Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I think they're a bit of both, Gerald. I know that there were serious plans to resume production (there were a couple of very positive posts from the Ric folks about the acoustics ramping up again), but I think Ric's luthier up and left for Fender. That's taken from memory, so don't take it as gospel. I'm sure that some of the acoustics that were released were brand new.

My workplace allows us to take "secondments" to similar workplaces in order to: a) learn new stuff; b) travel a bit; and c) not go squirrelly by doing the same thing over and over again. I sometimes think that the only way out Ric's southern California cost of living nightmare is to offer a "Rickenbacker" secondment of some sort at a company that already has qualified acoustic luthiers (Martin, etc.). The obvious problem with that is that no company would want to release such skilled workers to a potential competitor, no matter how friendly they might otherwise be.

Whether or not JH wants to manufacture any instruments overseas or not is strictly his decision.
But on the overall issue of globalization please allow me to give the following three examples:

My so-called “American car” (Dodge) is owned by a German company and was manufactured in Canada. My so-called Japanese car (Honda) was built in the States.

Northwest Airlines, an American company, is owned by KLM (Dutch). KLM, in turn, is owned by Air France. Air France is owned by the French government.

No doubt about it, it’s a new world.

I think the RIC philosophy is to keep it born in the USA.

Here's my take on it.

Have you tried any of the Gretsch acoustics (not the G400 - but the main line acoustics)? Most are quite dull and just don't sound very good. Made overseas to keep cost way down and priced very low to the consumer. They work and many not too bad but I'd step up to the plate and pay quite a bit more for a few notches up for better build, wood, and tone.

Takamine makes some awesome sounding plywood back and side guitars. Even Ovation has had some really great sounding plastic back guitars - those being in higher price brackets though.

You get what you pay for seems to be the rule.

But if Rickenbacker made a fine solid wood acoustic now (hopefully USA) and priced it even at over $1500 I'm sure many here would be first inline to get one.

I'm sure many of us don't want a plywood subbed out acoustic with Rickenbacker name on it as a wall hanger for under $500 but rather a fine acoustic to play and be inspired by.
I wish they would produce fine acoustics again even if in limited numbers.

Hey, I can dream can't I?????????

Back when the acoustics were in production and new orders were being accepted, I never had the opportunity to try one out. For that reason, I held off on placing an order. While that reasoning never kept me from buying a Rick electric sight unseen, I think we can agree that acoustics are a very different animal. I figured I could wait until I got a chance to try one out. If I liked it, I could order one then. Now that I have played one and loved it, I'm disappointed I missed my chance to order one. But at the time I didn't want to spend my money on something I could potentially end up hating. Life goes on.

I don't know how they are doing after Fender bought them, but I used to really like Tacoma guitars. Made in Washington state and they smell great.

Brad, also agree, like my Tacoma DM9 very much.
But, as I've said before, don't care for the clear pickguard.

So RIC isn't producing acoustics at the moment?