godber wrote:paologregorio wrote:I know the photo's not the best (understatement), and I'm out of patience, but I promised I'd take one of these, so...
WB Cornucopia.jpg
Does this constitute a fetish?
Yep, that's classic fetish! Lovely collection Paul, the Azureglo is my fave
Thanks.
The AZ Blue was my first Rickenbacker guitar, and the guitar I learned to play on. I ordered it new from the factory with what were then called "Vintage chrome bar pickups" in the sales literature. I installed the Accent VB much later, in `05. I'd seen Mitch Easter playing his AZ Blue 330 earlier in the year (April `84) live with his band "Let's Active" when they opened for Echo and the Bunnymen at the Hollywood Palladium. I thought the color was really cool. The guitarist in my first band, Mike S., had thought the same thing and ordered his WB in AZ Blue even before I did.
We were both interested in Ricks primarily because of the Jam. I was playing bass at the time and already had a JG 4001. He wanted to try out a Rick 330, but none of the local music stores had one in stock, so he called RIC up, and after much persistence, somehow managed to persuade someone at Rick to give us a mini tour of the museum so my band mate could try out a 330. While there I caught my first glimpse of a 381, which I fell in love with. I asked if RIC still made those, which at the time they didn't. We each received a catalogue before we left, at which time we caught our first glimpse of the double bound model 360, which we both liked even better than the 330, so that's what Mike ordered, and what I ordered when I switched to guitar the next year.
When I found out RIC had reissued the 381, I ordered one ASAP, in a 12 string model, and that was the extent of my Rickenbacker buying for a
long time. I was mostly playing a Vintage RI Mary Kaye Strat and Chet Atkins Tennessean at the time, only using the Rick 12 on recordings and for maybe one song at the occasional gig. I used my AZ Blue Rick, and the 12 string for about one song apiece at my first Smiling face down gig. It wasn't until about `04 that I really became interested in Rick six string guitars again. In the following year I bought the 381/6, and the then MG WB, which is now "Big Red". That's also when I started finding out about the forums, but I didn't get involved with the RRF until August `07.
I bought the beater JG 330 in `07 and sent it off to Dale for a conversion, then bought the TUR WB from JDog later in the year. A couple months after that I saw the super cool double bound xformation Larry Davis had completed on a 330 here on the forum, and sent the MG WB of to him for conversion. I chose red after gawking at Kenny Howes' "fire engine red" 330 at live performances for over a year, as well as seeing a photo of a lovely 360/12 V64 in the same finish here on the forum. After some encouragement from John Biscuti, I sent the guitar off to Larry. Gary Clauson was nice enough to let me compare the color samples Larry sent me to his fire engine red 325.
Other info about the guitars: Both the AZ Blue and Big Red WBs have "hot" overwound Toasters of 14-15K in the bridge position built by Sergio Silva, and 12K toasters in the neck. I have also placed additional ceramic bar magnets underneath the bridge toasters on the 381s to boost their output in relation to the neck pickups, also at the suggestion of Sergio.
The Blue Boy has the newer Scat toasters, since I bought those from the RIC boutique in `07. I might install a hotter one in the bridge position. Not sure yet.
That's it in a nutshell. Is anyone still awake?
