Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Nope...... we're about to go home from work for dinner and a few beeyahs!

Darren who???.....Oh yeah, that Bear bloke!!!!

Hey Paul, I've got no doubt in my mind that some of the players on this forum can smoke up a Ricks fretboard with blaring lead, but they've had time to get used to them too! the average guitarist walks in, picks up a Rick "It dosen't play like I like it" and moves on.
I think the Rickenbacker crowd is unique in that it knows it take a concious effort, and does it anyways!

the average guitarist walks in, picks up a Rick "It dosen't play like I like it" and moves on.
I think the Rickenbacker crowd is unique in that it knows it take a concious effort, and does it anyways!

Your key word here is 'average'. I guess Ricks are for 'way above average" guitarists.

Perhaps Fender, and their ilk make guitars that are easy to play so they will sell more to the beginner, hence the proliferation of Squiers and MIM models all over the planet.

maybe, but I don't think it makes any sense at all (financially or practically) to intentionally make a guitar that plays bad.

Ricks just play different, that's all. The Rick crowd WANTS to play a Rick, so they practice on and on to be able to pull of their favorite stuff on Ricks.

The guitarists that just want something to plug in and play at the next jam might not have such ease with them, unless they have the hands for them, which turns out I kinda do!

Well, come on Nick, buy one already! You seemed to like that 350.

So what am I to conclude? Average = unwilling to practice = lazy; Ric Crowd = above average = dedicated to the music, and willing to put in the hours needed to master the art of guitar playing?

I still have difficulty in accepting that veracity of the statement that one has the hands for a Ric, implying that another doesn't. I've seen banjo players with thick, stubby fingers play like greased lightning as well as players with girly fingers, long and slim do just as well. My take? It's all a matter of technique. Play flat fingered, and muff your notes; play with curled fingers, and play clean and true.

OK...I'm done. Let the rotten tomato throwing begin.

JimK

It's not quite that simple James. In fact, I find it needlessly complicated...

Rick players WANT to play Ricks, from the moment they see it in the store, they want to play Rickenbacker guitars. no matter how tough it is to fit your hand on the neck or how awkward it is to bend strings at first...

MOST guitar players are of the school that your guitar should work FOR you, not AGAINST you. If you need to adjust and relearn to play, they don't want it.

I'm sorta like that, thats why I always give up trying to play slide after a few minutes.

I don't need to make any adjustments to my bending technique when I switch between my Strat and my 370. Am I doing it wrong?

Nope. You were right all along.

Pete Townshend found unusual uses for Ricks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFRzF0VxDTw

So Nicolas, I infer then that it would be impossibly difficult for you to play banjo, mandolin, or violin too. Each of them have very slim necks. Right?

I agree; motivation is 9/10 of the experience.

JimK

I have a few different Ricks.
Until recently, My main live guitar has been a 57 Gretsch Silverjet with Jumbo frets. I have had no problem switching to my 381/6(since I liberated it from a local So. Cal luthier-long story) and bending like mad(the same one Darren Trott was playing at the confluence), or even the 381/12(with an .008 -.42 set), as well as my `91 360 WB. The only Rickenbacker that's a bit difficult to do some serious upper bends on is my `84 AG 360 WB, which has a more radiused fretboard, as well as the miniscule frets of that era. I think it's much more the tiny frets(which are smaller than the vintage frets on either my `57 RI Strat(also with a rounded crown radius and lacquered fretboard) or my `55 RI Duo Jet)than the radiused fretboard. I don't think the lacquer even factors in. Even then, single note upward bendws are no problem. It's only when I'm playing a two string upper bend that I have any problem at all. A refret should fix me up when the time comes-I'll just go with the taller frets that Dale recommends.

Being a night-owl and an old folkie, I like to play in the wee hours of the morning when everybody is asleep and the world makes more sense. I'll generally warm up with a couple verses of "Michael Rowed The Boat Ashore", maybe a little "Stewball Was A Racehorse" and then give the headphones a workout with some of that classic Rickenbacker chime on some old tune.

Sometimes I'll leave the recorder running, just in case I come up with something nice. This snippet is one track of my stereo 360/370/12WB, a vocal track done while playing, a quick dubbed-in bass track (2030 dulled-down) a vocal overdub to thicken it up a bit and the ever-steady, but incredibly boring built-in drummer (never thought I'd miss being around a drummer - of course by now he probably would have borrowed all my money, eaten all my food and tried to hit on my wife). No plan, just playing on the fly. Raw, one-take stuff for fun - the good, the bad and the ugly, but check out that jangle!

http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/Music%20stuff/watch%20mp.MP3

So Nicolas, I infer then that it would be impossibly difficult for you to play banjo, mandolin, or violin too. Each of them have very slim necks. Right?


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I'm sure of it! Not impossibly difficult, meaning that if I really wanted to play, I would learn to do so regardless of how awkward I found it at first, but It would need some adjustment.

most guitarists I know feel that you shouldn't need to adjust from one guitar to another,thats why I think alot of of them brush off Ricks quickly.