Not exactly. It is the first Rickenbacker that he fully designed.

He actually built guitars prior to this. In fact, I believe one of the first guitars that he built was an Astro kit guitar that Rickenbacker/Electro used to sell back in the 60's. He may have even built guitars earlier than this.

Anyhow, here are pictures of the Astro and John Hall with the Astro he built.

http://www.rickenbacker.com/gallery_ima ... _year=1960

http://www.rickenbacker.com/gallery_ima ... _year=1960

You're right, and that's really what I intended to say. Otherwise, that would have been a really great first attempt!

Wow, John was what, 18 in that pic? And already making wonderful guitars!

I "built" the guitar (which I still have, when I was 13. I wouldn't have been much older than that in that photo.

"Built" is pretty much an overtstatement though, as the whole idea of the kit was to make it go togther pretty easily. More than anything it was a matter of sanding, sealing, and painting (which was done with a spray can). The assembly certainly was minimal.That's also a bit overstated as well. The body shape was pretty much derived from an earlier design that hadn't been well refined. My work centered mainly on the interchangeable pickups and associated circuitry. As I recall, there were something like 5 pickup styles- RIC, Fender-like, Gibson-esque and others. Then there were a number of different circuits ranging from two to six controls. The six control one was active, with emphasis on the mid-range, where most of the differences between guitars happens. The toughest part was the self-aligning aspect of the connector between pickups and circuits, as it had to be noise-free, simple, and reliable.

Ironically, most of the work for this was done in my den and shop at home- on Rolling Stone Lane.

I stand corrected.

I really like hearing cool stories like this. I personally think that the design is very nice. I also think that the modular electronics are a rather innovative, and quite radical, concept.

Is there any chance that you would consider such an approach on future models?

Regards,

Koose

Dear Mr. Hall,

I haven't heard back from you regarding my two revolutionary models for the 80th Anniversary: the RIck 650 Creamsickle and the 650 Merloglo. Please contact me at your earliest convenience so that I can provide you with a mailing address to send guiter #1 of 80 for this years anniversary guitar.

Regards,
Brian

I think that pretty much sums it up...

Not to mention the backlog. Being backlogged as RIC is, I highly doubt we'll see an 80th anniversary model.

I'd love to know what became of the "additional products" they mentioned in the news item about the discontinuing of the C series. More victims of the backlog, I'd assume. I'd also love to know just how much and in what ways these products will "overlap" with the C series.

Here's what I'd pick for an anniversary model--or just generally what I'd love to see from Rickenbacker: a 370 old-style (double bound with checkerboard binding), 660 neck shape with medium-jumbo frets, three reasonably hot toaster pickups with balanced volume levels neck-to-bridge, separate volume controls for each pickup, selector wired like 360 with middle pickup controlled with its own volume control, push-pull pot to disable bass-cut cap on bridge pickup, gold-backed lucite pickguards and nameplate, available in all their regular colors plus Montezuma Brown, Greenburst, Purpleburst, and Blueburst. I'd buy one!

The pickups on that 490 look like early 481 humbuckers. If so, two thumbs way up from me on John's choice of pickups, with all of those on board mixing options. We get some very cool sounds with the phase reversal switch. Really a sound like no other guitar.