Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Are they pop guitars? Yes.

They're also whatever you care to do with them.

There's no doubt that Rickenbacker guitars, due to their popularity in the '60's and later with bands like REM, etc, have been pigeonholed as jangly pop machines. When I had a 360-6 a while ago, I found it be quite a nice sounding hard rock guitar with the distortion set to crunch levels on my Hot Rod Deluxe. I don't think I ever really played it with an overdrive stompbox, but I could do a convincing "Born To Be Wild" with it right off the amp. I remember one rehearsal in particular where I was wailing some lead guitar on the 360 and thinking to myself, "Man, this thing kicks ***. To hell with all that preconceived stuff about Rickenbackers."

I sold it because I had other guitars for that purpose that worked a little better, such as my Les Paul Junior, and because I found it hard to bend strings due to the shiny surface of the fretboard. I should have sent it in to a techie and had the lacquer removed.

I will have another Rick 6 someday, and if it's a good player, I'll explore its possibilities.