Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I think Mr. Hall has mentioned in the past that the "North American dealers dropped the ball on this one." But I don't want to put words into his mouth, so don't take that as fact... I just remember something to the effect of the Japanese dealers were the first to purchase their orders, the US dealers ordered a few, then returned, only later, to submit 'substantial' orders.

Anywho, I agree that first come first served is the only way to go. Fair is fair.

Stuart, you've restated exactly what has been missed---American dealers are conservative when it comes to sticking their necks out on new orders. The Japanese, even mid-recession (a bad one), put their money where their mouths are.

In defense of the North American dealers, you need to understand how it works. All of the overseas orders are made by the distributor, not specific dealers, so those orders are usually pretty big. Which is why they get some big numbers happening on the first shipments. When the C58 first shipped, the Japanese distributor stepped aside and allowed the factory to ship some C58s within North America long before they should have been allowed to. That says a lot to me about those guys because they could have easily just said screw them, we all of ours first.

I remember talking with Gary at North Coast the opening day back then at the NAMM show, he only ordered a few C Series guitars because he already had a tremendous back order with the factory for other models, from previous months.

With a two year back log happening right now at the factory, there are a lot of dealers with tens of thousands of dollars worth of orders waiting, some with over a 100k back order sitting on the books. As always, they make them, when they make them, not much that can be done about it.

I believe it is true that if any back orders (or maybe orders in general) are refused, the entire back order log is cancelled for that dealer. That may be a reason they order slower. Regardless, I'm am so used to the wait that it doesn't phase me anymore. I'll get mine when I get mine.

This is not correct. With the exception of specials like left-handed, our dealers and distributors are allowed to cancel their orders at any time with no penalties whatsoever.

It happens every day.

On the other hand, a dealer that does not keep his account paid up within certain criteria can have his backorders cancelled, depending on the circumstances. Usually this is the first step toward "disactivation" of the dealership, for obvious reasons.

I am thinking this ebay listing is bogus, but:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=41439&item=7336192863&rd=1

Guys?

Well, I asked him for a serial number. We'll see what the response is, if any...

If it was "real" I would think he would take some some pictures of the actual guitar and post them. One picture from the Ric sight raises a flag about authenticity.

The serial # is listed on the description. It's a V series, if it's anything.

It's a V63, and I wrote him back telling him so. His feedback is good, but why use a picture from a catalog?

I am curious to see what this V series instrument will fetch.

A C64, made in 1997?!?

He could have just not known what it was when he listed, and went to the Rickenbacker site and picked the closeest one. Since he has been informed, though, there is no excuse now.

So I called Rickenbacker over a warranty question today. . .
I couldn't help but bring up the c64. . .
The kind fellow on the other line said it should be at least 12-14 months. . .
When I mentioned August 4th like Music123 says. . .
He was pretty shocked. . .

Over on VoxTalks, John Hall had said that the C64 was already in the production schedule. This was back towards the beginning of the year. I don't know how far out they schedule, though, but I'd be surprised if it was more than nine months or so. So unless something's changed, I'd expect them to start leaving the factory in the next few months.