ShortScale.org

Hey there.

Three quick questions.

1) How are rickenbacker necks? I can't for the love of me find one to try out as all guitarshops are owned by turds who look down on me for looking 14 and sweaty from the god damn 5436 degree weather outside. Are they thin? In any way comparable to Fender necks, apart from scale obviously

2) How do you find the resale value? Does it actually hold up? Is this a safe investment?

3) When you play the neck pickup and roll back the tone does it sound anything like this?
[youtube][/youtube]

If so I am totally sold.


I have been considering a Rickenbacker for a very long time, even before I played guitar. I've still never tried one, but I fear the Holy Grail aspect of Rics will disappear if I buy one.

Thanks.

the necks are super glossy. even on the fret board itself

gaybear wrote:the necks are super glossy. even on the fret board itself

I loves gloss.

oh, and resale value is pretty good.

they're very playable guitars, but of course it depends on your playing style.

for me, the height of the strings over the body (don't worry, they're not high over the neck) is a little weird ,but that's cause i'm a sloppy player.

I haven't played many of the electrics so I don't know that I can comment much on them. But I own a Rickenbacker 4003 bass and I love it! I have actually grown to prefer it over my MIA Fender P bass. The neck profile is a bit thicker than any of my Fender style basses I've owned, but it is thinner at the nut, and it doesn't flare out as much toward the higher frets like the fenders do, the width at the nut is roughly the same as the width at the 12th fret, which makes playing stuff all over the fretboard much easier. Also, the dual truss rods seem to hold adjustments better. Since buying my Rickenbacker, I haven't felt any need to adjust the truss rods, and I've adjusted the truss rod on my Fender twice, and that's only in about 7 months.

Also, yes Rickenbackers retain the resale value VERY well, especially compared to the other popular brands. When I was looking for my used 4003, I was finding that most of them were selling for very very close to what a new one would sell for.

The most common complaint you hear about Rics is from 12-string players (like me). The neck is really narrow at the nut and the strings are spaced a little further apart than they might be, meaning you have to almost relearn how to play in order to hold down a C chord in the first position.

On the plus side, nothing else sounds like them. The specs of all their models are listed on the Ric website, so check the 'width at nut' on the model you're looking at and compare it with others. Off the top of my head I think models beginning with 3 are quite narrow and ones beginning with 6 are wider, but don't take that as gospel.

As for resale value - it seems John Hall deliberately limits the number of Rics produced so that there's always a waiting list for new ones. Therefore shifting a (cheaper) used one is never likely to be a problem unless your price is totally unrealistic. The price of Rics - both new and used - has really shot up in the last couple of years, so finding one at a reasonable price is....challenging.

The one your man in the vid is playing looks like a 360WB to me (though it could be some other variation on the 360 theme). The bound ones are very hard to find, unsurprisingly, as they're the best-looking Rics and haven't been made in years (decades?) as far as I know, other than as limited editions like my 360/12v64.

It's hard to say whether any and every Ric will be able to nail your man's sound, but if you can find one with toaster-top (as opposed to hi-gain) pickups then you're at the same starting point as the one he's playing.

Lucamo wrote:Hey there.

Three quick questions.

1) How are rickenbacker necks? I can't for the love of me find one to try out as all guitarshops are owned by turds who look down on me for looking 14 and sweaty from the god damn 5436 degree weather outside. Are they thin? In any way comparable to Fender necks, apart from scale obviously

2) How do you find the resale value? Does it actually hold up? Is this a safe investment?

3) When you play the neck pickup and roll back the tone does it sound anything like this?
[youtube][/youtube]

If so I am totally sold.


I have been considering a Rickenbacker for a very long time, even before I played guitar. I've still never tried one, but I fear the Holy Grail aspect of Rics will disappear if I buy one.

Thanks.

That's a 1959 Capri 360 those old Ricks have very thin necks and the fretboard radius is very small. Newer Rickenbackers have fatter necks.

Neck is not thin. Probably comparable to Gibson.

I know thats a 360 Capri I will never own.

just want a ric with toasters, jetglo, and bound. But I guess that is hard to get these days?

All I mean was, will toasters, on the neck, with the tone dialed back give that super-mellow almost organ like sound?

Here is the old style neck (360v63) and the new 360 neck





Vintage Rick fretboard

You can buy the toaster pickups on their website. That way you can get a current production model and put some in there.

Do you even know now that you don't like the Hi Gains? The High gains are not very "hi-gain", and many famous rickenbacker sounds can be attributed to them (The Smiths, The Jam, etc etc). I will never take them out of my 330, simply because I don't think toasters are better, only different, and I don't dislike the hi gains at all.

Honestly, I didn't want a Rickenbacker until I held one in my hands and played it. I suggest you do the same and judge for yourself because they're not for everyone and your money might be better spent on something that better suits your preferences. There's a lot of guitars I love the look and sound of (my Hagstrom for example) but are hard to play for me (in that case it's the super thin neck that cramps my hand if I play it for more than 15 minutes).

Nick wrote:Do you even know now that you don't like the Hi Gains? The High gains are not very "hi-gain", and many famous rickenbacker sounds can be attributed to them (The Smiths, The Jam, etc etc). I will never take them out of my 330, simply because I don't think toasters are better, only different, and I don't dislike the hi gains at all.

Honestly, I didn't want a Rickenbacker until I held one in my hands and played it. I suggest you do the same and judge for yourself because they're not for everyone and your money might be better spent on something that better suits your preferences. There's a lot of guitars I love the look and sound of (my Hagstrom for example) but are hard to play for me (in that case it's the super thin neck that cramps my hand if I play it for more than 15 minutes).

Agreed. I see no problem with the hi gains either. Most of the players that make me interested in the rickenbacker guitars play models with the hi gains and not toasters.

I didn't know I wanted a Rickenbacker 4003 bass until I played the one that I bought either. None of the shops up in Raleigh ever carried them. The first local shop I went into when I moved to Atlanta had 3 of them hanging on the wall when I walked in. I tried the used fireglo, and fell in love with it instantly. Sold a guitar that week to put a down payment on it, and then sold a couple more guitars over the next month or two after that and I love playing it. It was so nice that I sold 2 guitars and my stingray bass to buy it! I had too much stuff and needed to streamline my collection anyway, so I haven't thought twice about the decision either. I love the Rickenbacker so much.

I just got this....and I figured this would be as good as any other place to post it. Hi. How are you?

looks sweet!

Insanely jealous, that is an awesome Ric

bigsby'd wrote:I just got this....and I figured this would be as good as any other place to post it. Hi. How are you?

Wow! That is a very rare guitar you got there.

My friend Tony Blair on the Rickenbacker Resource Forum has a '57 850 like yours.

westtexasred wrote:

bigsby'd wrote:I just got this....and I figured this would be as good as any other place to post it. Hi. How are you?

Wow! That is a very rare guitar you got there.

My friend Tony Blair on the Rickenbacker Resource Forum has a '57 850 like yours.

I used to trade emails with Tony. Graham owns almost all the known combo 850s now. I've been banned from the RRF like a million times now...mostly for correcting the armchair quarterbacks.

Yeah I don't like the smiths sound or the Jams.

I know they are not really high gain but I don't want that sort of thin sound they give. I like the warmth of the toasters.
Or apparent warmth.

/sigh....I know you've been around here for a long time and aren't just trying to troll. I know I myself have been there as a kid with Rickenbacker lust and thought toasters would give me super powers, but I can't help myself this morning after reading that and I have to say this.

You really don't know what you're talking about, go play a Rickenbacker.

If you want warmth use the neck pickup. That's what it's there for. Name me a song you know for a fact was recorded with a Rickenbacker with toasters if you can and I can probably show you something by someone else that the guitar sounds more or less just like it. There's more to a band's whole sound than the pickups they use in their guitars....I only used those two bands as an example because they each have a far different distinct famous sound they get with a Rickenbacker.

Come back after playing a Ric with toasters and a Ric with high gains and tell me I'm wrong. Or watch this:
[youtube][/youtube]