Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

If you had to buy one or two books to reference the different Rickenbacker guitars and basses thru the years, what would you buy? I know there are a couple of books out there. A search of this forum didn't really answer my question.

The Smith book is #1, and it's in English...the Rittor book is excellent even if you don't read Japanese...the photos and depth are almost self-explanatory.

The Smith book is #1, and it's in English...the Rittor book is excellent even if you don't read Japanese...the photos and depth are almost self-explanatory.

Seconded.

There is also "The Rickenbacker book" - Tony Bacon & Paul Day. Good English book on guitars and double necks, but alas, no basses.

The best one hasn't been published yet.

I was going to say similar...

My $0.02:


Rickenbacker: The History of the Rickenbacker Guitar by Richard Smith (ISBN 0931759153)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0931759153
This is a fairly comprehensive reference on Rickenbacker's instruments. It has a great section on the early models (pre-1950) that covers the steels RIC made really well. It also covers the modern era (1950s - 1988). The book does contain several errors, mostly 'wrong' model identifications for the photos (and the production totals appendix) - this does not take away from the enjoyment of the book... There has been many models introduced post 1988 (when this book was written), and of course these are not covered. The book is big and thick, and most of the pages are B&W. Photos flow in the book with the text. There are a handful of full-color pages in the center of the book. This is one of the great references for the Rickenbacker lover, and perhaps the only one covering the steels in detail.


The Rickenbacker Book by Tony Bacon (ISBN 0879303298)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0879303298
This is a great book covering the modern (1950s - 1994) era of Rickenbacker electric guitars. It is a relatively small book, but has great photos. The book is about 50% photos and 50% text. There is a model identification section in the appendix that is helpful too. If you like Rickenbacker electric guitars you should buy this book! A negative to this book: if you own other Tony Bacon books, or other Backbeat books, you've perhaps see many of this books photos.


Rickenbacker - Pioneer of the Electric Guitar by Rittor Music Mook (OOP)
Look on ebay
Japanese Mook (magazine/book) with many photos, text is Japanese. The photos are fairly comprehensive regarding the models (Guitars, bass, steels). The negatives: the photos are for the most part fairly small. Some of the rarer instruments (ex: bantar) are photos of non-typical instruments finished in the '80s. I like this book, but they're going for $100-$300 and I'm not sure that its worth it. I bought mine for $30 back in the day...

There's an "I Love Rickenbacker 12-string" (or similar titled) Mook - I think that is Rittor too - I haven't seen it in person, but I've heard its 'ok'.

Then there's always this:


Collectable Rickenbacker Value and Reference Guide 2007 by John Minutaglio & Steven Fant (ISBN 1430329181)
http://www.price-book.com

I heard its good, but I may be biased.

It IS good, John! Although I don't have my 2007 edition just yet...

The "I Love Rickenbacker 12 String" Mook is "Vintage Guitars Vol. 2", published on April 30, 2001. It's far better than "OK".

The name of the publisher is not Rittor, AFAIK, but "for Tasty Life". Yep.

It shows the typical Japanese attention to detail (obsessive, to put it mildly) with incredible phography and all sorts of neat little features on tech subjects that can be mostly understood without reading. There are literally THOUSANDS of photos in this book including a foldout comparo of a 2000 360/12 and its 1963 brother (serial number CG725). There are articles on musicians, both here in Japan, who feature Ricks in their acts, and also some time spent with major collectors from Japan.

A brief interview with John Hall and a factory tour (in color) are presented, too.

128 pages in all. Where can you get it? I don't know, but you might try a Japanese book store who could order a back issue for you. I picked my own copy up from a fellow Forum member.

Although it's printed in Japanese (and times like this I wish I could read Japanese!), it's still filled with good stuff to ponder. If one can read Japanese, the level of detail in the articles must be incredible.

Collectable Rickenbacker Value and Reference Guide 2007 is good. Just the pictures alone would make it worth its value. And then there's more...