Rickenbackers In Tokyo

admin · Post by **admin** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 2:51 am

While reading the Japan Today Forum I found the following reference to Rickenbackers of interest.

"Let's see.. in Shinjuku there's a "Rock Inn" (two buildings) around the corner from the green peas pachislo place at the southeast exit. A lot of stuff there is new but go upstairs and they have lots of used stuff. A lot of Rickenbacker and Gibson and stuff, but you'll probably find Fender Japans and Tokais too."

So if you are visiting, this information may be helpful.

admin · Post by **admin** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 3:13 am

In my reading I have also learned that Saiichi Sugiyama used a Rickenbacker 325 on the making of his CD entitled "So Am I." From his site

"A 1960’s Rickenbacker 325 from Phil Harris’ hire company was used on the rhythm part on “Student Susan” and was played through a TV front Fender Princeton."

admin · Post by **admin** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 3:24 am

Then there's the Tokyo Music Fair.

roadrunners · Post by **roadrunners** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 6:44 am

cool i wonder what they must have there!

shochu_brother · Post by **shochu_brother** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 7:10 am

I purchased my reissue Jaguar in Tokyo. The Rock Inn in Shinjuku did have some nice Rickenbackers, but I didn't see the point in buying a USA made guitar in Japan since I live in the USA!

I did however seek out the Fender Japan guitar because many Fender Japan models are hard to get over here.

If you are in Tokyo, you must visit the Ochanomizu section - this is "guitar central", with both sides of the blocks lined with guitar stores. Always some interesting things to be found there.

leftybass · Post by **leftybass** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 7:26 am

Peter, are you sure you posted pics of the Tokyo Music Fair, or are they pics of John Williams's basement?? LOL!!!!

phlemmy · Post by **phlemmy** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 10:29 am

i'd like to pick up a tokai love rock and jazz bass.

johnhall · Post by **johnhall** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 12:51 pm

Rock Inn is a large chain store in Japan, actually owned by our distributor there, Shinseido. But there's many other large stores in Japan that handle our product as well, including Ishibashi, Kurosawa, and ESP. Indeed, Ochanomizu is the place for guitars!

The Tokyo Music Fair was moved to Yokohama and will be in November this year and only happens every two years.

bill_yantz · Post by **bill_yantz** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 4:30 am

The Blueboy acoustic is killer!

oreca · Post by **oreca** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 6:18 am

I hope we get to see some pictures of it in November!

FYI, if you want to see those pictures slightly bigger copy the picture's link in your address bar. They come out slightly bigger.

brammy · Post by **brammy** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:11 am

I lived in Tokyo in '83 and saw a pretty good Beatles imitation band there (I've totally forgotten the name of the band). They had the instrumentation down pretty well and did a heroic effort with the lyrics although it was clear that they were not fluent in English....altogether pretty fun (and sometimes funny).

beatcomber · Post by **beatcomber** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 1:09 pm

The Japanese music stores, even the smaller ones in out of the way towns, tend to have excellent guitars in stock. In 2001 I visited a small town near Mt. Fuji - well off the beaten path - and in the local department store there was a corner leased to an instrument dealer. This little kiosk had BOTH the 425v63 and 450v63 in stock!!!