Rickenbacker distributor in Spain

[(miguel)]

Enrique Keller S.A has been the official distributor in Spain for a long time. Although I'm not sure, I believe the company started importing Rickenbackers in the 70's. I remember the first time I saw a 330 in a spanish music store was in the late 70's. I was a child then, and I couldn't keep my eyes off the guitar! The company started in 1944, was founded by Mr. Keller (a german) and makes spanish & acostic guitars. I have read that they are going to open a new plant in India, to reduce costs. Enrique Keller S.A also deals with several guitar manufacturers. They only import four Rick guitar models (330, 360, 620 and the Dakota) and the 4003. As far as I know they don't accept orders for any other model nor they sell spare parts.

[(rickyvox)]

Miguel, some people told me there was even a previous distributor located in the south, but I don't really now for sure. The fact seems to be there was a bunch of Rickenbackers at disposal in the Sun Coast area in the mid-late 70's... It would be very interesting to know more about this.

[(miguel)]

That's pretty interesting, Julio. I have always thought that Keller started the whole thing. Let's see if we can find something more about this...

[(johnhall)]

There have been several distributors in Spain over the years. The various names currently escape me, although I do remember Jerome Martinez from Almeria about 30 years ago for a variety of reasons. I believe Leturiaga in Madrid was also one.

Note also that Keller is no longer the distributor in Spain and there are no plans to appoint another distributor until the factory capacity is sufficient to meet the demand. It's the same for many important countries right now . . .

[(miguel)]

Thank you very much for your post, Mr. Hall.
So Julio was right after all, there was an official Rickenbacker distributor in the south of Spain! I didn't mention that Keller is in the north, near to the border with France.

Sorry to hear that Rickenbacker has not an official distributor in Spain. I wonder what the potential buyers can do about this. I guess that they can't order directly from the States, can they?

Leturiaga still exists. They have several shops in Madrid and they also own Letusa, which is a big distribution company. Letusa is the official Vox distributor for Spain. Leturiaga was one of the first music stores in Spain to import Vox amplifiers in the sixties, around late 1963 - early 1964. In Barcelona, Alberdi was the shop to visit to buy a Vox. Here's the link to Letusa:
http://www.letusa.es/empr_hist.php

[(rickyvox)]

That's really great to confirm... there was a spaniard distributor here in the south, in Andalucía. I knew about a truck that came from Almeria to the shops here in Malaga in the 70s, to deliver new Rickenbackers. And it was usual to see Rickenbackers in display in some shops here, in that era. Really wonderful! This is a reason why you can find some Rickenbackers fan in this area.

It would be great to know the aproximate dates of every distributor, for the records. But I suppose that's a long shot, it was a long time ago. As Miguel knows, some spanish pop acts got new Export Rickenbackers during the end of the 60's, and they got some exposure in TV playbacks and pop films from that era, ti would be great to know if they got them in London, or maybe just started then to sell a Rickenbacker spanish distributor.

The first Rickenbackers to be known in Spain were 12's, in 1966/1967. But they came form USA. The owners were Teddy Bautista of The Canaries (he lived and recorded in the USA, but he used his Rickenbacker only for a short period of time), and the great Joaquín Torres of Los Pasos, who is truly the real 12 stringer of 60's in spanish pop. He still have his 360/12 fireglo and plays it, and some other 80's spanish pop bands buyed a Rickenbacker after they played or recorded with Joaquin Torres' 360/12 in his studio.

I'm very sorry to know Spain has not an official distributor now.
I hope this can be sorted in the near future.

[(miguel)]

Julio: I believe that the first Rickenbacker in Spain was the one Julian Moreno played in Los Salvajes, in late 1966. It was a 1998. He bought it in Barcelona.

[(beatlefreak)]

Sorry to hear that Rickenbacker has not an official distributor in Spain. I wonder what the potential buyers can do about this. I guess that they can't order directly from the States, can they?

Not from North America, no. A quick check at the RIC website does not list a distributor for Spain. It looks like your closest distributor would be in France:

ALGAM/ laboitenoiredumusicien.com , 2, rue de Milan, Parc d'Activité des Petites
Landes, 44484 Thouaré Cedex
Tel: +33 (0) 2 40 18 37 00
Fax: +33 (0) 2 40 18 37 29 W
Email : contact@algam.net
Web: http://www.laboitenoiredumusicien.com

[(rickyvox)]

Julio: I believe that the first Rickenbacker in Spain was the one Julian Moreno played in Los Salvajes, in late 1966. It was a 1998. He bought it in Barcelona.

Yes, Miguel, maybe you're right... because The Canaries were in the States until September 1966, so even if Bautista got his 12 before, he was not here, so the first Rickenbacker with some public exposing in Spain (as shown here) could be very well Los Salvajes one, whose history you know very well thanks to the excellent work in Los Salvajes bio book. And there was another Rickenbacker in Barcelona: Jean Pierre Gomez, of the great band Los No. Maybe will worth it to open another thread on this particular topic.