Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

The first time I saw a Rick was in April of '72. I went to a local college gym to see It's A Beautiful Day with about 500 other like minded souls and the warm up act was a no-name band from the UK called Genesis! Turned out it was their first US tour, talk about being indoctrinated to their music in this manner, like wow, what an incredible show! This was just after Foxtrot came out and they were absolutely amazing, with Peter's masks and the white curtain backdrop just like on the cover of Genesis Live. In fact they blew away It's A Beautiful Day. Obviously it was Mike Rutherford's 4001 JG that was the first Rick I ever saw and his 4080/12 JG also, but his was reversed if I recall; the 12 string neck was above the bass neck, and this is how they should be as it makes more sense ergonomically.

I remember seeing "Starcastle" as a warm up act back in the mid-late '70's. The bass player , I cant remember his name, had a white one. Excellent tone.

Scott: I believe that was Gary Strater.

The first Ric I ever saw on paper was on Christmas of 1974 when I received Fragile. This coincides with my first outbreak of Gear Aquisition Syndrome. Having pleaded for the next six months with my parents to let me buy a bass (a process eerily similar to the current procedure), I was disappointed to find that my local music store only had an "Electra" copy of the Holy Grail, so I settled for a P bass (which I wish I still had, along with all that hair). It wasn't until the summer of 1976 that I was able to see the great Chris himself, which was the first time I saw a Ric in the flesh.

Of course I had been going on about the Ric for the entire time; later that summer one of my so called friends listened, found out about Manny's in New York, and scored a brand new 4001JG. When he brought it over I must admit to having less than charitable thoughts. In fact I'm still not over it.

I was a Yes fan, so I had to get one. Early '70's, got a used jetglo 4001 from CG in Hollywood. So the first I actually saw in the flesh was mine.

In the flesh??

1978, in the window of Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center, a Fireglo 4001.

The first Rickenbacker I ever saw was probably McCartney's bass in the Magical Mystery Tour booklet in side the album, at an early age (4-5 years old...)

It was at a music store in Houston, about 1960. May have been Highland Village Music, but I'm not sure.

It was when I saw Rush on the, "Farewell To Kings", tour. Geddy, Alex and Neil took the stage and later in the show they both played double necks, Geddy's 4080 and Alex's SG double neck. Then next year during the,"Hemispheres", tour they played Cygnus X-1 and it sent even more chills down my back.

A Steppenwolf concert, Spring 1970 in Austin, TX.

The first one I can remember seeing was a Jetglo, in 1977 at Wurlitzers in Boston, I bought a new Mapleglo 4001 that day.

The first one I saw in the flesh was Squire's during the drama tour 1980. This was before I actually started playing bass myself. This concert inspired me to someday learn the bass. Countless basses later (name a brand and I probably owned it at one time) I finally got smart and saved my hard earned cash to buy a Ric. Now that I've experienced it firsthand I won't even concider playing or purchasing another bass unless it's a Ric!

The first RIC I saw in the flesh was a fireglow RIC 12 string at my local high school in a Chicago suburb, I'm guessing sometime in 66. The band was the "New Colony Six", a familiar name to folks listening to Chicago radio during the 60s. They had a lot of original material and got a lot of local air play. At their live gigs, the covered a lot of Byrds material and sounded mighty fine!

The first time I actually got my hands on a RIC was at Christmas in 66. My buddy and I went down to Sid Sherman's on Wabash under the "L" tracks where he traded in his violin on an electric guitar. It was like a religious experience experience when they handed me that 360/12FG to try. The $500 price tag might as well have been a million as I could barely afford train fair to get home.

For me, it was the display windoe of Music City on W. Chestnut St. in Center City Philly, about 1969 or so, and it was a 3-Pickup 3xx-Series, the color I can't recall.

The first one I held in my hands and played was this GI buddy's White 4001, which he let me borrow and play thru my Quad Kenwood stereo and sound just like Squire on Close to the Edge. I thought the neck was too fat for my hands at the time and that my reissue T-Bird would just have to do.

Garry

Garry: Interesting how things change over the years.

Nice bass, is that you, Peter?