The Continuing Saga of "Rickenbacker in the Heartland"

[collin]

Man, that is terrible.

Knowing you could be playing the guitar in a few days, but having to pay big time extra for it, is not cool.

I'd say, with that big of a price difference, we're gonna be rooting for your guitar come next summer. I guess it'll be here before we know it.

2 years for a BONE standard 360/12? Yikes...hopefully this economy thing will truly kill the backlog for good right now.

Sounds like you're lucking out in some ways, though. You ordered it long enough ago before the price hikes, and within your waiting time, they've gotten FWI and much nicer FG spray patterns. It'll be worth the wait, for sure.


Cheers,
-Collin

ps...what happened to Rhoads music's website? It was down for awhile...?

[jdogric12]

Don't do it, Jim - what on earth would you post about?

[jimk]

Sounds like you're lucking out in some ways, though. You ordered it long enough ago before the price hikes, and within your waiting time, they've gotten FWI and much nicer FG spray patterns. It'll be worth the wait, for sure.

My thoughts exactly.

ps...what happened to Rhoads music's website? It was down for awhile...?

You can find it here. He used to have it on AOL's version of Geocities. And AOL deleted that whole program...just like that. Fortunately he was able to move his website.

JimK

[jimk]

Don't do it, Jim - what on earth would you post about?

Oh...I dunno...maybe I can kvetch about the KU football team, or something on The Others.

JimK

[stringsncords]

Some of us who placed deposits and waited it out through the backlog have managed to get our guitars at VERY good prices, so in the long run, it's worth the wait. Forfeiting a $200 deposit is one thing, but having to pay an additional $GRAND$ to reduce the wait time for the same guitar just doesn't compute. And even though some of the recently-shipped guitars probably have been on order for a few years, I'm supposing that most dealers are pricing them for sale at today's list prices, as Jim's quote from MF seems to indicate.

In a perfect world, it would be nice if your dealer would make an attempt to acquire your guitar from another dealer's current inventory, but I suppose lots of conditions would have to match up to make it worthwhile for both dealers.

Hang in there, Jim. A Ric with today's wonderful new features at yesterday's bargain price will be well worth the wait, frustrating as it may be.

And just maybe there will be a batch released on 12/31/08 that includes yours - I'm hoping that's the case.

All of the RRF members will throw a cyber-party for you when your guitar finally arrives!

All the Best,

Bob

[Vertigho]

So now it's Summer '09 for your 360/12?!!!?? That's very disappointing . But, if indeed you'd have to pay $2200 at any other dealer for the same guitar (plus the loss of the $200 deposit), I'd agree that you'd be better off just sticking with your original plan. However, I'm not so sure that you cannot do better than $2200 - I'm guessing maybe around $1900 - if you shopped around. But, that's still a big gap to $1250.

My 360/12c63 story (I certainly wouldn't use the term "saga" in my case since it's only been 5 weeks; in your case, you may want to start using the term "odyssey" rather than saga as Homer's Odysseus is starting to come to my mind when I read your story) has taken a twist as well, though, as it turns out, to my benefit.

This week I did some more shopping/pricing of 360/12c63's and I found one for much less than the price for the one for which I put down the $200 deposit 5 weeks ago: $2175 vs. $2900. I think the price difference is attributable to the fact that the one at $2175 was ordered in 2006 (pre-price hike). Additionally, the ETA for the cheaper one is first half of 2009 rather than summer 2010 for the higher priced one. I figured it's worth forfeiting my $200 deposit (which still saves me nearly $600); thus I've put a deposit down on the lower-priced one as well. I'm assuming that I won't be able to reclaim my deposit on the first one at this point since that's the dealer's stated policy ("no exceptions"), but, I suppose, it doesn't hurt to ask (unless he really yells at me for asking ) - he still has plenty of time to find another buyer, and it was not my order but his. If "no exceptions" really means no exceptions, I guess I'll just keep my name on his list and see if I can find a buyer for it at delivery time - and, if not, well, I've made $200+ mistakes before, and I'm sure there will be more to come at some point in the future. My bad for not doing due diligence before making that first deposit.

I guess I all I can offer at this point, Jim, is to echo what Collin said: summer will be here before you know it.

[jimk]

All of the RRF members will throw a cyber-party for you when your guitar finally arrives!

All the Best,

Bob

When it does get here Bob, there'll be plenty of pix. You can bet on that. Second, the drinks will be on me at The Old Sod Shanty Cyber Bar & Grill where there's lots of Byrds, Beatles, Desert Rose Band, Poco, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Hank Williams and Lefty Frizell on the jukebox. Bring yer Ricks.

JimK

[Clint]

Still, you can make back some of the money you may lose. But you can never get back the time.

[johneek]

Jim....PM sent...Hang in there.

[goofyfoot]

JimK.......Stick with your gut instincts, man, because they're efficacious most of the time. Go with the flow, let the process unfold, and move on. You have too much time invested in this purchase and at those prices? Yeah, brah.......just keep on keepin' on. You've got other guitars to play. Not saying anything new somebody else has already shared. Just my dos centavos' worth. Peace, out.....Goofyfoot.

[jimk]

G-foot & every one else....thanks. I really appreciate the kind thoughts.

JimK

[icabod]

If anyone is interested; I saw a mg 360 12 and a mg 330 6 at Corner music in Nashville 3 wks ago, I might have seen 1500ish on the 330, not sure, but thy were there, I was more interested in the bass and audio sections of the store, they had about 6 64 jazz basses I would have liked to walk out with....cheers....R

[Ric O'Sound]

If anyone is interested; I saw a mg 360 12 and a mg 330 6 at Corner music in Nashville 3 wks ago, I might have seen 1500ish on the 330, not sure, but thy were there, I was more interested in the bass and audio sections of the store, they had about 6 64 jazz basses I would have liked to walk out with....cheers....R

Well, I would imagine a number of folks have probably jumped ship on their pre-orders as of late...either because they found something else in the meantime or because the economic situation as of late has forced them to do so. We may see more Rickenbackers in stock at retailers as a result of this. And possibly at larger discounts if the stocks don't move. Retailers haven't been discounting Ricks as much from MSRP as of late due to the high demand. I'm wondering if this may change within the coming months. But you never know. Guess we'll have to just wait and see how things play out.

[lyric_girl]

Well, I would imagine a number of folks have probably jumped ship on their pre-orders as of late...either because they found something else in the meantime or because the economic situation as of late has forced them to do so. We may see more Rickenbackers in stock at retailers as a result of this. And possibly at larger discounts if the stocks don't move. Retailers haven't been discounting Ricks as much from MSRP as of late due to the high demand. I'm wondering if this may change within the coming months. But you never know. Guess we'll have to just wait and see how things play out.

You would NEVER see that happen in Canada, because you rarely see a Ric in the store here. I was told when I ordered my 360 in September that if I changed my mind, that they would put it on the wall and it likely wouldn't last a day. This happens here and that's not because the price has been dropped.

Jim, I'm still sending my positive vibes your way and to CA!

[jimk]

Thanks, Lynda. Re: the availability of Ricks, you can't get 'em in Kansas. Not one, zip, nada, nuscht. There isn't one single Rick dealer in the whole state.

JimK