Rickenbaker Inspired Guitar

[jingle_jangle]

Don't let the band's early image fool you. Even they are embarrased by it now. Also, they have a different guitarist and drummer now, and they sound a lot more like a power pop band than a hair metal band, especially on the material released after 1993. The only thing I can say about them is to listen to some of their later material and give them a chance.

OK, then, EX-KNOB.

[doctorwho]

I've heard a lot worse ... and I give them credit for using Rickenbackers instead of the standard 'pointy corners' guitars which that genre tended to use.

I try to make no value judgments on others' music likes ... after all, I like Aorta (the psychedelic hippy band from the early 1970s, not the metal band by the same name)!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roYW4S9y-Hg

[fireglo67]

Don't let the band's early image fool you. Even they are embarrased by it now. Also, they have a different guitarist and drummer now, and they sound a lot more like a power pop band than a hair metal band, especially on the material released after 1993. The only thing I can say about them is to listen to some of their later material and give them a chance.

Okey Dokey I'm willing to give anyone a second chance.
Can you recommend one song from post 1993 that I should listen to that will possibly change my mind?

[brian_l]

Mateybob,

I can recommend several post-1993 Enuff Z' Nuff songs that you would probably like.

In no particular order:

Wheels
Still Have Tonight
It's No Good
Jealous Guy (John Lennon Cover)
On My Way Back Home
Ain't It Funny
Invisible
Everything Works If you Let It (Cheap Trick cover)
No Place To Go

Also, at the end of their Strength album (which also contained Mother's Eyes), they had a fantastic ode to Badfinger, the acoustic "Time To Let You Go"

[BCGUY]

Here's another one. The GRB Kokocaster. http://www.grbguitars.com/

So that's what the tail piece would look like with out the "R"....

This is the youtube vid I first stumbled on with a guy playing one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv7bboWyV6I

[kiramdear]

A thinline Jaggenbacker? Yeeesh! Not for me, thanks.

[brian_l]

Actually, that guitar looks A LOT like a Charvel Surfcaster. I used to see them all the time back in the 90s, now they seem to have all but disappeared. Charvel even offered a 12 string version of the Surfcaster!

As far as Rick-inspired guitars go, I would say Zachary Guitars is probably the only company to get it right. They actually do a guitar with a body based on the Model 480. They do the body shape without becoming a straight-up Rick copy. Check it out: http://www.zacharyguitars.com/150109pics.htm

[jingle_jangle]

Actually, that guitar looks A LOT like a Charvel Surfcaster. I used to see them all the time back in the 90s, now they seem to have all but disappeared. Charvel even offered a 12 string version of the Surfcaster!

As far as Rick-inspired guitars go, I would say Zachary Guitars is probably the only company to get it right. They actually do a guitar with a body based on the Model 480. They do the body shape without becoming a straight-up Rick copy. Check it out: http://www.zacharyguitars.com/150109pics.htm

As a 12-string Surfcaster owner, I agree on the basic appearance. However, the original (early '90s) Surfcaster didn't skimp on any single feature, and the result is a guitar of classic looks, excellent playability, and distinctive sound.

Unfortunately, the Kokocaster's ShenZen heritage is revealed in the cheap, cast tuners, dopey inlay in the headstock, and butt-ugly catalog tailpiece. Plus, why, oh why did they elect to use a cheezy Chinese humbucker in the bridge position and a single-coil lipstick in the neck position?

All in all, not a bad deal for $700.00 or so MSRP, but I'll take an original Surfcaster anytime.

[brian_l]

I completely agree with you. The Charvel Surfcasters that I played were very nice guitars. The copy looks ok, but I'm with you, I would take a Surfcaster over this ANYTIME.

By the way, how does that 12 string Surfcaster play and sound compared to a Rick 12? I seem to remember an electric 12 string shootout in Guitar World Magazine back around 1996 and they actually liked the sound and playability of the Surfcaster 12 better than they did the Rick 330/12 that they tested. What are your thoughts on this?

Please don't think I'm a knob for asking this question

[BCGUY]

Oh ya it totally looks like the Charvel Surfcaster. I don't know if I've ever seen one before. If I did it didn't stick with me.

Cheers,

[jingle_jangle]

I completely agree with you. The Charvel Surfcasters that I played were very nice guitars. The copy looks ok, but I'm with you, I would take a Surfcaster over this ANYTIME.

By the way, how does that 12 string Surfcaster play and sound compared to a Rick 12? I seem to remember an electric 12 string shootout in Guitar World Magazine back around 1996 and they actually liked the sound and playability of the Surfcaster 12 better than they did the Rick 330/12 that they tested. What are your thoughts on this?

Please don't think I'm a knob for asking this question

The Charvel is currently undergoing restoration, so I'll do some sort of shoot-out when it's done (in 5 years or so???).

[cassius987]

http://www.zacharyguitars.com/150109pics.htm

There's a lot of RIC-hate on that page. That's what I don't really get I guess--running into people who categorically reject an entire brand based on one guitar they owned a long time ago... I didn't fall in love with my Spector, Fender, or Ernie Ball Music Man instruments that came before my Rics, but I am still open to the brands and I definitely respect them. Pretty much everyone on that page is spitting fire about the 480, though, and acting like RIC is a pile of trash. Could it really have sucked that bad? I've known 480 players to really enjoy them. It's just hard to picture, I guess, the epic failure the people writing on that page describe. And man... why is RIC so often the focus of this kind of hate?

Oh well, I'm winning people back a gig at a time.

[86kubicki]

My favourite line from that page...
"I am convinced that had John Lennon been given a real guitar, he would have become a world class shredder instead of "Love, Love me Do" and the rest of that liberal ****."

[jingle_jangle]

Ahh, yes...Zachary turns up again, even more full of himself than last time.

Very dense prose on why he hated the 480 (I guess that gives him an excuse to be "creative" and totally RIP OFF the body shape and concept, too, I might add...)

Most of what he says (thin neck, small frets, varnished fretboard) comes down to personal preference and plain narrow-mindedness. He could've played it a bit before trading in his trumpet. The neck moving in the pocket is a real issue that I haven't seen with the four 480s/481s I've played, so it was probably an anomaly. But the rest? **** and overwrought justification for his way of "doing it better".

Spare me, Mr. Zachary. You may have traded in your trumpet, but you've still got your "lip"!

[brian_l]

Yes, there is definitely a lot of anti-Rick sentiment on that page. While I agree with his views on the guitar industry in general, I don't think it's fair to bash a brand outright because you owned a guitar that you didn't like. I have often said that the necks on the 300 series guitars could be wider (which would make them more playable for me) but I am not going to bash Rickenbacker for it either. Regradless of the neck width, I still love my fireglo 1998 360 and I will never part with it. I do actually think Zachary builds some nice guitars though. I would like to play one sometime just to see if it lives up to everything he says about it.