Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

A Rickenbacker shade I'm not familiar with.

What's next? "Floridaglo"?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4713&item=3755518008&rd=1

dumb comments that I have heard from dumb GC employees ...

"Rickenbacker is going out of business"

"We don't carry Rickenbackers"

"Rickebackers are ugly"

but on the flip side a manager at the local GC told me ...

"I wish I could get more Rickenbacker basses in here, they sell quickly"

The same seller has a 1997 Rose Morris (330) listed. I didn't happen to notice a year on either one. The starting bid on this one is higher than what my local dealer sells new ones for. I'd be suprised if this one goes.

He also has a "near mint" BurgundyGlo 4003 and "mint" Blue Boy 4003 for $1200-ish. I know a new Blue Boy 4003 is about $1100 (apparently the "color of the year" is about $100 extra)....so why would I buy one from ebay for more? Sometimes I just don't get these auctions (and I'm sure someone will pay it). I'd love to score the BurgundyGlo if the price was more realistic. My concern with any of these is that they are instruments that were hanging around a store for some time and didn't sell for some reason besides high price......bowed neck (from poor storage), finish imperfections, very bad setups, banged up some from gorilla test drives, etc.

I was killing time at a GC last week, just screwing around in the bass room. Friendly enough employee comes up to me & we start your typical gear conversation.
He starts his sales pitch & I tell him that I'm not buying anything today as I just got a new bass less than a year ago.
He asks me what I got & I tell him it was a 2003 Rickenbacker 4003 in MONTEZUMA (uh, not Montana) Brown.
Then he sniffs & says "Yeah I don't like Rickenbackers. They're too sharp for me."

"Sharp?"

Safe to say that the term "sharp" is one that should never be used to describe a GC employee.

Go ahead sonny, sell some putz another Korean made Squier P-bass - as I'll be going home to look at Mike Parks' web site yet again...

On the other hand, the GC in Las Vegas found me a set of Schaller M4's in black!

The GC in San Bernadino had a C64 MG for $1500! The guy there said they had a couple, but weren't selling well so they cut the price.

If it just had the 'regular' headstock...

If some dumb **s of a salesmen told me that Ricks were ugly I have to open up a can of Whup **s on him.

1500.00 is a good price for a C64.

I've been told by GC sales people that Rickebacker quality is low and that they have had to send back a lot of defective instruments. My favorite was an over-pierced, purple haird twerp of a sales drone who said "Dude! Rickenbackers? We can't even give those things away!" He then proceded to show me the latest OLP's and Bongo basses.

at my local GC pretty much any bass that sells for over $1000 will hang on the wall for long time ...

and hey... without a Guitar Center ..there might not be a Shadow.

I like your attitude ...

There are wonderful independent shops out there, and I'd rather give my business to them. But I've had as many bad experiences with arrogant mom-and-pop shops as with big chains.

Despite the horror stories, I've had mostly good experiences at GC. All depends on the particular store management.

"Despite the horror stories, I've had mostly good experiences at GC. All depends on the particular store management."

Ditto me (Indianapolis).

I've had both good and bad experiences with GC. It takes all kinds, that's for sure. The best kind of shop is one where the sales folk are smart and polite, a combination not all too common these days.