Hi,

I bring to your interest that 50 years old Rose Morris 1993/12 s/n ED530 (April 1965).
A friend of the owner, who was given the guitar as a present in the mid-90s, posted about it a few days ago on the Rickenbacker general topic of a french guitar-related forum.

As you can see on the pics, it is not in a very good shape, but it seems not to suffer from any structural damage, and the poster, who was given the opportunity to play it, wrote that the neck is very straight and the action low without any buzz.
It has been refinished over and over a few times, at least twice (blue & Bordeaux), converted to a 6-stringer with the machine heads and the bridge changed for some unknown third-party replacements, the upper pickguard is missing, etc.
Pretty bad job...

Informations collected over the Internet say that very few guitars of this model have been produced from July 1964 through 1965, maybe less than a hundred, with maybe only 25 surviving examples (Pete Townshend has destroyed a few ones a while ago...).

Can you please tell us more about that model, production facts and figures, remaining examples, etc. ? Or anything to say about what you see on the photos.
Its current or potential value is not the most important thing, as the owner doesn't want to sell it and wants to give it a decent second life.
Does RIC use to take such instruments for a complete and top-of-the-art refurbishment ? Or maybe do you know some skilled luthiers in Europe able to do a proper job ?

Thank you for your answers.

http://www.guitariste.com/share/users/f ... e-cdba.jpg
http://www.guitariste.com/share/users/f ... e-21e1.jpg
http://www.guitariste.com/share/users/f ... e-a84d.jpg
http://www.guitariste.com/share/users/f ... e-79c9.jpg
http://www.guitariste.com/share/users/f ... e-dbaf.jpg
http://www.guitariste.com/share/users/f ... e-d9bd.jpg
http://www.guitariste.com/share/users/f ... e-345a.jpg

Small mistake :
not "less than 25 remaining" as there are 22 registered on R.... for year 1964 and 12 for 1965.

That is worthy of a restoration project by one of the expert RIC refinishers here in the US. With sourcing the year correct tuners, truss rod cover, bridge and restoration, I would estimate $2500-$3000. But man that's a rare guitar.

Thanks a lot.
I got the details of a very skilled american luthier established in France, with some stunning Rickenbacker renovations to his credit. I guess he could be the right man at the right place.
I forwarded the contact to the owner.
To be continued...