Great detective work Burchrob! Yep I thought the jack plate was real. Ok it's real but it's been transplanted on to another guitar, this guitar.

I still think the guitar itself is a Ric...... and changed jackplate doesn't equal fake.
Why a replacememt serial was not purchased from RIC I'm not sure, but I suppose it may have been faster to buy one from parts from another Rickenbacker.

It's good to now have some history on that jackplate serial number. You did very well to sort that one out BR'

By the way, the serial number decoder is not a serial number lookup. All it does is tell you if a serial number matches the pattern. It does not tell you if any instrument was actually issued that serial number. So, it's easy to come up with random letters/numbers and get a "match"


No, it's not a real jack plate that's been transplanted. If you look at the pictures from the Rick Resource Register you can see that the numbers on the real plate are stamped into the metal and "ZE" is in upper case letters. The fake plate looks printed and has a lower case 'e'

Here's the fake:


Here's the real plate:

Sickus, basically, buy at your own risk. If I were you, I'd pass this one over.

Nice work. I wouldn't go anywhere near that guitar at this point. Has too many strikes against it. Maybe JH would like to know that serial number is going around on counterfeit plates?

Ah yes the E is in the lower case, Now we are talking fake. I wouldn't deal with the seller.

If it was the original jack plate as seen on RR used, then thats not too bad, but to make a fake and use that forgery on a guitar for sale is a no no.

Sorry Buchrob I missed the small e at first, but good detective work on your part.

Cjj thanks for your classification.

There are some resources available when buying from an unknown seller.

Look up the serial number in the ric register (not affiliated with RIC international) to at least see if it's listed and matches the description of your target instrument. A bad mismatch such as this one is really a red flag, but not all instruments are registered there by any stretch of the imagination.

Ask a serious question to get the seller involved in person or on the phone. Phonies will often give themselves away by inventing unlikely provenance stories.

I can also clearly see why RIC does not get involved in vouching for instrument authenticity. It would have been entirely too easy for anyone to take a smashed guitar out of Pete Townshend's hands years ago and re-build a clone or franken-backer using as few or as many of the genuine parts that could be mustered.

The grain on the body is not RIC. FG grain has to be the best, and the grain on the body is no better than wall panel grade.

John Hall has stated (in the other forum) that their stamping machine is not capable of lower case stamping.

That pretty much ends the tale, doesn't it.

_________________
Cheers,
RicVic
Canada's Wet Coast.

"We are all musician.."

Without any doubt, this instrument is a fake. Offhand, I'd say this is an older Honey brand instrument from Japan.

Since it has Rickenbacker on the headstock, that means it's illegal to sell in the U.S. There was just a huge blowout on Harmony Central about this same subject.