Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Well, having just joined the site recently and been so well advised on all matters Rick related, I'm pleased to report I've bought one .

Those who read my threads and were patient enough to listen to my meanderings, may recall I ideally wanted a Fireglo 330 or 340 with Accent vibrato hoping to end up with a guitar not too unlike my original that I owned back in the sixties. However, after much deliberation and facing of facts I rapidly concluded my original may have been a bit of a one-off or at least extremely uncommon, shall we say, and I was unlikely to stumble across another quite the same.

Using typical British logic ( ) I decided that any Fireglo Rick I bought would always leave me thinking this or that wasn't quite the same as I remembered and it would niggle each time I picked it up - so I've bought a blue one and here's a quick photo of it taken today hanging up in the shop. Tricky indoor lighting means the camera may not have got the blue exactly right but on my Mac's screen it's fairly close. If you click on it to enlarge it, that may help. Anyone know what finish this is officially known as?

That fifth smaller control knob - the salesman and I both decided it served no really useful purpose at all because when I switched to neck pickup I had to turn it completely in one direction to bring the pickup to life - choose both pickups or bridge and I had to turn it fully the opposite direction to bring those settings to life. Neither of us could fathom its intended purpose as it had such little effect and was a nuisance if wanting to quickly change from the others to the neck on its own mid-playing. Unless it's vital in the electrical arrangement, could we do some rewiring and maybe give it another task - not quite sure what, though.

I'm currently bidding on an as-new Accent vibrato to retro fit as that's an important ingredient in my playing style requirements and as soon as I have it home here tomorrow I'll take some more photos and post a couple if you're interested. Feeling very pleased with myself at the moment!

Congratulations. It's a beauty.

The finish is "Blueburst", also known as "BBR" and it was RIC's "Color of the Year" for 2005.

Congrats Martyn, very nice. Where did you manage to pick that one up from?

I did a Accent on a BBR

Nice Scotty.

The fifth knob is pretty much a redundant volume control for the neck pickup. It actually comes in handy with the switch in the middle position.

Very, very nice.
I'm in the blue Rickenbacker Family, too. Just got mine for Christmas.
The blue is cool. You made a nice choice.

godber wrote:Congrats Martyn, very nice. Where did you manage to pick that one up from?

Project Music in Exeter. They took this and a Fireglo 370 12 string in part exchange for some other gear a while back. They had it listed at £1195 as it's pretty much unblemished and of course comes with its modern and very plush hard case (they're currently £249 if bought separately) but I know them fairly well in there and I ended up paying £1100 as I wasn't chopping anything in p/exchange. They also confessed I was the first to show any genuine interest and that this was fairly typical in that folk would either pay them no attention at all, considering them a bit of an oddity from the sixties, or someone would walk in, like me, and say how much? As it could hang around for weeks, that's why they offered it to me at the lower price when I haggled, which was probably good business sense.

I couldn't resist having a quick try of the 12 string but given my fairly small hands and fingers, even I was struggling to finger chords very accurately as they seem to have crammed 12 strings onto a neck designed for six. No doubt you'd get used to it eventually but the sales guy said a few had tried it out of curiosity but none found it easy to play and anyone with larger or thicker fingers would abandon hope fairly swiftly. Great jangly sound, though, but a lot of money for (dare I say it?) a bit of a one trick pony. It was listed at £1850.

Seems like a good deal to me for a minty 330 BBR . Nice one.

Yeah, that's a good price Martyn. I'll have to pop down to Exeter more often!

Congrats! Hope it treats you well.

Congrats, Martyn!

martynwelch wrote:Tricky indoor lighting means the camera may not have got the blue exactly right but on my Mac's screen it's fairly close.

Looks just fine on my Mac.

Very nice, Martyn. Blue 330s are cool and that fretboard wood looks great

martynwelch wrote:Tricky indoor lighting means the camera may not have got the blue exactly right but on my Mac's screen it's fairly close.

Congratulations. It looks great on my iPad

Beautiful guitar! Pics look fine here...