Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I've seen that pic too. Maybe around '67 or so. Definitely in his possession. Then.

I thought I read somewhere that Ringo's (John's) 1996 was lost in the L.A. house fire that Ringo had, a few years ago, but in Los Angeles not Monte Carlo.

8mileshigher wrote:I thought I read somewhere that Ringo's (John's) 1996 was lost in the L.A. house fire that Ringo had, a few years ago, but in Los Angeles not Monte Carlo.

Ringo's LA House fire was in 1979. The 1996 was used on his 2005 "Choose Love" album.

FredC wrote:

8mileshigher wrote:I thought I read somewhere that Ringo's (John's) 1996 was lost in the L.A. house fire that Ringo had, a few years ago, but in Los Angeles not Monte Carlo.

Ringo's LA House fire was in 1979. The 1996 was used on his 2005 "Choose Love" album.

Fred - thanks for clarifying the dates. Glad it wasn't in that L.A. fire.

Ill bet 'he' has it...

Hi people,
I am new to the site but I thought that I would mention that in the early 1980's I have been told that a certain person ordered a couple of Rickenbacker 320 guitars and had them shipped to England through a well known dealer in this country. If this information is incorrect then please forgive me, but the reason that I looked up this information was due to fact that I have recently purchased a 1980 Rickenbacker 320 and this guitar was found in a loft in the origional case...the guitar has been well used as there is paint worn away where you would expect due to constant rubbing but this has in no way effected the playability and sound of the guitar.
If anyone can put me straight on this fact I would be very greatful.....it would be nice to find out that the 320 belonged to someone of importance...still anyone can dream.
Cheers
Dave

Well...welcome first of all. Can you give any more detail? Who might the artist be? Serial number? Pics of the guitar? Hopefully it wasn't anyone from Music Ground who gave you the info or sold you the guitar.


I mean, who in their right mind plays a 320?

jwilli wrote:I mean, who in their right mind plays a 320?

I do!

The "right mind" thing narrows it down considerably.

I was emailed by a someone researching this question recently. This person met Ringo last year in Monaco at a dinner, and was able to speak to him specifically about it. Ringo said he doesn't own any small Rickenbacker of John's and never has.

It wasn't overly suprising to hear this. All the talk of Ringo having it was sounding fairly circular. ie - the rumours were being used to substantiate themselves. It sounded like various people repeating and embellishing variations on the same story. There has been that 'account' that it was used on Ringo's 2005 album, but nothing to substantiate it. No photos, no filmclip, just heresay and wishful thinking. Ringo's own recent statement would also seem to remove the possibility. I did try to message Hudson about it and he had nothing to say in response. I expect it's not hard for someone who doesn't know Rickenbackers in detail to confuse similar looking fireglo models, and minor details on a guitar not normally used by them, are hardly likely to be important to a working musician.

Has anyone hit up Andy Babiuk? He's fairly accessible.

I feel like Andy Babiuk has established pretty convincingly that Ringo owns the guitar.

It's certainly possible that Ringo could have been confused or forgotten as well.

The Mark Hudson story seemed pretty convincing to me, as well as his recollection that JH contacted him in regards to the 1996 RI.

I'm thinking we will need a little more evidence to prove or disprove the theory.

Clifton wrote: This "story" sounds sketchy, especially since Andy Babiuk has established that Ringo owns the guitar.

Your story, including the "friend of a friend" part, contains elements of urban myth.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_legend

No need to put people on trial. Glen is a trusted member around here, and I'm sure he's telling the truth. The question in my mind is "how reliable is Ringo?"

True, and I apologize. I edited my last post to reflect that I feel like Andy has ascertained the whereabouts of John's 1996. Of course, maybe Ringo didn't want to talk about one of John's guitars to someone he didn't know. This whole thread has a kind of "Who's buried in Grant's tomb?" feel to it.