Lead guitarists playing a rickenbacker 6 string?

tony_carey · Post by **tony_carey** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 8:55 am

I think you've just about summed it up there Alex....

winston · Post by **winston** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 9:03 am

Yep Tony and I are passionate about using our Rickenbackers for playing lead. He more than I, because I do play other brands as well, whereas Tony...

tony_carey · Post by **tony_carey** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 9:11 am

....aahhh Brian. There's a story there!

sowhat · Post by **sowhat** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 9:24 am

Well?..

ozover50 · Post by **ozover50** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 9:56 am

He's got dozens of Fenders and Gibbies hidden away..... aaarrgggghhhhhh!!

Tell (or show) me the story when I'm there, Tony?

Great pic BTW, Richard.... cool!

ricardo_vicente · Post by **ricardo_vicente** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 10:10 am

Thanks, Howard! That's us playing at the celebrations for the Grand Duke of Luxembourg's birthday believe it or not! We're popular enough with the ex-pat community there to get a couple of gigs down that way. Always a lot of fun.

sowhat · Post by **sowhat** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 10:16 am

winston · Post by **winston** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 10:35 am

That is a great pic Richard. Great to see two Rickenbackers in the lineup too.

trancedental · Post by **trancedental** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 1:28 am

So the sustain is not much of an issue (as Fender have bolt on necks with less sustain), nor the scale length (See below)

The finish on the Rick necks is not much different to some maple neck strats which I've played 70's early 80's models.

I think it's down to the shape of the neck / fretwire used then?

How much is the difference between the radius / width of the neck between a Rick 330/360 & a Gibson / Fender neck?

And how much difference between the fretwire used by Rick/Gibson/Fender/Gretsch etc

PS Why is Rickenbacker considered "Retro" when Gibson / Fender designed & released their popular models during the same time period late 50's-early '60's?

There's no much difference in the scale length, Gibson & Ricks are the same, Fenders & some Gretsches are an 1" longer sometimes .

SCALE LENGTH: 24.5 Gretsch CA CG 6122
SCALE LENGTH 25.5 Gretsch 6122 reissue
SCALE LENGTH 24.6" (625mm) Gretsch 6122 reissue 1962 /TV Jones
Scale Length 24” 610 mm Fender Jaguar
Scale Length 25.5” 648 mm Fender Stratocaster/Fender Telcaster/Fender Jazzmaster
Scale length 24.75" Epiphone Sheraton/ Gibson 335
Scale Length 62.9 cm (24 3/4'' Rickenbacker 330 360/12

firstbassman · Post by **firstbassman** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 5:20 am

I like my Martin 12 string very much, but I'll say that if I was able to get my hands on a RIC 12 acoustic, I'd drop the Martin in two seconds.

However . . . .
I'll also add that any acoustic w/o a pickguard looks naked to me. That's just me. My Tacoma has a clear pickguard and that's just as bad (if not worse).

tony_carey · Post by **tony_carey** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 5:25 am

I have always wondered why Rics are considered retro, when arguably, the Gibson & Fender shapes that are still used today came before the modern Ric shape.

I think it is because at the start of the '70's, people just stopped using Ric gtrs (as opposed to basses), so you very rarely saw them. The Fenders & Gibsons were still being used & adapting to modern trends, whilst Ric seemed to become a casualty. Also, everyone started copying Fenders & Gibsons, so the shape became available at extremely low prices, whilst Ric, being more difficult to copy didn't catch on.

These are just ideas though!

ricardo_vicente · Post by **ricardo_vicente** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 8:18 am

I think the whole debate about the Rick image boils down to a few prejudices. The arguments backing up the mainstream point of view (* see below) are, in my humble opinion, just excuses to back up an opinion based on the reputation. People looking to fill in the gaps to explain the reputation if you like.
* It is commonly held that "a Rick is not a lead guitarist's guitar". But at the same time a 300 series 12 string is the holy grail for anyone looking for a 12 string - The reputation has its benefits and its downside but heck, as far as sales are concerned, the RIC factory is more than full to capacity and doing quite OK thank you very much ....
Maybe one of the reasons you don't see as many Ricks hanging in shop windows as you do Gibsons or Fenders is Ricks abstinance from the far east/entry level market. Rick has no Epiphone and no Squier and maybe these brands make (a certain) marketing sense.
I also feel the Rickenbacker reputation for making peculiar, very specialist guitars is more to do with RIC's lack of involvement in the mass market than genuine guitar features.
OK, so Rickenbacker guitars have a distinctive sound and look - but I honestly think I could pick out the truly distinctive sound of a Telecaster quicker than any Rick - and what other reason would I need for preferring a particular brand of guitar??? I don't buy a guitar because it's just like any other!
Ricks were as popular with prominent musicians as any other brand in the 60s before other big American companies started producing enry level instruments in the Far East. I don't think this a coincidence.
RIC didn't start producing Rickiphones or Squickenbackers in the 70s and 80s and as a result will possibly always be associated with the supposed golden era of the 60s and are nowadays almost certainly not an obvious, easily accessible choice for the young beginner guitarist of limited means - purely because of price.
But I don't mind a bit. The whole nonsense makes Rickenbackers that little more exclusive (despite comparable American made guitar models from certain other brands being much more expensive) and just plain cool!
I love Rickenbacker guitars and I love them even more because they are the "best kept secret".
I use my 330/6 as a real all-rounder but shhhh, don't tell anyone!

PS Sorry if this post is a little disjointed. I read and re-read it and tried to bring a bit of structure to it but gave up in the end and just deceided there were enough reasonably points in there for the reader to pick out the best bist and kind of get my jist!
Did I mention I love my 330?

westtexasrickenbacker · Thu Aug 10, 2006 10:14 am

Lots of perspective there, and yes, the brand, especially the guitars, are a well-kept secret.

Much ignorance out there on RIC products. I was chatting with a bass guru who works at a Brooks Mays about a year ago. Now, he's better than I and has more years under his belt, and we're talking about 4003s and he's commenting on how it is a beautiful, but a 'trebly' bass, particularly compared to his Warwick Corvette. I hadn't received my 4003 yet, so I couldn't really give an intelligent opinion, but I did play the Corvette and thought it was an excellent product.

Long story short, my 4003 came in and it played better than the Warwick, the looks improvement was like night and day, and lo and behold, it was also BASSIER THAN THE WARWICK.

Maybe it's a good thing they are NOT mainstream popular like F**der or G.

Rickenbacker is at full capacity on their manufacturing, so they must not be hurting for revenue and the exclusivity of the Rickenbacker products helps us all in that, if we lose our minds and decide to sell our guitars/basses, we can pretty much get back what we paid for them new (If we keep them in great shape)!!

raider · Post by **raider** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 2:14 pm

I said this in another post Rickenbacker
doesn't seem to be the (IN) guitar. Where
I live you say the same for Gretsch, Vox
and Steinberger. Now what I do see is this
Fender Gibson and Ibanez which seem to be the (IN) guitar. Yesterday I went to six music
stores and only one had Rickenbacker a 330
used and a 360 12 string which was new. These
same stores had racks of Fender and Gibson.
The main question is why do they carry the massed produced lines. For me Rickenbacker
has always been the (IN) guitar.
Lou D

woodsgirl · Post by **woodsgirl** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 6:30 pm

They carry the mass produced guitars because of #1. demand, and 2# price. People are mostly like sheep; they want what everyone else has! If everyone has a strat, they all want a strat. Of course, the strat won't make them sound like their idol, but they mostly don't try to get their own sound, they want someone else's sound. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but most of the sounds seem to me to come from the pedals and effects, eq, amps, etc. My strat sounds just like any other electric guitar if you don't use any of the above. My Rics have a different sound, but really, I think the sounds come from the player and the effects. People are like the non-conformist that gets a tattoo to be different............figure that one out!