacher received for the PU.

Jerry Byrd says the wider magnets they used before the war have a better sound than the narrower ones made after the war. Also prewar models had the srings come up through the body of the guitar. After the war some Ricks had a stamped metal plate that supported the strings on the extreme right end of the guitar. Again they do not have the characteristic sound as does the ones where the strings come up from the bottom.

And yes, ANYTHING, causes them to go out of tune. JB supposedly said once, "the best sounding guitar I ever played. But I spent my life trying to keep the $%#@$#%& in tune!"

So if you want the sound you are going to have to put up with trying to keep them in tune.

$600 to $750 for 6 strings and a couple hundred higher for 7 strings seems to be the going price. Of course on Ebay, prices can be anywhere.

Take care and God bless,

carl

[mikey]

you want to get string through body, like a Tele, not the string clip on tailpiece, also, I can tell the difference between a 1.5" horseshoe and the thinner, shorter ones...tone is different, less harmonically rich...I'd say 6-8 for a 6 string in VG condition,
Mike
PS..They go out of tune when you take it out of the case!!!<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by mikey on 11 April 2000 at 07:28 PM.]</p></FONT>

[Jason Lollar]

I had the peasure to work on one of those a couple of weeks ago, the guy brought the whole rig in, I usually only get the pickups. Turned out it only needed the pickup adjusted and a couple different gauges of strings to get it to sound right. The horse shoe pickups have an amazing amount of output and alot of upper harmonics with the amp on 3 it sounded like a stringmaster as far as distortion would on 7 totaly different tone though, much more bite and less bottom and we spent as much time tuning it as playing it. I looked for a problem with the pegs or the bridge but it appeared to be the whole instrument was a bit unstable.

[Andy Volk]

Thanks, guys! Following up on several leads ... keep you posted.

[Kenny Dail]

So far as tone is concerned, the bakelite has "the tone". The bakelites also go out of tune real easy because of climatic changes and "body flex". Because the necks are bolted to the body, everytime you move the instrument, string pitch does move due to flex and it is very difficult to keep them in tune. I found that I have to constantly keep checking my "tune" because my ear tells me somehting is "out." Most bakelite owners think this need to adjust is due to temperature changes and I am sure the instrument is affected, but body flex is also a cause for tuning adjustments. I have a 1938 model 6 string (through the body) Rick bakelite and I don't play it out much for this very reason. Just $.02 worth.

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kd...and the beat goes on...