Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

My latest article in Premier Guitar magazine is called, "The Growing Problem of Counterfeit Guitars" in the December issue. You'll find some juicy quotes by John Hall concerning his stance on the subject, as well as his take on why Fender, Gibson and PRS are having so much trouble with this issue. I also mentioned rickresource in the opening paragraph, for this was the place I found inspiration to do the article in the first place.

Great article!

I was more than pleased to find the December issue free to read online.

Great article, Bob - further reinforcing my thought that Premier Guitar really is the premier title of its genre. I'm happy to subscribe to the paper version. Apart from anything else, it's a darn sight more convenient to read in, ahem, certain places , than the online edition.

Oh, and on airplanes too.

Sorry, I wasn't advocating that people don't go out and buy the magazine.
All of the guitar magazines here in the UK are completely awful, and the only good ones I've seen like Premier Guitar, are US based.

Mateybob wrote:Sorry, I wasn't advocating that people don't go out and buy the magazine.
All of the guitar magazines here in the UK are completely awful, and the only good ones I've seen like Premier Guitar, are US based.

Sorry, Rob - I didn't mean to imply that!

I used to buy the UK 'Guitar' magazine here quite regularly, but a couple of years ago they changed the format to lots of big print and loud colours, and I went off it - and at $7.95 a copy, it was a bit pricy. I ended my subscription to the US-published Guitar Player after over 20 years, because it just seemed to be repeating itself. Premier Guitar fills the gap very nicely!

eatswodo wrote:

Mateybob wrote:Sorry, I wasn't advocating that people don't go out and buy the magazine.
All of the guitar magazines here in the UK are completely awful, and the only good ones I've seen like Premier Guitar, are US based.

Sorry, Rob - I didn't mean to imply that!

I used to buy the UK 'Guitar' magazine here quite regularly, but a couple of years ago they changed the format to lots of big print and loud colours, and I went off it - and at $7.95 a copy, it was a bit pricy. I ended my subscription to the US-published Guitar Player after over 20 years, because it just seemed to be repeating itself. Premier Guitar fills the gap very nicely!

When I re-read my initial post it read a bit like that! So I felt I needed to clarify.

There were a couple of UK based magazines that I used to get quite regularly, but then I found them to be going over the same things time and time again.
The quality of the writing was in the most part 6th form student like, and you'd always get the usual rubbish associated with any mention of a Rickenbacker guitar (one trick pony/always go out of tune/falls to pieces in your hands/poorly built/10 year waiting list/ blah blah blah)
The last straw for me was when one of the magazines had a feature on vintage guitars, in the article they mentioned that the Rickenbackers could usually be found for a good bit cheaper than a Fender or a Gibson, but, and I quote..."As it's a Rickenbacker, why would you bother?"
And that was the end for me.

Sounds like a good read Bob, I'll be checking it out!

Nice article Bob, well written and articulate!

Well done, Bob....... an excellent read!

Just finished it, Bob.......great stuff......an excellent read!

Thank you for the nice compliments. John Hall was the most cooperative guy I interviewed for the piece. I called and got him on the phone immediately. I had to go through hell trying to get answers from some of the other people, and one company didn't cooperate at all. I'll let you guess who that might have been.

Just goes to show you what kind of man John is.

Now, if he'd only make a 12 string with a wide neck!

drumbob wrote:Now, if he'd only make a 12 string with a wide neck!

But he does! 660/12.

Excellent article in Premier Guitar. I agree that it's a great mag, and I prefer the print version too! However, I've got to disagree with Mateybob regarding British guitar magazines--maybe we're not reading the same ones. I really enjoy Guitarist, Guitar & Bass, and Guitar Buyer, and they're not always easy to get here in the US. Yes, they often seem to all review the same gear at the same time, but the reviews seem to be quite thorough, unlike, say, Guitar World, whose reviews often appear to be thinly-disguised promo excerpts. Don't get me wrong--I like the US mags too--I've been subscribing to Guitar Player since the first issue back in '67, and I've been reading Guitar World since the first issue in 1980, although I've let my GW subscription lapse--I've seen that mag go from wide-ranging eclectic coverage (the first issue had Johnny Winter on the cover, and an excellent article about Paul Bigsby written by Merle Travis) to hard-rock-flavor-of-the-month all the time.