The Rickenbacker Moment That Brought You Onboard

[admin]

I am interested in the moment in which Rickenbacker instruments became your first choice. Not only the group but the specific recording. For me there are several but at the end of the day it was the intro riff and banjo picking style of the Byrd's Roger McGuinn on the Rickenbacker 370/12. A riff, sustain and tonality that became permanently etched in the temporal lobes of my brain after but a single listening. There was no going back after this moment.

Here is a 1988 example of the Rickenbacker Roger McGuinn 370/12.

McCormack's Mr. Tambourine Man Version Repaired Link

[Tommy]

It was Beatles.

Heard George's 12 string, knew it was something different. Liked it a lot. Fifteen years later I got my first guitar, a Strat as a gift. Loved it but I knew that now that I was in the guitar game, a Ric 12 was to be mine. A year later I got myself my Ric 12.

And of course John being my favorite musician, when the money was right I got that 325.

And believe it or not, it was also a little seen video that I saw on MTV from Mitch Easter's band Let's Active. In it he played a blue six string 330. I really fell in love with that look. When it was time for me to get a 330....I went blue.




Those three short tales above led to these three:

[jps]

I suppose, it was hearing Yes in 1971 on the radio, but I didn't know at that time what bass was being used.

My first real exposure to Ricks was through an old high school friend who had a FG 4001 that I got to play in 1973 (at the time I had a late '60s Jazz Bass, my first bass). After playing Gary's 4001, and then seeing Genesis on April 14, 1973 where I saw Mike Rutherford with his RM1999, I was on the prowl for my very own Rick. I finally got it, a JG Feb '67 4005WB that I straight traded the Jazz Bass for in the fall of '73. I owned that bass until August 2011, when I sold it to a guy in So. Cal.

[admin]

Tom thanks for describing your Rickenbacker roots. I enjoyed Mitch Easter and wonder if we don't hear a Rickenbacker 12 string in the instrumental and in the outro, especially the last chord. You have a very nice collection.

[admin]

Jeffrey most guitar introductions started in high school it would seem. I came to the Rickenbacker scene late in the game after admiring them for many years. When I was young I could not afford a new guitar and now that I am old I can't afford an old one. Do you miss the 4005?

[jps]

...When I was young I could not afford a new guitar and now that I am old I can't afford an old one. Do you miss the 4005?

Boy, does that statement ring true! Luckily, my parents bought me the Jazz Bass, for $175, so that's what the 4005WB cost me (my parents).

As much as I loved having the 4005WB for almost four decades, it was time to let someone else have a chance (with it) for a change (no, I am not Jim Packard! ).

[admin]

Jeffrey I have fixed the link error to my version of Mr. Tambourine Man in an earlier post. Perhaps it was better to have it inaccessible after all. It is cringe worthy but fun in any case and offered here for comic relief.

McCormack's Mr. Tambourine Man Version

[iiipopes]

January 1981. I was in London on a college trip. I had a few hours break one day. All the music stores were still on Shaftesbury Avenue. I went window shopping. I saw a 320 in a window. I went in and asked to play it. OMG! Everything on early Beatles records that I couldn't figure out how to get just right on my electric guitar at home suddenly became clear. I don't even remember what songs I played on it, just that it all worked and I zoned. I came home, traded my 1975 J-bass (yes, a collectible one with the light ash body) for a 1976 4001, and saved my $$$ to get a 320. In 1987 I got my 1981 360-12WB FG Ckbd with $$$ I had left over from my first divorce and in 1992 sold my 4001 to get my 1981 4002. Yes, by coincidence, all three of my current Rickenbacker instruments are the same year of manufacture. For the next decade after I got my 4002, it was my only bass, and I gigged it until I wore out the frets, wore he chrome off the neck pickup cover with my thumb from playing, and the truss rod nut started slipping. Last year, I had a wonderful luthier who also loves Rickenbacker recondition it, all new frets, looks brand new again, and but for Mr. JH's comment, "4002? We didn't make many of those. They're rare as hens' teeth," and that my party band needs a 5-string for some songs, it would still be my main gigging bass.

[jps]

Sounds great, from here, in cold, snowy NE Ohio! I even listened to all 2:14 seconds of it.

Here is the only vocal song ever wrote. I also played all the guitars and bass parts; the guitars are a Silvertone/Danelectro of some sort, and the bass is the '67 4005WB with D'Addario Reds on it. I wrote and recorded this in 1982.

[admin]

Jeffrey, Take Off really soars. Well done. A nice example of the 4005 tone too!

[admin]

Scott thanks for letting us walk along with you on your Rickenbacker journey. Did you ever check out music stores in Liverpool as well on your journey. If only we could keep all of the instruments we let go as we move on to more exciting things.

[jch]

The Jam at the very start,i was only about 10 or 11 and i wanted a 330 so badly then,but i also played pretty badly, I didn't even know that it was called a 330!

Then later on maybe mid 80's i was listening to an old 8 track tape my dad had of The Beatles Hard Days Night,and i knew there was a 12 string on that,dad told me about the film ,so i went to the video store,remember those, and hired the vhs tape,when i saw that 360/12 with the double binding i had a new want!

I got my first brand new Rickenbacker 360/12V64 in 1989,after selling a few things and paying it off over a couple of months,i still have it and will never sell it.I've got the 6 string version too.

Bought my uncle's 1990 325V59 mapleglo around 1991,i traded that in for a US vintage 52 Tele reissue in 96,which i then sold after 2 years ,couldn't bond with the neck.Wish i had the little bugger back though.

I eventually got me a used 330 in Jetglo at the end of 2000,but stupidly sold it a few years after,that is one i regret.

[jdogric12]

Mike Rutherford on a 360/12V64 FG for Dance on a Volcano from the 1992 Genesis tour.

Jump to 1:00.

https://youtu.be/yTaqUbh3aOg

[iiipopes]

Scott thanks for letting us walk along with you on your Rickenbacker journey. Did you ever check out music stores in Liverpool as well on your journey. If only we could keep all of the instruments we let go as we move on to more exciting things.

No, but I do have the panoply of great pictures when I was there in the summer of 1985 when I was 23 years old. I had a break from my apprenticeship to a barrister and took the train to Liverpool. The tour was on the real MMT bus, restored. I have a picture of getting my hair cut in the barbershop on Penney Lane, etc. No music stores, but everything else, including Strawberry Field, the roundabout, the Cavern as rebuilt, etc. Believe it or not, I never really connected with the 4001 due to my right hand technique being more "conventional," coming from the J-bass. So when I learned about the 4002, I bought an issue of Bass Player magazine and called every music store nationwide that advertised in it (remember, this was before the internet) to get one. Sorry the pictures faded before I could get them scanned. I think the negatives are in good shape. Yes, on that trip, I did everything from MMT to having lunch in the Lord's dining hall after accompanying him as he argued a case in the House of Lords.

[cjj]

Well, it was Chris Squire with Yes, and later Rush's Geddy Lee, but I didn't know that until after I was a dedicated Rickenbacker player.

How's that, you say? Well, it happened like this. In the late '70s I was playing a Guild JS2, no idea what year, we didn't tend to worry about that back then. I bought it because it was cheap, around $150 I think. Anyway, it was ok, but I just couldn't get "that" sound.

One day the keyboard player in our band came in to rehearsal with a newspaper ad. She knew I was wanting something different and said I should go check it out. The ad was for a Rickenbacker 4001, they wanted $750 for it. $750 for a USED guitar? You've GOT to be kidding! Rick's were a rare item where I lived in those days, I had never seen one and knew nothing about them.

Anyway, I called the guy and arranged to look at it. I went the next weekend and, it was a beautiful wood grain finish (Mapleglo as I found out years later). Ok, looks nice, but $750? Ok, let's give it a try...

All I could say was, "WOW!" That bass sounded fantastic! I didn't even try to talk the guy down on the price, I just paid him the $750 and headed for home.

At the next band practice I got my same old Guild bass out for the first song. Then for the next one I said, "Hold on a sec. I want to try something" and went and got the 4001. Well, what can I say? The 4001 had THE sound, and we all knew it.

The rest is history, I guess. I've never really looked elsewhere. Well, except for when I lived in Santa Rosa, CA. I went into the Alembic shop and got to talking with them about a custom bass. We finally decided that I wanted an Alembic that sounded like a Rick, so nothing ever came of that.

It wasn't until a few years after I got that 4001 that I found out that Rickenbacker's were the bass in a lot of the songs I really liked. We didn't have the internet back then and I didn't have money to buy albums so I had no idea what instruments were being used. I guess it was mere chance that I got hooked on Rickenbacker, but I'm glad it happened...