Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

thanks kira and i will contact paul for a set-up once i get it safely home. he promised he'd save it for me so hopefully noone stole it in the night

boy i just love that thin neck. makes me want a six string next.. here we goooo

freebyrd wrote:boy i just love that thin neck. makes me want a six string next.. here we goooo

RAS Alert!!!

Great FG indeed!

Congrats! A new Rick owner, and an instant member of the WB club!!!

Jessica: Great questions and wonderful answers. The key to a successful thread. I knew I was ready when I could not get Mr. Tambourine Man and When You Walk In The Room out of my head. Following your meeting with other Rickenbacker 12 string players I suspect you will know!

Hi, Jessica! If you've never played a Rickenbacker, I strongly recommend that you go to the BARC coming up--you'll find players of all levels of skill and styles ranging from open-chord stuff to single string lead and everything in between--lots of Rics to play and lots of nice folks--nobody's there to intimidate anyone. You don't have to have a Ric to participate, either--I went in 2010, didn't (and still don't!) have a Ric. I had a ball, played some very cool Rics, and met some really good people. Now--on to some more specific stuff. You mention that you've got small hands--most Rics have smaller necks, so that might work well for you. I've got, not real big hands, but wide fingertips, so I have to be careful when playing, say, a narrow late-'60's neck, as I can wind up fretting more strings than I intended to! Ric has always used about the same width fingerboards on their 12-strings as on the equivalent 6-strings, so there's not a huge amount of space there. My favorite Ric neck is the one used on the 660, both 6- and 12-string--they're just a bit wider than the standard Ric neck. If you're a smaller person, a 360 can be a wide armful, although they're thin, so they're not uncomfortable--but if you don't like the feel of a wider body, you might consider something like a 620--they're pretty small--and the scale length on Rics is 24-3/4" like a Les Paul, so, a little shorter than the Strat that you mentioned you had some trouble with. If your hands are really small, you might look into a 325, although those don't normally come as 12-strings. They built a 325-12 for John Lennon back in the '60's, and they've done limited runs of them since, but boy, are they hard to play, for me anyway! Those have a 3/4-size neck--a 22-1/2" scale I think, and that's tiny! There's a clip on YouTube--you can find a link to it on this site, but I don't know how to link to it--of a guy playing screaming shred lead guitar on a 325 and making it work. Goes to show that you can play about anything on a Ric, even the short-scale ones!
Good luck in your Ric quest, and maybe I'll see you at BARC. I'm going to try to make it.

Wow, that IS nice! Congrats!

Jessica - Lovely guitar! Great score!!


The serial number to me looks like WD 499... (Could be WD 490 as well - the pictures are not the clearest)...

This means that the guitar was made in April 1983.

My first Rickenbacker was made the year before so it started with VD

Ya done real good!

Ontario_RIC_fan wrote:The serial number to me looks like WD 499... (Could be WD 490 as well - the pictures are not the clearest)...

Brian, Jessica already said it's WD499 in the post containing the pictures

G O R G E O U S, Jessica. Now that didn't take long at all.

Wildberry wrote:

Ontario_RIC_fan wrote:The serial number to me looks like WD 499... (Could be WD 490 as well - the pictures are not the clearest)...

Brian, Jessica already said it's WD499 in the post containing the pictures

Yeah, but Brian said he has VD

Congrats on your first Rick, Jessica!

Here is a mirror image of your guitar!

it's home and it's lovely! i just raced in my room to cut my nails off to deal with the extra strings, ha.

i was concerned about what amp i'd use with it, but on my way home, stopped into a local shop to pick up a stand and they had a 1974 fender champ in their sale section, seemed perfect for my little apartment, so i guess i reallocated the funds i saved on this guitar for that one a bit, though unfortunately i didn't have time to do my homework (rick excitement!) and i get serious discomfort when i enter any guitar store so i think i probably overpaid for it at $300 in fairly worn vintagey condition, but the clean sounds and age just feel great together. my first tube amp!

i have to say though, even acoustically, this baby just SINGS! now i gotta learn how to tune all of the strings. is it better to leave it in the case? it's oh so lovely on display.

grabbing some byrds tabs NOW. thanks for all your help everyone!!!

hey! unfortunately i cannot make the BARC, it's on the day i'm leaving town but maybe next time.

pretty crazy that right after i posted this, i met my rick match so... HELL YEAH I'M READY! I GOT ONE!

i LOVE the neck, just gotta get used to the string spacing.

Great to hear! Congrats!