Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi--my name is Jon Fine and I'm a professional musician in Northern California. I just discovered this forum, and I've been lurking for a day or two, so I thought I'd join. I don't currently have any Rickenbackers, but I have some experience with them. I bought a '67 450 back in 1970, never got comfortable with it, so I didn't keep it very long. In the late '80's, I bought the first 381 I had ever seen for sale--a Jetglo '72. It needed some work--a previous owner had bent the bridge mounting screws back in an attempt to get it to intonate with .009" gauge strings (!), and I wound up having to replace the entire bridge as Rickenbacker wouldn't sell me just the screws. I also replaced the Hi-Gain pickups with toaster-tops to get more of a traditional Rickenbacker sound--that helped a lot, but I had to set the action so high to avoid choking out on bends in the upper register that it was hard to play. It was a beautiful-looking guitar, but I wound up getting rid of it after a few years. I've played some newer (post-'87) 381 reissues that were a lot better than my vintage one. I'm hoping to find some good information on this forum regarding setting up a Rickenbacker for optimum performance--I think I've come to the right place! I'm probably not the typical Ricky player either--I play everything from jazz and blues to country and classic rock, and I see no reason why a Rickenbacker shouldn't be able to cover all that! Plus, they just look so darn cool...

Welcome, Jon!

There a number of Forum members up your way, and a bunch of us farther south in California. As you've just started lurking, you may not be yet aware that we have get-togethers called Confluences every year (down here in SoCal we also have quarterly, or thereabouts, "Mini-Cons"). Here is a link to the first of many pages from this year's Confluence held at the Yost Theater:

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=389755&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=75

The cool thing about these confluences is that it gives one the opportunity to play nearly any instrument there. The disadvantage of this is that you will wind up wanting to buy nearly every instruemnt there!

Glad to have you aboard, and hope to see you some time at a Confluence!

Welcome, Jon. There is a wealth of information for set ups here. It is mostly in the Vibrola section.

Welcome, John!

jfine wrote:I'm probably not the typical Ricky player either--I play everything from jazz and blues to country and classic rock, and I see no reason why a Rickenbacker shouldn't be able to cover all that! Plus, they just look so darn cool...

That sounds pretty typical for the bunch of us that frequent the RRF.

Welcome Jon.....you'll find this an incredibly friendly place!

Welcome to the fray! There's a lot of great folks here, with more info on Ricks that you probably ever wanted to know.

As for typical Rick players, or music styles, I think, typically, they are all over the map...

jfine wrote:! I'm probably not the typical Ricky player either--I play everything from jazz and blues to country and classic rock, and I see no reason why a Rickenbacker shouldn't be able to cover all that! Plus, they just look so darn cool...

Sounds to me like you may be a kindred soul, Jon. I play everything from rockabilly to country, and jangly folk-rock on my Rick 12. Welcome to the forum.
JimK

Welcome to the Forum Jon,,, got nothing else to say that hasn't already been said....

Welcome to the forum!

Too bad about that '72, Jon...would have been a real keeper.

FYI, although RIC wouldn't sell you those screws then, they would now! Not to mention that they are available at any well-equipped hardware store or (now) online.

The toasters wouldn't have choked out your strings if they (toasters, that is...) had been lowered a bit by torquing down the screws, or even removing one half of each rubber washer. If this didn't work, chances are the neck needed resetting. Toasters are lower in height than hi-gains. Puzzling.

Anyway, all water under the bridge, and welcome!

Welcome, Jon.... enjoy!

Hi Jon,

I'm in Marin County. Unseasonably nice weather we're having today, hope you're enjoying it, too. And I hope you like our forum.

Welcome to the forum, Jon! I hope you'll stick around and enjoy it!

Welcome Jon! This forum is a place where you can find a lot of helpful information. I've been here two years to this day, and I've haven't found a better forum to talk guitars and music yet! You will be surprised that there will be some helpful members who will help you get that 381 reissue when you're ready, and since I've done Ric dealings on this forum, I haven't felt like doing Ric dealings anywhere else. Enjoy it here, because you'll learn a lot.

G'day Jon! Great to hear from you, and welcome to the RRF community!