Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

...just sayin'!

Whew! Man, that's a load off my mind. Word on the street was you were going to ditch it in the nearest dumpster. 'Cause everyone knows, you can't rock'n'roll on a Rick
JimK

What's not to love?

Truly, there's nothing in the firmament of electric guitars that is anything like a 381.

I think I want to have my twin 381s refinished in Green Glo like that 360 OS; I need something flashier than mapleglo.

Every time I've gone into Willcutt to order a Ric (or have one set up) he always tried to get a 381 into my hands. They ARE amazing instruments. Sort of the Lexus, er, make that the Cadillac of the Rickenbacker line (some of you probably know about my huge row with Toyota...), a definite flagship.

paologregorio wrote:I think I want to have my twin 381s refinished in Green Glo like that 360 OS; I need something flashier than mapleglo.

Wow! Do it!

I had a really nice, early (12/87) reissue one that I got for silly cheap. I don't even remember why I sold it. Grrr.

pure porn

longhouse wrote:Every time I've gone into Willcutt to order a Ric (or have one set up) he always tried to get a 381 into my hands. They ARE amazing instruments. Sort of the Lexus, er, make that the Cadillac of the Rickenbacker line (some of you probably know about my huge row with Toyota...), a definite flagship.

i am SO glad you passed on the 381 . . . this way, i can buy it . . . one more layaway payment and willcutt will send it to me!

Huzzah! Congrats on the forthcoming bouncing baby Ric.

Guitar works of art!

I bought a '72 Jetglo 381 back in about '90 or so. I'd wanted one ever since I saw one in the Rick catalog in '68, and this was the first one I'd seen for sale. It had the Hi-Gain pickups, and some idiot had bent the bridge mounting screws back in an attempt to get it to intonate with .009"-gauge strings, so it didn't sound very good--no jangle, and not much sustain. A new bridge (since Rickenbacker wouldn't sell me just the screws), a set of toaster-tops, and a set of .010"-gauge strings later, it was sounding a lot better, but I still had to set the action fairly high in order to avoid choking out on bends, so I wound up getting rid of it. Unfortunately, it was one of those guitars that looked better than it sounded or played. I have since played a couple of the modern reissues, and, just to refute the "vintage is better" crowd, the new ones are a lot better than my '72 was. One day, if I can afford it, I'll get another one--they are gorgeous, and some of them play and sound as good as they look!

FYI, speaking from experience; everyone oohs and ahs over the Birdseye maple 381s, but if you value lightness and resonance in a guitar, order one in a different finish; the birdsye maple is more dense, and weighs more than the solid finished examples, or the flamed maple FG, which are all noticeably lighter and more resonant-its all in the wood. After playing a couple of soild finished and flame maple FG examples at NAMM the last two years I was ready to trade in my BE maple 381s. It was probably an overreaction, but that's how I felt at he time.