What's YOUR attraction to Ricks?

[kiramdear]

All these years later, the guitars have become important to me again because they represent a very important time of my life...

I think that goes for a majority of us.

[collin]

Because I'm a glutton for punishment.......tiny frets, tiny necks, weak neck angles, typecast tone...............but I just can't help but come back for more.

[analogpackrat]

First and foremost, the sound. I didn't know **** about guitars until the mid-80s when I was in college. I played keys and was just getting tempted by the guitar. Met a guitarist who became a good friend and we ended up starting a band a few years later. He got me into new wave/college alternative stuff. Around 1985 my younger brother got me hooked on REM. Saw them live a couple of times and found out Peter was playing Ricks and getting that great jangly tone--instant guitar lust.

Then I started noticing that a lot of other bands I liked used Ricks (The Beatles, The Byrds, Guadalcanal Diary, Ride, The Smiths, Jefferson Airplane, Echo and the Bunnymen, Tom Petty, etc.). The things not only sounded great, they LOOKED great. It wasn't until 1994 that I finally got my first. That's when I discovered how well they played and how versatile they could be. What more could you want? Made in the USA? Check. Increases in value? Check. Built to last? Check.

[coolhandjjl]

I sure hope the original 4001 design is in the Museum of Modern Art in new York.

[Scastles]

For me it was the innocence of relating to a time. A design which struck me from the very first moment I saw it, whether it was the '63 360/12 or the famous 325. An indelible impression for generations to come.

[Len]

I loved the sound of the first REM albums, so when I came to buy my first good guitar I ordered a jetglow 330. In 1986 it took about a week to arrive in Atlanta from the factory. So put me down as another influenced by Peter Buck. And the Rick is the only guitar that I've had that stays in tune no matter how hard I play it.

I later played bass in a band, and among my basses I had a 4001 that I didn't play that much. Maybe it was the amp I had, a GK head with an Ampeg cabinet, but I liked the sound of my Peavey bass more.

[walker]

You liked the PEAVEY over the RICK???

I blame the amp.

[CappuccinoKid]

As a young Mod in the late 70's, early 80's, a lot of the bands I liked obviously played Rics, so that formed my visual style interest. In the 80's I was in a Mod band, playing a '62 Hofner Bass (they were still pretty inexpensive then), our git player had a JetGlo 330 and I just loved the way it played, the high string body clearance thing. But then having a less than stellar career I've had to unfortunately suffer less desirable guitars such as Fenders and Gibsons, until 6 months ago when I finally purchased my 2002 360/12 MapleGlo. The Les Paul is gone (don't miss it) and the Fenders replaced with a Hamer USA Daytona (best Strat clone ever). The Hofner is now a Stingray, wish I still had it though.

It's a shame really cause I know now that if I had played the Ric 12 instead of the Hofner Bass in my band we would have been bigger than The Beatles (and maybe even The Jam)... Honestly though we were bigger than the Small Faces, no one under 5'6".

[scotty]

BTW Welcome to the RRF Jeremy.

[8mileshigher]

All of the above.

I think that covers it!

I'll go with that !!!!!

[fireglo]

Seeing Paul McCartney in Wings playing a Rickenbacker bass made me want one. They also sound good too!

[cassius987]

The sound. I had no idea what a Rickenbacker was but I knew when I was 16 that I wanted to sound like Paul d'Amour (Tool, Undertow) and that was the end of it. Well, someone told me he played an EBMM Stingray (he did before that album), so I got one and it was a good ride but not what I was after. I move on to Wal GAS because that's what Justin Chancellor plays, only to realize they were no longer made and crazy expensive. Funny though, one day about 2.5 years ago I looked Paul up on some fan web site on a complete whim and there was a tiny blip about his gear, including a Rickenbacker bass as the primary instrument. "What??" In the next 24 hours I found the RIC corporate forum and placed an order for a 4003 MG with Mike Parks. In the waiting period I outright bought a 4003 AFG and a 4003FL AFG from Chris Clayton. From the first one--the 4003 AFG--I was absolutely hooked. THIS is what I was listening for all those years (going from Spector to Stingray to Jazz Bass to fake Hofner and back, never knowing RIC even existed), to a T. And since then I have not once looked back. The only basses I own these days are Rics and while I respect my past lovers, I do not miss them.

Funny epilogue to the whole tone quest: Today I am as much into Paul Chambers and James Jamerson as I am Paul d'Amour! And the best part is that the Rics are perfect for their styles too! Steady gigs do not lie.

[walker]

Given the effort that most are making to tell their story in this thread, I'll expand my post a little.

('Scuse the cut & paste - this is an excerpt from the thread: 'Who's the biggest Chris Squire fan here?')

Many of us have monuments in life - that day you can reflect on and know exactly what you were doing at that moment. Some of these monuments are private, like the passing of a loved one, or the birth of a child, or personal epiphany that still remains secret. And some monuments are very public & shared: The day JFK was shot - likewise with MLK Jr, John Lennon, and the untimely deaths of many other greats. These are always intriguing to talk about because we can all share our side of the "Where were you when..." story.

One such monument for me was the day I first heard a Rickenbacker bass. I know this may sound trivial even to the most die-hard fans & gear-heads, but this moment was profound to me, so what are ye gonna do...

I was nine years old, and on a road trip going through Mississippi riding in the back of my dad's Datsun 260Z. For those not in the know, the 260Z is a two-seater and wasn't really designed to accommodate a passenger in the back section. So for the few hundred miles of this trip, I was crouched down on my side with my head on the floor. The rumbling of the motor and the road were a bit of a preponderance to endure, but the stereo was cranked loud enough to make the trip bearable. The radio was tuned to an FM rock station, playing hits of the 60's & 70's, and 'Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress' had just concluded. Then this odd reversed-swelling piano sound came on which was punctuated by single struck acoustic guitar harmonics. This unique intro began to build, then jumped into a groove when the bass & drums kicked in, launching into what we all now know as 'Roundabout' by YES.

At age nine, I didn't know enough about music or instrumentation to know what was making that captivating sound I heard coming from Chris Squire's bass. It could have been a tuba for all I knew. But my naivete aside, it grabbed me in a way that no other instrument or sound ever has. And from that day forward, I was obsessed with it, and was driven to figure out what it was, and one day possess it, do it - somehow bring it into my life once it's form was identified. It was actually a few years later before I discovered who Chris Squire was and what kind of bass he was playing. That's when I ate up 'The Yes Album', 'Fragile,' and 'Close To The Edge' incessantly. What Chris Squire did with that bass, that SOUND, was just magic to me. And to this day I'm not sure what that potency is about, but I still dig it!

[ram]

Mark, that is a serendipitous moment which sadly I don’t think too many of us have. For me, I heard Sgt. Pepper in the late 60's and remember how so damn cool the bass sounded… I was just starting to get into playing at the time… later there came Mr. Squire (and Mr Entwhistle)! I think my Yes revelation tune was South Side of the Sky… anyhow when I found that a Ric bass was responsible for these incrediable sounds, I knew I had to get my hands on one of them – Anything that was capable of making such a wide array of sound was obviously akin to Thor’s hammer!!! So after saving a bunch of bucks from my busboy and janitor jobs … off to Chuck Levin’s in the late summer of '74 and the rest is history! My bass playing friends were all doing Fenders and Gibsons and the likes. They were good basses but they just didn’t have THE RICKENBACKR SOUND!

[coolhandjjl]

When I was a pimply faced 12 year old, it was Roger Glover. Now that I am a married 49 year old father of two kids, it's Susanna Hoffs!