2004 colour ?

[mortivan]

I personally don't want to see any Rickenbackers made overseas.

[mikeylc]

Keep in mind that just because the factory has sold them it doesn't mean they are in the hands of the consumer. In a 25 mile radius of the Rick factory there are two, yes two Rick guitars sitting at a BanjoCenter. There are countless numbers of Fenders, Gibsons and other guitars at these same music stores from low end to high end. My local music store is ordering twelve units at NAMM. He has already sold all of them which means they will probably never hang in the store. The reason Fender and Gibson want to build more guitars is to sell them to more people regardless to improve THEIR bottom line. That is the American business model. As a collector I'm glad that John Hall runs his business as he does. The instruments keep their value and they seem to avoid all of the guitar fashion trends that value and devalue the other manufacturers instruments.

[njmusicman]

Jwilli, perhaps I did miss your point, but I still stand by my comments and observations/opinions on the subject at hand.

Dave Westheimer, your arrogance and to hell with the customer attitude is what is astonishing, quite frankly. The only thing I can say is if you think that the guitars from Gibson and Fender are "cheap *******", even the ones from overseas, you are deluding yourself. Even the Mexican made Strats which up until recently were considered a joke, have improved quite a bit. Are they as good as the American or Japanese made ones? No, but I'd hardly call them cheap *******. I have the Fender Noel Redding Jazz Bass, which was made in Japan, and the bass is amazing. Plays great, looks great and sounds great, not **** at all. The Japanese are real sticklers for detail and most of us know they are HUGE fans and customers of Rickenbacker guitars, specifically the classic models from the 50's and 60's. So, if we were to see Japanese made Rickenbackers, I have no doubt they would be amazing quality, and we would probably also see a return of a lot of the cool models from the past not available now, possibly in a limited number of course. By the way, Rickenbacker is a niche market, they appeal to a certain amount of people, and I am one of them. I never said that was a SMALL number of people, only that it was a core group of musicians/collectors. My point was that far more Fenders and Gibsons are in and have been in use by people through the years. The fact that there are more out there in the stores isn't hurting them, trust me, and in fact, as a customer I like the fact that there are more of them in the stores, gives me more to choose from. Here again, we have that ol' giving your customer what they want situation......

Mike Carr, I am not a collector. If Rickenbacker wants to concentrate on pleasing the collectors, then good for them, but I'm willing to bet there are probably far more musicians out there than collectors, who use, buy and want these guitars. I am a musician(was full-time for many years,now part-time) and have been playing in bands since I was 12 years old. I am, and remain a huge fan of Rickenbacker guitars, as the music I love the most is the British Invasion stuff, and most music from the 60's, and The Beatles have always been my favorites. But, I also enjoy and have been influenced by other music and artists, and enjoy playing other types of guitars besides Rickenbackers, I like them all for different reasons.

Anyways folks, I will not be posting in these types of discussions anymore.

[dave4004]

Dave Westheimer, your arrogance and to hell with the customer attitude is what is astonishing, quite frankly.

My arrogance? You're the one with the colossal arrogance to try to dictate to a privately owned company what they must do. You're the one bashing them for not meeting needs which you, in your omniscience, have decided the market demands.

For the record, I'm a longtime Gibson and Fender fan and owner. And while I have no doubt that many other countries are capable of quality workmanship, there's also no doubt that the import Epiphones and Fenders & Squiers are built down to lower standards with lower quality woods, hardware and electronics. They have to be.

RIC doesn't want to do that, and you have no right to demand that they do. You haven't the slightest idea what RIC customers want, and you certainly know nothing about Gibson's or Fender's financial positions.

I admire a company who is making quality American made guitars on a production line and refuses to cheapen them. If that's "to hell with the customer", then count me in.

Anyways folks, I will not be posting in these types of discussions anymore.

Good.

[shamustwin]

I recently bought an Epiphone Junior, new, for 89 bucks, to have something to take to work and practice on. It laid in a gig bag in my trunk for a few months then I decided to try it on my current recording project. Sounded as good as anything. So I played it on a few songs at my last gig (which is reviewed quite nicely in a L.A. music mag, thank you). Sounded great. Was I embarassed playing an 89 dollar guitar? A little. I used to have an early, very poor quality Mexican strat for the same purpose. I used it on some home demos, and folks were always asking how I got that guitar sound (it was DI, that's all, into a 4 track Tascam. But very clean). I like my expensive Strat and Rics and Alembic, but shoot man, cheap ones can make a pretty good noise too ya know. However, for a lot of us, even a percieved change in Ric quality due to geographics or economics might bum us out beyond repair.