Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hello everyone. I'm not sure if this is the right spot to do this but I just joined up and would like to introduce myself. My name is Tony and I live north of San Francisco. I've been playing guitar for about 40 years and after going through flat tops, archtops, teles, and assorted electrics have pretty much gotten into resonators and lap steels. My Rickenbacker experience has been pretty limited. I had a pre-war Model B lap steel (which I regret selling), a Model S lap steel and an older amp with RIK cutout in block letters on the front. I don't know the model but I bet someone here does. I recently acquired what I am pretty sure is a fairly rare beast, a motorized Rickenbacker Electro Vibrola Spanish solid body. It looks like a model B lap steel but has a round neck and a double thick body to house the motor. I'm kinda torn on this one. It appears in mint condition, the vibrola works and the pickup sounds great and I think everything is working as it should. My problem is I need a player's guitar and I think this one belongs in a collection or museum. This is one heavy guitar and I don't know if the extra weight justifies my occasional use of the vibrato effect. I kinda feel like a curator in a museum with this one. I would love to know if anyone on the forum has one and if they use it on a regular basis? I'll try to post some photos when I figure out how.

Welcome Tony......this is the place for Rickenbacker info, for sure!
I'm sure we'd all love to see some pictures of that guitar.

Hi, Tony!

I'm in Mill Valley. Welcome to the RRF.

Hello, Tony! Another denizen of Marin County here. Welcome to our forum!

Hi Tony welcome to the forum. I am really looking forward to seeing photos of your Rickenbacker instrument.

Welcome to the forum, Tony!

Welcome, man. That guitar sounds really interesting. To post pics, go to say, tinypic.com and upload your pictures, then copy/paste the "forum url" into a post here.

Wwlcome, Tony. Don't mind the area north of San Francisco myself.... I'm a fan!!

Welcome to one Tony from another!

You have come to the right place!

Hey Tony, welcome to the forum! North of SF is nice, I used to live in Santa Rosa about 20 years ago. Beautiful place.

As for your motorized Electro Spanish, I've seen a few on ebay over the years. Seems to me someone here as one, or maybe they were trying to buy one on ebay. Anyway, possibly a better place to ask about it would be on this forum under the Rickenbacker Steels section. There are a few folks who frequent that section that know just about everything there is to know about Rick steels...

Welcome, Tony!

You've had quite a few interesting Ricks! Wow!

Thanks for all the warm welcomes. I appreciate the photo posting tip from Peter and I think I have some photos here but if not I will try again if the size is wrong or they don't show up. Also thanks to CJ for mentioning posting on the Steels section. I will do that later if it's OK? I think what I have here is really a lap steel with a round neck.

Welcome Tony. Nice looking bak-o-lite. It would be interesting to see all of the mechanics involved with the motorized Vibrola.

Wow! That looks to be in amazingly good condition.

That looks wonderful. Welcome!