Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi all, I want to buy one of the books on the History of Rickenbacker. There are apprently two; the first, Rickenbacker is in softcover, was published in `87 written by Smith, with introductions by George Harrison and Roger McGuinn, which is not all that important to me: http://www.amazon.com/Rickenbacker-Rich ... 978&sr=1-5


The second, The Rickenbacker Book: A Complete History of Rickenbacker Electric Guitars , is more recent, a hardcover published in `94, and was written by Bacon and Day. Suggestions? Does anyone have both? http://www.amazon.com/Rickenbacker-Book ... bb_product

Any preferences? I'm leaning towards the newer hardcover book; it's newer, a hardcover, and I liked some of the sample pages, as well as the graphics on the contents page. Suggestions/impressions would from anyone who's read both would be appreciated.

Hey Paul,

You really need both! Sorry

The Smith book gives a better all round history. Sure - there are a few errors, but it's a great book. The Bacon & Day book has great photos though.

If i was pushed into just having one..........it would be the Smith book though.

I hope that helps?

The Smith book is far better, IMO.

Hmm, looks like I'll be buying both...

Get both. There's information that's unique to each book. Unfortunately, both are dated.

I know; the bacon/Day book is from `94, and the Smith book is from `87!! Still, it's better than what I have now, which is a book on electric guitars listed alphbetically by brand, with just a Rick section.

I have both. The Bacon & Day book covers Rickenbacker's lap steel, electric 6 and 12 string guitars. Smith's book adds chapters on their acoustics, amplifiers and basses.

While I enjoy both, niether book is likely to tell you anything you didn't already know.

I have both, and I'd say buy both of them. They go well together, and serve different purposes.

I have a number of Bacon/Day books. They are kind of like a quick sample history of a particular brand, a quick reference packaged guide, but by no means a deep historical volume.

The Smith book was authorized by the factory, so it's filled with photos from RIC's archives, though many of them are in B&W. It has a LOT of really great pics of old 50s era stuff (Capri's especially) and early Ric history, plus more current (to 1987) models.

Now....I'm still trying to get ahold of the Rittor book (anybody holding?), but it's in Japanese and serves as a photo book only. Plus there is the elusive Japanese "12 string" book too..

Cheers,
-Collin

+1 to both Bacon/Day and Smith. I have neither of the Japanese books, but have seen the Rittor one and it is really cool too.

The Japanese books are very comprehensive, judging from the great number of different Kanji characters on every page, under the photos...

They're both fine, but I remember being a little disappointed with the Bacon book- seemed a little on the light side, though some gorgeous photos.

Both.

The Rittor book is great, if you can afford it. I bet it's also a winner if you can read Japanese!

All three are necessary . If you can read Kanji, great, but the wealth of photographs in the Rittor book is not to be usurped (for now).

jps wrote:All three are necessary . If you can read Kanji, great, but the wealth of photographs in the Rittor book is not to be usurped (for now).

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Lefty Rick bass players: take some particular delight in this video, eh?

Ahh, music to, err, go blind to!