Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

grazioso wrote:and i do not care for signature on pickguard at all. as a matter of fact i took it off my mcguinn right away. i got the guitar for the features not for silly pickguard.

nice one dusan.... Exactly what im trying to say but is there a sound difference?

Actually i dont where this going because ive had 2 330s and they both sounded different so i suppose that it all comes down to the guitar? yeah...
but what im trying to say badly is,Is there a real difference between sig models and the standard issue? I mean really.

right, not two of them will sound exactly the same. ....perhaps two made side by side would who knows but that is something i never came even close to.

90% of the sound is down to the actual player rather than the guitar. The other 10% is probably down to the producer and engineer on the actual records.
You see well intended (usually young) people going into guitar shops and paying absolutely thousands for signature models by the likes of Gilmour et all, and they get the guitar home, start to play, and they may as well have bought a £100 Squier.

I've been trying to play my vintage 70's strat like Hendrix for years, but the nearest I can manage is getting off my head and setting fire to the thing.

But I'm sure if I'd bought a Hendrix signature model I'd be able to play and sound just like him............yeah, right.

Where's my signature? I'm young

Forget signature models, I'm sure we all just want Rickenbacker to get their act together and start producing enough guitars to satisfy demand.

Wouldn't it be lovely if you could walk into a guitar shop tomorrow and say, "I'd like a 330/6 in Ruby red with vintage knobs, gold pick guard and TRC, and toaster pick ups please" and the man/lady behind the counter says "No problem, that'll be here in 6 to 8 weeks...."

Do we really want Rickenbacker to be devoting time and resources to fairly meaningless signature models when surely they could be doing better things?

By the way, I think sig models are stupid.

1965 wrote:By the way, I think sig models are stupid.

Nah, I think stupid is probably too strong a word.

I think consumers are sometimes nieve, and that some companies are sometimes misguided with their good intentions.

Mateybob wrote:

1965 wrote:By the way, I think sig models are stupid.

Nah, I think stupid is probably too strong a word.

I think consumers are sometimes nieve, and that some companies are sometimes misguided with their good intentions.

I know what your saying Rob,im not suggesting that Ric are doing bad by their sig models im just suggesting that is their a real big difference between the sig models and the standard issues that are of high quality?

scotty wrote:

Mateybob wrote:

1965 wrote:By the way, I think sig models are stupid.

Nah, I think stupid is probably too strong a word.

I think consumers are sometimes nieve, and that some companies are sometimes misguided with their good intentions.

I know what your saying Rob,im not suggesting that Ric are doing bad by their sig models im just suggesting that is their a real big difference between the sig models and the standard issues that are of high quality?

In some cases, yes there is a difference in the aesthetic quality of the guitar, such as in the case of the Carl Wilson with the hyper-figured tops that were thinner than a typical 360. Also in the case of the Susanna Hoffs model where there were additional pickup configs, binding, inlays, etc. Then there are the technical aspects...There's the John Kay model, the Roger McGuinn, too. The only real cases where there haven't been a tremendous amount of difference is in the Tom Petty, Pete Townshend, and John Lennon. I'm not talking about the basses here, as I'm not an expert on those, but there are differences inherent to some of the signature models, when compared with their standard issue brethren.

I'm not defending the practice, nor endorsing it...only pointing out what's there and pertinent to the discussion.

I sure do love my Signature 4001CS. From the looks of the constantly climbing value of most every RIC Signature issue, seems like lots of people feel the same.

I love my CS period. I've owned over 40 RIC basses, and I can honestly say, it DOES sound different than each and every one. PERHAPS it's the Vermilion fingerboard, I don't know.
This bass just "sings".

I know it isn't an exact copy of Chirs' bass. BUT, when I pick it up, it is kind of a hat tip to the man who inspired me to play in the first place. It just gives me a good feeling when I play it.

Hasn't it been said that imitation is the greatest form of flattery?

scotty wrote:

Mateybob wrote:

1965 wrote:By the way, I think sig models are stupid.

Nah, I think stupid is probably too strong a word.

I think consumers are sometimes nieve, and that some companies are sometimes misguided with their good intentions.

I know what your saying Rob,im not suggesting that Ric are doing bad by their sig models im just suggesting that is their a real big difference between the sig models and the standard issues that are of high quality?

I don't think that quality is the issue here, I would say it's 'exclusivity'.

Most of the Ric signature models are of a limited run, and so I would guess they are of more interest to the collector as a hopefully potential lucrative investment, than the working musician that wants to sound like a particular artiste.

Though not a signature model as such, the 75thDCM's were all snapped up almost immediately on release, and loads are now out on the market again, and 99% of them have not even been played. So we know that most were bought by collectors.

I suppose it's up to the individual purchaser if they are looking to double the money they payed for their DCM's, though they don't seem to be selling at the prices people are asking at the moment.

Personally I'd rather Rickenbacker weren't taking up their precious time making guitars to satisfy that market, there are a lot of guitar 'players' out there that have been waiting years just for bog standard production models.

So to clarify,not that i would invoke or try to cause a ripple in the equilibrium of this thread would it be rational of me to say that a signature model say for instance the Tom petty model 660 is a different guitar to the standard 660?

scotty wrote:So to clarify,not that i would invoke or try to cause a ripple in the equilibrium of this thread would it be rational of me to say that a signature model say for instance the Tom petty model 660 is a different guitar to the standard 660?

Sir, of course it's different, it's a Tom Petty!

I actually had a friend that bought a Tom Petty 660 and in no time at all he was feeling inclinations to wear silly top hats in videos. He sold the guitar quickly on Ebay, and thankfully, the top hat urges have not returned since.

Oh well that explains it............