Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I have a Sardonyx.
A very strange looking guitar, a very comfortable guitar to play. The tone adjustments are endless.

I read that JL used the Sardonyx because of the sounds available, to work out all of the instrument parts for Double Fantasy.

There is very little information available about this guitar. Attempts to contact the builder go nowhere.

I have brought the guitar with me to several "fests".The comments and worn out jokes about the appearance, sound effects like rayguns, Battle Star Galactica, Star Wars jokes and the pounding of a nail into a wall to hang the guitar by it's unusual hardware, to name a few of the more common, tend to get in the way of anybody actually picking the guitar up and checking it out.

The Sardonyx seems to be cut from a solid piece of a Graphite like material.
The neck is large, nicely spaced, thin and very easy to play anything you like. There are 24 readily available frets.
Intonation is perfect. I've never had to touch it.
Here are a few photos. I hope? Peter help me again, please and Thank you!
http://www.villagephotos.com/pubgallery.asp?id_=1146784

From Fred.

One more from Fred.

I'm usually pretty negatively glib about stuff like this, but I find myself wanting to dig into my own feelings about this a bit deeper than usual.

I'm not sure why...

I know nothing about the tonal capabilities of this instrument, how it plays, or its history, except what Freddy says.

This of course would attract folks who want to talk guitars, whenever it was brought out in public. It invites comment, no question.

My own philosophy addresses things in terms of "good design", both from an aesthetic and a functional standpoint.

Aesthetically, this thing is a bust, although the average guy, being of the mindset of "knowing nothing about design, but knowing what he likes", would find himself smiling and thus conclude that it is "good design". It's not a beautiful musical instrument, and that's too bad, because if it really functions as well as Freddy (and JL) think it does, then its looks are offputting.

You will notice that I'm not playing the "gee, it looks like a..." game. Even though it does look like a...never mind.

If it only looked more like a guitar, so people could get into it and stick around long enough to appreciate its versatility.

"gee, it looks like a ... luge sled? Sorry I could'nt stop myself with the Winter Olympics and all..

There is a promo video (made later on, in approx 1997) for 'I'm losing you' which features Rick Nielsen, Bun E and Tony Levin against a white background on which loads of animated Lennon cartoons and images are superimposed.

It airs on VH1 occasionally, especially on their 'Lennon days'.

Yoko obviously needed to backtrack on her attitude and hire the boys back in to do that.