Rickenbackers?

CROSS

Does anyone own a Rickenbacker? I was thinking of installing a Rickenbacker Bridge and pickups to my next project. What do they sound like and how well do they play? What's the bridge like?

Mustang-Pete

Rickenbackers are AMAZING! They have one of the biggest tone ranges of any guitar (especially ones with 3 toaster pickups). However, more modern Rickenbackers that I've played do have quite chunky necks, but older ones play like a dream.

tragictravisty

not much information on their pickups, mind shedding some light on that? are they standard humbucker sized?

Fran

Great clean sounds but i dont like the necks. They seem false or 'plasticy' with really heavy varnish.

tremolo

i like the sound of a good clean rickenbacker...though they are really one trick pony guitars, and it is that clean jangly sound they trick, but they trick it better than anything else.

Mustang-Pete

someone said: Pickups
Rickenbacker manufactures three distinct pickups for their current standard models: Hi-gain, Vintage Single Coil Toaster Top, and Humbucking. All three pickup designs share the same footprint, allowing them to retrofit into most current or vintage models.
Most models come with single-coil Hi-gain pickups as standard equipment. Many post-British invasion Rickenbacker players such as Peter Buck, Paul Weller, and Johnny Marr have used instruments with these pickups. Rickenbacker's humbucker/dual coil pickup has a similar tone to a Gibson P-90 pickup, and comes standard on the Rickenbacker 650 C. The pickup itself is also available for purchase at Rickenbacker's online boutique. Vintage reissue models, and some signature models, come with Toaster Top pickups, which resemble a classic two-slotted chrome toaster. Despite their slightly lower output, "Toasters" produce a brighter, cleaner sound, and are generally seen as key to obtaining the true British Invasion guitar tone, as they were original equipment of the era.
Within the Toasters, there are four subgroups based on impedance and time of release. The original pickups were used from approximately 1956 to 1968 (although 4001 models continued to use the Toaster for a neck pickup until around July of 1973). Later came the Vintage Reissue pickups of the mid-1980s and 90s; with approximately 12 kilo-ohms of resistance, they had a similar impedance and sound to the high-gains, and are seen by many to be strictly for aesthetic purposes. In the late 1990s, more accurate, scatterwound pickups were made, with about 7.5 kilo-ohms of resistance, closer to the originals. The final group are found only on 325C58 models, and are designed to replicate the toasters of the 1950s, with about 5 kilo-ohms of resistance.
In addition to the standard pickups, some vintage reissue bass models are equipped with Horseshoe wrap-around style pickups, very similar to the pickups on the earliest Rickenbacker Frying Pan models.

This is from Wikipedia

Robbmonster

I just know Rickenbacker's from the Beatles.

Their music was incredible, but the guitars didnt call attention to themselves very often. I guess that is a good thing

bob

tremolo said: i like the sound of a good clean rickenbacker...though** they are really one trick pony guitars**, and it is that clean jangly sound they trick, but they trick it better than anything else.

I assume you've never owned one? That statement is far from the truth.

tremolo

bob said: I assume you've never owned one? That statement is far from the truth.

that's my impression after spending a couple of hours with one and i'm sticking to it.

i know andy bell from ride took one through a bunch of effects and what have you, and their early albums sound amazing...i just wasn't able to get anything special out of it except the clean.

so my bottom line...if i wanted to play clean jangly pop i would own one...but i don't so i prefer the fenders.

tremolo

also...neil halstead did some pretty amazing things while in slowdive with a rickenbacker....in anything but clean.

so instead of retracting my statement...i'll just say that distorted or dirty....i did not think the rickenbacker added anything that i could not get from one of my fenders, but far surpassed the fenders on the clean scale.

Fran

Mark Gardener and Andy Bell of 'Ride' went onto Rickenbackers as well. Imo they lost their edge with it too.

tremolo

Fran said: Mark Gardener and Andy Bell of 'Ride' went onto Rickenbackers as well. Imo they lost their edge with it too.

i knew AB was using one as late as Going Blank Again, but I guess MG picked one up as well pre-Carnival of Light...

proof and continuing retro week.....although bell is rocking a les paul...no comment 😠

Fran

Bah...

This is more like it!

tremolo

Fran said: Bah...
This is more like it!

agreed. as is this:

Fran

Nice one. 😎

tremolo

here is another ex:

tremolo

deleted....wrong thread...my bad

zontar

They do have a cool tone, but what I don't like about them is the varnished fingerboard-even rosewood boards are varnished-I like to feel wood beneath my fingers.

I'd have to find one without a varnished board--or unvarnish it myself.

Unless it was a bass.

Codog

I was also curious about rickenbacker, i wanna try one out. I found this page on the net about the Beatles rickenbackers, its pretty interesting.

http://www.rickbeat.com/beatles/beatles.htm