Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I saw REM at last weekends Isle of Wight Festival. It suddenly came to me, here is a very influential and popular guitar player that has been loyal to Rics for 20+ years. He played one right through the show apart from when he played mandolin. Isnt it time he had a signature model. I was blown away by the performance.

He's been approached. He just hasn't ok'd it. The good thing is that you can basically buy the guitar he uses. 360 JG.

Yes you can

$1099.99 at MF, although they will probably go up soon. Mine is great ... very inspiring !!

Even more inspiring in person. I don't understand why people call JetGlo "high maintenance". I can honestly say that it doesn't smudge that badly at all, as long as you are a reasonably clean person, and don't slobber all over it. Pete Buck picked a winner ... gotta wear it low !!

Zymol...

Brillianize...

I promise that post #2500 will be a real nugget.

I've seen them about 4 times (Document, Green, and Up! tours) and they have always put on an excellent show. THe current album is the first that's not appealed to me, but after an incredibly solid career, I can cut them some slack once in a while

Pete's early sound is amazing. I hope they still pull out the IRS stuff live these days.

Back on topic, one way to home-brew yer own 360PB is to get a trucker's bimbo sticker and slap it right above the soundhole.

"Green" was when my REM-worship basically ended (post-Green seemed they seemed like they had "found" their sound, and I lost my fascination for it). A couple of months back I pulled out my old REM albums after about a 10-year hiatus, and I was blown away all over again by Peter's sound. It is like no other; "Green Grow the Rushes" is a prime example. Anybody know what his whole setup is?

I think, in the early days, he was mainly a Ric 360JG into a Fender Twin Reverb, but he changed around some, using other Ric's, and other guitars. I have a BBC live DVD version of "Pretty Persuasion" from 1984, he's not even playing a Ric on that. Fables was a great record.

His longtime stage setup has been two Vox AC30s, a ProCo Rat, and his guitars (Ric 360JG, Gib LP). Of course, like many rich players, he has numerous guitars and amps to choose from. He claims "if it has an accordian input, you know it's good".

Marty Willson-Piper said it was Peter Buck who turned him on to the 370/12 RM (JG). Funny, considering the vitriol the Church have sometimes spat regarding REM.

nOel

When I was 21, I wanted to be Peter Buck so bad.

(theme continued from other thread)

LOVE Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction and Life's Rich Pagent; my favourite three R.E.M. albums.

Saw them live only once, in Montreal in July of 1984 - the Dream Syndicate opened up. Fine show.

I saw them pretty often in the early days (daze) when I lived in Charlotte and they recorded there. Great live band back in the day.

It might surprise y'all that PB, in the "Chronic Town" era, used a Tele as his primary guitar...

And, IMO, they never recovered from Bill Berry's departure. Come back Bill!

We correspond frequently with Peter's tech (see other threads), and his Rics are seeing a lot of action on the current European dates.

You guys realize that he uses a .013 gauge set? (see rickbeat.com for complete string gauges)

Mick -- I saw the same tour in Minneapolis. My first of many REM shows!

While the 360JG is the guitar Peter is known for, and mine is set up with the heavy strings like his, it wouldn't surprise me if there were ever a signature model that it came out in a 12 string. So much of his stuff features overdubbed 360s or Rick 12s to get that REM sound (I think).

I'm considering a ProCo Rat. Just not sure what it would give me.

Also, if a PB model came out, I'd get one, even though I already "have one".

I spoke with Steven Kilbey of the Church last year at their Portland, OR show.

Steve made a reference to the career of the band back in the late 80's as their 'Hey Day' (a title of one of their albums of that period).

He said that the Church were grouped in the 'REM sound-a-like pool' when they began to achieve success over here in the States.

The sound of the early Church was heavy Byrds inspired with Marty playing Rickenbackers as far back as the beginning of REM's formation.

I told him I knew how he felt. I played in a Byrds inspired band in the late 80's too. My group was always compaired to REM until the Smithereens came on the scene. Then we were always compared to the Smithereens!

There was a several year window in the late 80's where if you played a Rickenbacker and even slightly jangeled your chords, you were labled a REM rip-off.

Not all (or any?) of these bands boasted a Rickenbacker, but they all had a touch of pre-Americana pop to them, and they slightly jangeled their chords, thus were labeled an R.E.M. rip-off, which was unfair, and inaccurate:

- Green On Red ("Time Ain't Nothing"...)
- Hoodoo Gurus ("I Want You Back", "My Girl")
- Weather Permitting (okay, maybe these guys!)
- Long Ryders (but of course, these guys were all about the Byrds)

All I could think of off the top-of-me-'ead.
There are dozens more.