Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I took my 4003 MB "Monty"to pracitce today , just to see if he would like getting out of the house, and upon opening it up there,Dave the guitarist saw it and said " Oh, a Ricken bocker" to which I replied "backer... baaa backer".Point settled.
Started to warm up on it, then in walked Mark the drummer who immediately said "Cool! A Rickenbocker!" and I had to repeat the corrections all over.After all, I didn't want "Monty" to be offended and not play well.
No offence was taken, and he did like getting out.

Don,i bet that sent you off your bocker Erm rocker!

It's a natural mistake, given the fact that it's a German name. In Germany the "bocker" pronunciation is correct. Most European languages have very consistent rules of pronunciation, and in fact most other languages don't even contain the american "baaa" sound, thus some non-americans may even struggle to pronounce Rickenbacker the way we do, saying Rickenbecker or Rickenbocker instead.
Native speakers may have never heard it pronounced correctly, so it's up to us to take over, erm, I mean educate the world.
You say tomaytoe, I say let's dance!

I call it both RickenBACKer and RickenBACHer, depends on my mood

Interesting that most Americans have no problems pronouncing Capt. Eddy's name as RickenBACKer, but can't seem to agree on how to pronounce the name of the guitar.

JimK

They've obviously attended the 'Dave Pascoe School of Rickenbocker Pronunciation'.

ozover50 wrote:They've obviously attended the 'Dave Pascoe School of Rickenbocker Pronunciation'.

I flunked out of there last year. I still say RickenBACKer.

I always say BOCK. Can't help it, just sounds better that way to me.

I say it the "correct" way, but it took a whole lot of getting used to.

BACK always sounded kind of redneck to me for some reason. "lookey at that thur RickenBACK'ur"

I try real hard to pronounce it the way the company prefers, but since I spoke German long before I ever owned a Rick, I tend to slip back into old rules of pronunciation...

I say RickenBACKer, my wife says RickenBOCKer, but I still love her anyway...

I thought BOCK was a beer........

1965 wrote:BACK always sounded kind of redneck to me for some reason. "lookey at that thur RickenBACK'ur"

You callin' Pete Townshend a redneck?

Tom Petty, too, calls them BACK, but I guess being born in Gainesville and all could qualify for him being a redneck.

I recall seeing a video with Mr. Hall calling it 'BACKER'... his company I guess he can say it how he wants???