Rickenbacker guitar knowledge

[Song80s]

http://www.rickenbacker.com

 

I have a some interest in their 12 string. Once again, I am stuck in the 60's.

 

I see high prices $2000, $3000 for new.

 

Sweet water coyly hides their prices- my wild guess is they heavily discount them if a buyer is serious.

 

I occasionally see stupid high prices on my local craigsList. Typical gouging possibly.

I refuse to bother with fleaBay.

 

Anyway, would be helpful if I could glean wisdom from the forum.

In terms of current quality and guidance on fair price, etc.

 

Thank you !

 

[p90jr]

They're not cheap. I do know people who've happened upon them for between $350-$1500 by sheer dumb luck.

 

I would've ponied up for one because I play electric 12 string in a bunch of acts, but the necks are too small for me to play comfortably... I play a Charvel Surfcaster 12 and a Danelectro 12, instead. I've heard the 660 model is the one made with a wider neck for bigger hands... and they seem to be even harder to come by and more expensive.

[p90jr]

Rics are Rics. They don't just blast them out of the factory by the tens of thousands a year so they're very consistent, quality-wise. It's a niche instrument, really. I wanted one badly as a kid because my heroes played them... came upon a 330 when I was 17 or so for $350 in a pawn shop and was crushed to not take to it... my hands were already just to big, but I would've gotten it anyway if I had the money, but I would've had to sell the only guitar I had - a great playing Yamaha SC400 - to get it, and I realized the Ric wouldn't cover everything I was playing at the time... BUT I WOULD'VE LOOKED SO COOL!!!

 

A few years later I did pick up a '68 Ric 4001 bass from the same pawn shop for $220, and I played that for a few years in bands, to everyone's envy.

[Winston Psmith]

http://www.rickenbacker.com

 

I have a some interest in their 12 string. Once again, I am stuck in the 60's.

 

I see high prices $2000, $3000 for new.

 

Sweet water coyly hides their prices- my wild guess is they heavily discount them if a buyer is serious.

 

I occasionally see stupid high prices on my local craigsList. Typical gouging possibly.

I refuse to bother with fleaBay.

 

Anyway, would be helpful if I could glean wisdom from the forum.

In terms of current quality and guidance on fair price, etc.

 

Thank you !

 

My first recommendation is that you find one somewhere that you can sit down with. As p90jr says, "Rics are Rics"; they're idiosyncratic. Narrow, 24-fret necks, double truss rods, and the arrangement of the Octave strings on the Ric 12 is reversed; takes a little getting used to.

 

OTOH, nothing else quite sounds like one, and if that's the sound you're after, "close enough for Rock'n'Roll" may not do it for you. I'd also say to buy new, as you'll want the full warranty and customer support with something this expensive, and this quirky. Sweetwater offers a very good warranty of their own, but I've heard they also charge a re-stocking fee for returns.

 

I had a 6-string Ric in the early 90's for a while; liked it, but didn't love it, however, I was really going for a very different sound. In terms of playability and build quality, I found nothing to fault it. Compared to current prices for many Gibson models, $2000 isn't altogether unreasonable for a quality, U.S.-made Guitar.

[Song80s]

Excellent advice, guys, much appreciated.

 

I am planning some hands on in the next 2 months.

Its for my home studio and to make my original material more unique.

 

I am not opposed to $2000 for a quality instrument. I am a long term owner, not

a flipper.

[p90jr]

I needed the Ric sound for some gigs but even though I borrowed Rics I sounded awful trying to play them standing up...

 

My solution? Well, what we think of as the "classic Ric sound" is mostly studio compression, so the Janglebox compressor gets me there... but I also picked up one of the budget Gretsch Electromatic Pro Jet guitars from a kid for $200 and replaced the awful pickups in it with GFS New Yorkers, their take on DeArmond/Guild pickups which in turn are very similar to the single coil Ric pickups... and that guitar through the Janglebox sounds just like the Rics on Beatles. Who, R.E.M. records! I have to say, though, I hate playing that guitar, too... it's way too heavy and I don't take to it for some reason... oh well.

 

The Janglebox makes the Danelectro and the Charvel Surfcaster (which itself has a pull pot on the tone to make it more Ric-sounding) sound just like McGuinn and Harrison's Ric 12s. The guy I bought the Dano from had strung it like a Ric with the octave strings second, and I kept it that way for years... but considering the Janglebox adds a treble boost and compresses things so that the octave strings are as loud as the normal ones I doesn't seem that much different to me. When I did solo, which I do a lot of the 12s in the acts I play it in, half the time you didn't hear the octave strings when it was strung that way, something McGuinn didn't have to worry about with his fingerpicks and the upstrokes they necessitate.

 

But look into the Janglebox if you get a Ric. It's the next best thing to tracking down the studio compressors Harrison and McGuinn plugged into...

[p90jr]

[video:youtube]

[Song80s]

[video:youtube]

 

Love that Rick sound.

 

I have recorded 40+ originals and lean on a variety FX all the time.

 

I don't like the Jangle Box- at least per this demo.

 

I would use a mix of other FX for my ' signature' Rick sound.

 

I def agree with your central point with compression and other studio based

FX

 

[picker]

I had a Rickenbacker 330 for a while, and I didn't like it above the 5th fret. Their necks don't widen out as you go up the neck, and playing single note stuff on it above the key of A was uncomfortable to me. But it did have some nice sounds in it.

[Dannyalcatraz]

I used to want to buy a Ric 12 for the longest time. Then I found these:

 

[video:youtube]

 

[video:youtube]

 

Havent bought either one, but theyre both good enough for me. So its only a matter of time.

[Bartholomew]

Had one in the Sixties but gave it back. Found it too hard to play on stage - almost gave me hand cramps.

 

Probably not set-up very well but even so it isn't hard to adjust a bridge...

 

Ended up with the same Fender Jaguar electric 12 that Herb Alpert's guy used, wish I still had it...collector item now I guess. Ric sounded better but killed my hands.

[p90jr]

I'm itching for one of these...

 

http://www.banningguitars.com/Heartbreaker%20blue%203.jpg

 

https://www.banningguitars.com/the-heart-breaker

[Song80s]

I used to want to buy a Ric 12 for the longest time. Then I found these:

 

 

[video:youtube]

 

Havent bought either one, but theyre both good enough for me. So its only a matter of time.

 

https://www.reverendguitars.com/guitars/airwave-12-string

 

I like that Rev Airwave. Has good flexibility, something I did not consider.

 

$1k- price is reasonable, I think

[Scott Fraser]

As cool as the Ric 12 is, (and in my book, they are extremely cool, if for no reason other than the first Byrds album) I have found them nearly unplayable. It's as if I've never played guitar before when I pick one up. But so cool.

[p90jr]

As cool as the Ric 12 is, (and in my book, they are extremely cool, if for no reason other than the first Byrds album) I have found them nearly unplayable. It's as if I've never played guitar before when I pick one up. But so cool.

 

The great mystery is why have they never sought to expand their market by offering other neck profiles?

[p90jr]

I used to want to buy a Ric 12 for the longest time. Then I found these:

 

 

[video:youtube]

 

Havent bought either one, but theyre both good enough for me. So its only a matter of time.

 

https://www.reverendguitars.com/guitars/airwave-12-string

 

I like that Rev Airwave. Has good flexibility, something I did not consider.

 

$1k- price is reasonable, I think

 

The search to supplement my Dano 12 let me to an actual overload of choices, surprisingly...

 

Eastwood has a few different models, Fender Japan is again offering 12 string Strats (news of which nudged down the price of recent used models), Hagstrom, Guild, Dean has an ES-175 type electric 12 with a piezo bridge for acoustic sounds... The Reverend Airwave was winning but I impulsively bought an early '90s Charvel Surfcaster 12 that popped up.

[p90jr]

and on the cheap end (as in can be had for $112 or so if you hit eBay at the right time) there's Cozart 12 string Strats and Teles... if you're willing to have a little fret finishing work done and put your preferred pickups into them, people say it's an incredible value.

[p90jr]

I also lust after guitars used by Tim Rogers of You Am I and Ian Haug of The Church made by Australian luthier Piers Crocker (called "Crockenbackers")...

 

http://jedistar.com/images/August17/crockenbacker_red_guitar.jpg

 

http://www.effectsbay.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/the-church-ian-haug.jpg

[p90jr]

And someone did give me a line on a guy in Texas who will build you a Ric-alike with your preferred neck profile...

[Song80s]

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/msg/d/rickenbaker-331ls-12-string/6754136614.html

 

and only $3500

 

must be a nice light show

[p90jr]

The original (late 60s) versions of that model that have turned up go for $10,000+

 

I think McGuinn used one on one of the last Byrds tours a bit.

[p90jr]

Ah, it's a homemade conversion...

[Song80s]

I think so. I wasn't aware of Rickenbacher making a day-glow version

[Dannyalcatraz]

Id commission something from Visionary instead.

http://www.visionaryinstruments.com

[whitefang]

I don't know how, or why, but I recall that the belief was that Rickenbackers were noted to be best for RHYTHM guitars. I couldn't figure that out. But that was back in the day when it was believed certain brands of cigarettes would make you STERILE, and that many idiots equated sterile with impotent!

 

Never(yet) had the opportunity nor pleasure to PLAY a Rickenbacker, but they still( for me) aesthetically hold their allure for me.

But too, never in a position money-wise to arbitrarily run out and buy guitars whenever it pleased me, I'd have some hard choosing to make if that opportunity ever availed itself.

Whitefang

[p90jr]

The necks are difficult to play solos on... I've been surprised seeing Mike Campbell and an old clip of Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown ripping away leads on them and sounding great.

 

Aesthetically they are beautiful. They also come down hard, legally, on anybody who mass produces copies or replicas.

 

Dennis Fano has used a lot of the Ric aesthetic in some of his designs, especially the Rivolta Combinata model he partners with Eastwood on...

 

http://rivoltaguitars.com/combinata/

 

http://rivoltaguitars.com/wp-content/uploads/Combinata-Deluxe-Burst.jpg

 

Those P90s could probably be swapped for Ric single coils if you wanted... and the way Eastwood works, if you suggested a 12 string model they'd probably put it up for a kickstarter campaign to guage interest on whether to put them into production.

[Mark Schmieder]

Once I get it back from setup work for flatwound strings, I am expecting my new Danelectro 12-string to be the most Rick-like of the three (with the Gretsch a close second; the Hagstrom Viking 12-string is too hot-wound with its humbuckers to really work well for vintage sounds).

[Song80s]

Once I get it back from setup work for flatwound strings, I am expecting my new Danelectro 12-string to be the most Rick-like of the three (with the Gretsch a close second; the Hagstrom Viking 12-string is too hot-wound with its humbuckers to really work well for vintage sounds).

 

I see the Dan 12 string gets praise.

 

Then again, I circle back to:

[video:youtube]

 

Plus, I am impressed by AC15CH head.