Rickenbacker 330/6

My 330 was built in Feb'09
Fireglo finish
2 Hi Gain PU's
Rosewood fingerboard
Maple body and neck
5 control layout
pickup selector
R tailpiece
24 frets
6 saddle bridge
standard jack
Schaller tuners
dual truss rods
standard molded case

It has that beautiful jingle-jangle sound. Bright. Clean. Rich/Full sound. It's a Rickenbacker. I also have a 360, they sound very similar. I play thru a Fender Champion 30 DSP, mostly blues, rock and jazz.

This was set up perfectly from the factory as was my 360. No flaws or blemishes. Fast neck, easy to play. All switches, controls, and pickups work great. No problems. The finish is also perfect. My 360 is in Mapleglo, and I thought, that was my favorite color until I got this 330 in Fireglo. WOW!!! Does it look great!!!!

As with all RICKS this guitar is solid. Very strong. Rickenbacker are the ultimate guitar builders. A great American family owned company. I would replace it if stolen. Beautiful chrome/nickel hardware. Beautiful sparkling finish. Rickenbackers are works of art.

I have always had great response when I've dealt with the company directly. Whether by phone, fax, or email. Very friendly, eager to please, they answer all questions I have had. Standard warranty "as long as you own the guitar" policy. Rickenbacker is a top notch company.

I have always wanted a Rickenbacker, now I have two. A 360 and now this 330. They are beautiful, well built, and great sounding guitars. Easy to play. I have 9 guitars now, (Strats, Tele, Gretsch, Phantom 6, Epiphone Elitist Les Paul) and these two RICKS are easily my favorites to play and own. I'm very proud to own these Rickenbackers from Santa Ana, CA. My next purchase a 350V63, 381V69.
I bought my Ricks, by the way, from Musicians Friend, they were in stock and at great prices. Check them out. You gotta own a Rickenbacker.

Mine is an '05 Fireglow.
No outstanding features other than this is the easiest guitar to play I have ever layed my hands on.
Very worry-free as well.
Strong case. No vibrato to throw tuning out of whack.
Semi-hollow body makes warming up without an amp a viable possibility.

The beatiful full chime is what I bought it for, and it can really also scream big time with a good tube amp, like a Traynor YCS50, though it's not really a heavy metal object, just a beautiful finely crafted wooden piece of art in that regard.
Very low hum levels

I bought mine used, some 5 years old, but it was beautifully set-up, and easily the most pleasant guitar I have ever played. Forced me to go back to all the other stuff I have and re-adjust everything.

I used to play some 45 years ago when I was a teen, but gave it up when university intervened and have just taken guitar up again after all this time.

The Ric is the Ferrari of rhythm guitars. My chubby arthritic fingers can actually easly do barre chords on this rig.

I would depend on this far more than the usual Chinese / Korean stuff we are getting fed nowadays, though admittedly at very attractive prices.

Sufficiently impressed to buy a 330/12 (very happy) as well.

Rics stay in tune well when all my other stuff has to be cranked back and forth constantly (I live on a lakefront property and now the heating season has begun).

Finish is over 5 years old and looks brand new.

Never has occasion to deal with them.

Played for a few years in my teens. 45 years later, taking it up again and it's nice to have the ability to buy the best and not have to deal with a no-name beginner guitar.

Also own Gretsch 5120, Godin LG90, Takamine 12 string, Ric 330-12. The Rics are head-and-shoulders above the others in terms of quality and fun.

I should also put a plug in for my Traynor YCS50 amp, which blows the Vox AC30 out of the water in terms of features, quality and reliability. It's the perfect Ric soul-mate.

This is a late 80's maple 330 6 string. fitted with treble and bass volume and tone controls along with a 'blend' control. Ive given this section 8/10, simply because nothing gets a 10, and the 'blend' is something of a waste of time. Everyone knows what these look like, so lets skip to the next catagory.

Its clean, very clean. If you want the ultimate 60 pop sounds, this will satisy your every whim.it is also quite passable for jazz as the neck pickup is really quite rich, but again, very clear. But thats about it. Regardless of what might be written by previously, imo, it doesnt work for either rock or blues. Country it gets by on, but even a decent Japanese Tele does it better, or, if youre lucky enough to find one, a good old Peavey Reactor,[the BEST Tele Fender never built]. I know others say it gives a thicker tone than a Tele, and it does, but it doesnt play like one and also, what about just altering the tone controls on your amp? What it does well is great, but due to its limitations, this catagory gets a 7/10.

The action is low low low.If like me, you have fairly stubby fingers, its an absolute joy to play, but I would imagine that all you arty types with long,slender digits could find the fretboard a touch cramped. I cannot fault the finish, but then again, Ive never been too fussy over such things, and an old band member always used to say you should choose a guitar with your eyes closed. Good advise and worth following, no point in spending a fortune on a beautifully bookmatched top, filler free guitar if it sounds no better than a Far Eastern copy.

Any guitar should stand 'live playing' - silly question, everything else has lasted almost 30 years, so yes, its dependable. The finish is still pretty good, but the maple has shaded down, but who wants a 30 year old guitar to look brand new. Rule 1: NEVER GIG WITHOUT A BACKUP, unless you know how to change a string in 10 seconds!

Probably very good, but never tried them.

Here's the boring stuff..been playing since Please Please Me came out and have owned more or less everything. I still have my Hofner President but after 30+ years, Ive reached the conclusion, that for my needs, a simple Telecaster is the best guitar available, and of those, the old Peavey Reactor is by far and away the best value for money. Install a set of good pickups in one and youve got a USA made Tele for around $450 - unbeatable. The Rickenbacker is a fine guitar, but imo, has its limitations in both tone and comfortable playing position, ie, Im not a great lover of larger bodied giutars, as I never feel that I can really 'dig into' them. It will neither get lost nor stolen, but in my house, it could very well get broken, so would I buy another one? Truthfully no. I once owned the Pete Townsend model which I sold, because, quite simply, despite all efforts, I couldnt convince Roger Daltry or John Entwhistle to join my band and again, after the honeymoon period, I recognised its limitations. Rule 2: Never buy a signature model, unless its your signature. If you want a Rickenbacker sound, then obviously get one of these, as nothing else does it, but just dont expect it to do everything, 'cause it don't.

Rickenbacker 330 12 string Fireglo 24 Fret Maple Semi-hollow body.USED AS A SIX STRING. Made in 2003. Four controls (2 volume and 2 tone). a "Blend" control. Two single coil pickups. Schaller tuners. Thin maple neck with a high gloss rosewood fingerboard.

Firstly, I'd like to say that I have played Gibsons, Fenders and assorted other guitars over the last 25-odd years and in my opinion, nothing comes close to the awesome tone of a Rickenbacker 330, modified or not. It IS versatile. It sparkles, It jangles, It's bright. It's warm. It's clean sound is amazing and despite what heavy rockers and those with vested interests will have you believe it CAN rock. Although it's not my forte, I have used a 330 in a grunge/rock context and it sounded brilliant (check out Fugazi).
I mainly use this 12 stringer as a 6 string guitar. I replaced the standard hi-gain pickups with Rickenbacker's vintage 7.4k "Toaster-Top" pickups and added a 0.0047 capacitor between the treble pickup and it's volume pot. I then installed Pyramid Gold Flatwound strings(11's). From a tone point of view, this is THE Rickenbacker sound - it nails The early Beatles/Who/Action sounds from the 60's and cranked up though a Laney VC30 (or a VOX AC30) sounds effortlessly like Weller's early Jam efforts. Used as a 12 string, it sounds almost identical to George Harrison's Rick 12 (not to mention Roger McGuinn's) I'm not saying that the new modern incarnations of the 330 or 360 sound bad but they do not sound completely like the 60's, 70's and 80's versions. The earlier Hi-gain pickups seem to sound warmer and far closer to Toasters in sound than the post 1990 Hi-gains (Did the earlier Hi-gains use alnico magnets?)

Not bad. Could be played straight out of the case. But needed slight adjustment.

Fantastic - very well built guitar with quality parts.

....! This is a shame. I haven't had to deal with them and from what I've seen and heard, I'm glad. I would personally have appreciated the Rickenbacker Corporation notifying it's customers of changes to the specs. Fender seem a lot more customer-friendly in that regard. It's this which has personally cost me a lot of money over the years.
Anyway, regardless of this I will always love Rickenbackers.

I have played Rickenbackers for 17 years and have owned quite a few modern and vintage 330/360 models and 450/620 solid-body models. I have read many of the reviews posted here and in my opinion, the new standard hi-gains (I'm talking post-1990) have way too much of that ceramic "Wasp in a jam jar" quality to them. When cranked up through a Vox AC30 or the like, they sound slightly like Weller in his Jam days but nowhere near the real thing. The original 1960's Rickenbackers had 7.4k Alnico "Toaster Top" pickups, and a 0.0047 capacitor between the Treble pickup and it's volume pot. Having said this all Ricks sound great in my opinion. Shame about the reputation of the company. Ethically, they should really try to work on customer care.

Mine was made in 2004 according to the RIC website. It's a lovely fireglo finish. It has the usual appointments - 2 volume knobs, 2 tone knobs, extra tone knob, three-way selector switch, 24-fret neck, 2 modern high gain pickups, floating bridge, floating "R" tailpiece. It also came with a hard shell case and guitar cloth. For mine, it's got all the features I want.

This guitar has tone, tone and more tone! I play it through a Laney VC-30, which can be a very bright combination, but reducing the treble setting on the amp tames this. My standard amp EQ settings are: Bass (9), Mid (6-7), Treble (3-4). With these settings, my 330 sounds absolutely awesome. I'm a fan of The Church, and Marty Willson-Piper in particular, and this setting nails his sound pretty much spot on. There's so much sweet jingle jangle to be had from this beastie, especially with sweeping arpeggios and open chords. Add a bit of delay and you're in U2 territory. Pump up the overdrive and hey presto - vintage Pete Townshend. A touch of chorus adds a different dimension to the sound. For a guitar with such a reputation for pop music, it's surprisingly ballsy when overdriven, but I guess Townshend could have told us that.

Just about everything was spot on when I picked it up. I bought it via the internet from Melbourne and had it shipped to Canberra (I wouldn't do this with too many other guitar companies, but Rickenbacker has a solid reputation for reliability and dependability). The only glitch I've had over the two years I've owned it is that a small piece of chrome finish fell off the "R" tailpiece about 3 months after I bought it. Apart from that it's been rock-solid and a joy to play. The finish is up to the usual Rickenbacker standard, ie. Fabulously glossy fireglo paint-job and a beautiful deep-looking finish. Did I mention I like my Rick a LOT?

This guitar will stand live playing at least as much as any other guitar I've played, broken strings etc. notwithstanding. Being a lefty, I normally have to supply my own backup guitar so if I play live, which I rarely do these days, I also drag along my Samick 335 clone. However I normally only use this either for a backup, heavy blues/rock numbers or occasionally for lead guitar. The Rick's finish will outlast me. Strap locks are standard, which is a a great idea, every guitar should have them as standard.

Never had to deal with 'em. Lucky me.

I've been playing guitar for about 25 years, but only in the last 10 or so years as a gigging guitarist. I play the 330 (or the Samick) through a Digitech RP-7 multi-FX pedal into the Laney VC-30 2x12 class A valve amp (which is also a great bit of gear!). This gives lots of flexibility to my sound.
The only gripe I have about the 330 is that it has a much narrower neck than any other electric guitar I've played. I find it quite hard to play lead on this guitar, especially bending strings, as I tend to bend them off the fretboard or into other strings. However after two years I'm getting used to the unorthodox neck setup.
I love the vibe it gives off every time I open the case and see it sitting there, waiting to be played. It's got a tone and a character all its own and I love it.
If it was lost, I'd look a right dill. If it was stolen, I would consider replacing it with a Telecaster (wider neck), but I'm not gonna let it get stolen either!

Built in 2007. Fireglo finish. Compared to recient fireglos, this guitar was painted darker. It has a much nicer finish that the ones painted in the past couple years. All the features I could ask for. I have been playing it for about a year. It is really a piece of art. Go to Rics web site to see the specs.

I really like the sound. It really cuts through compared to my PRS Hollowbody. I play it through a 50 watt Marshall JCM 800. The dark sound of my amp and the light sound of this guitar really make things special. I think with an amp that doesn't have a lot of tone, this guitar could sound too bright. I think a pick-up mod could solve this, but I don't want to go there b/c it works great with my amp.

Amazing action. Set the neck perfectly straight and use # 10 strings and you won't be dissapointed.

They are more solid than they look. It will shock you how this is built. This guitar is super durable and feels good on your shoulder.

No sure. Haven't had to use it.

Best guitar I own. I play it the most. Long scale is great. I would replace it if it were stolen after I crying for a couple days. I love this guitar. It is worth every penny I paid for it.

Rickenbacker 330 in MapleGlo, built in 2002. Standard features with hi-gain pick-ups. Not a feature-rich instrument, but it has it where it counts, in terms of tone & looks.

I am pretty much a rhythm player, who started on acoustic, and this guitar suits me well. I write and record lots of original music, from folky acoustic stuff, to big, epic rock songs, to jangly rock/pop songs, to power pop, to bombastic rock. This guitar is used for a lot of my jangly rock songs, as it has a very distinctive pop sound. I run it through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, either clean, or with a little bit of overdrive, with some compression and delay. When you have the sound dialed in, the notes seem to "pop out" at you, in a pleasing, full, and chimey way. This is usually achieved when both pick-ups are used. When used in this way, I find the guitar to have a fuller and "creamier" sound than a Fender, such as the Strat or Telecaster. I also like it on the bridge pick-up, but usually opt for both pick-ups. The main character of the 330's sound can also be heard unplugged. I do not play this guitar distorted, or move around alot on the guitar. I usually play it clean with lots of open-chorded jangle. Acrobatics are not the strength of this guitar. I also find this to be the perfect electric guitar for playing and singing solo. You can fill a whole room with that prestine Rickenbacker sparkle, as you sing your songs to your people.

Set-up was OK, but intonation was off. Had some trouble with the set-up, but once I took it to a capable guitar tech, it has been great - no fret buzz, action is set to medium, which I prefer. I did try to change to a wound G string, and was met with horror as I tried to re-intonate the G string. I found that I would have to take the whole bridge apart, and swap the springs, in order to move the G saddle far enough up. I ended up giving up on that, and going back to an unwound G. Regarding finish, nobody does it better than Rickenbacker. The MapleGlo is immaculate. It looks really handsome against the rosewood fretboard. I did get some green stuff forming at the end of the frets, under the lacquer, but I just scratched it off with my fingernail, and haven't looked back since.

This is a very sturdy and reliable guitar. It came with strap locks. It is just a workhorse. I have played the heck out of this guitar, and it is as great as the day it was set up. Nothing has changed.

For the price I paid, it is a fantastic value. However, prices are on the rise, so, get your's before they go too high ! Really, I just love the look, feel, and tuneful sound of this guitar. I also own a 360, and I really believe the 330 has a slight edge in sound, due to its body shape. It's fuller, and you can hear the difference acoustically. If it were lost or stolen, I would but a new 330MG, without question. I would also recommend the 330 to anyone who was looking to expand from acoustic to electric, and who was interested in getting a Rickenbacker.

Bought it used it's a 96 year model nearly unplayed as most are.
Fireglo, toaster pickups, no vibrato, single coil non-adjustable ceramic pickups. It's a throwback, like turn of the century violin kind of thing.
Ric should build a guitar that has more tone and can be played.
If Fender owned the company things would be better for it.
Just imagine.

C'mon now, what is all the fuss? You can remove tone from a guitar with EQ, but you can't add tone that isn't there. If you want the sound of a Ric then just EQ out all the tone below 1.6k and there you have it, what y'all like to call jangle. That's a polite word for thin tone. My Fender Jaguar is a lot like this tone save the alnico twang. So it certainly isn't the tone you need when you buy a Ric, for sure! Just try an A/B with your other guitars and use an EQ, you'll get "the tone" out of any guitar. But try to make the Ric sound like something else and it just isn't there. It's a single coil ceramic semi-hollow, say thin, sound. Are you seething yet? There is a reason very few use this guitar, it's not versatile enough for most folks. If you are playing one style and this hits it you can get by with it. Sure you say it can do country, but so can an Ibanez, or Gibson humbucker, it just doesn't have a Tele/steel like twang sound tho. I'm going to put some humbuckers or P-90s in there and see what I get, got to be an improvement (naw, I won't). If you have ever run a big mixing board and had a lot of effect inserts to play with when mixing down, you should know what I am talking about. The guitar is unique , but not necessary for it's tone alone. I can get that tone if I need to, and the same tone on any guitar amp running it through an EQ.

Straight neck, no sharp frets, no buzzing, low action. I don't care for the layout, there isn't much room for palm muting. The pickups get tapped by the pick and they can't be lowered. For the fit and finish it's great, for the old timey design it gets points off. But for the look.
The look of the guitar is everything here. It is truly a beautiful guitar to be seen playing and that is why I own it. The name and the look.
You really can't fault me for that, I can put up with the rest. It's like a woman, you have to accept the things you can't change to get the things you wouldn't.

Strong and heavy for a semi-hollow. It seems to be as tough as a Fender, well maybe not that tough.

Bought it used.

I had to have one, and I love it. It is very beautiful and I play it.
It is easy to play just no room for palm muting. Other people think it is a god, not me. "The tone" is way over rated. This is an old old design, not everything old is great. If it weren't for the Byrds and the Beatles I doubt if Rickenbacker would be in business today. If Fender owned this company they could do wonders. Get real. Other than that for what it is, it's cool, has a history and people love it.

This is the typical factory spec 330 we're all familiar with in Fireglo with hi-gain pickups made in Sana Ana, CA. It has to be said that rickenbacker finishes are amazing. Truly a piece of art and craftsmen technique. Just pull it out of the case and people start to stare, fellow musicians nod in affirmation and the uninitiated wonder if you just came out of the mothership . . . seriously cool.

I play mostly ambient guitar with a bit of jazz/country thrown in for fun, but usually along the lines u2, lanois, frissell, marty wilson piper to radiohead and bruce cockburn. For years I had wanted a ric, especially a 330/12 but, a deal came up on this 330/6 and I figured why not go for it and get used to the RIC ethos until I can afford a 330/12? The moment I plugged it in (to a basic fender blues jr.) it was there, that tone that only comes out of a Ric. Rics are really a different breed, and having been a fender player for so long, it takes a bit to recalibrate your technique, but the reward is that shimmering clean bitting tone that is so jangly lush. In my opinion the neck seems quite fast and the action is set low enough. At first I found myself ending up a couple of frets off when not looking, but 24 frets is actually a pretty intersting difference from 21. THough it is 24.75 it doesn't feel like it, the slack you feel on a gibson, the elastcity in the scale isn;t as apparent, maybe due to the 24frets? The controls are responsive and the high-gains have punch while retaining the jangle. The 5th knob for mix/roll off is really handy and the range of variations tonally is far greater than I had anticipated. Unlike the toasters, highgains are able to put out some significant bass, great for a 6 string but I can see why toasters are considered best on a 12. If you are a clean player this is the holy grail and with an overdrive pedal in front it can be quite agressive as well. This guitar is so complimentary to compression delay and reverb and effects in general. My full fx setup is:

Startouch A/B - DOD FX15 Bi-Fet pre - George Dennis Volume - Trace Elliot EQ - MXR DynoCOmp - Boss SD-1(japan) - Sabine Fuzztortion - Boss CE-20 - Danelectro Tuna Melt - Snarling DogS VeriTone - Korg SDD-2000 - Yamaha D1500 - Boss RV-70

Overall, the guitar was in great condition from the factory. Pickup alligment, adjustment, solid knobs, no construction issues. However, the neck had a pretty nasty kink in it halfway down the neck on the treble side causing the intonation to wane in the upper registers and even fret out. Even with this issue, it still stayed in tune like crazy and it feels so solid. I took it to a luthier to get it setup but after tweaking the rods in the neck a bit he said he didn't want to go much further without the neck responding and recommended sending it back to RIC under the warranty. Disappointed, I sent her back. Kenny at Ric was totally accomodating and professional. I sent it back, they adjusted it back to factory specs and sent her back to me in perfect condition with no buzzes, perfect intonaiton and it could be played all the way up to the 24th fret! THat cost $20, and that was for shipping. What can I say, the get the job done and stand by their product. IT would easily cost 50-100 to have it set up similarly by a tech or luthier!

The wood on my 330 is not flamey or birdseyed, but it does have a nice grain to it and is very resonant. The top and back are well matched and the neck looks great. Tuners are fantastic and the nut is cut very well contibuting to its tuning stability.

As semi-hollows go, Rickenbackers are built like tanks. I once nearly bought a Hofner Verything Classic, but it just seemed so dainty. I am not a wild player and am probably too careful with my guitars sometimes, but the verythin looked as though even I could have easily damaged it. The 330 is very sturdy, very reliable and for those of us not consistently playing to thousands in a new city every night, a backup is unnecessary. Check out the ric site to see how they are made and you'll get it.

As Stated above, Kenny was brilliant. Totally patient and never treated me like another number. Good people.

I've been playing for 18 years. Have had an American Standard strat, an Epi Elitist '61 SG, Epi Dot Studio and currenty have the Ric 330 and a G&L ASAT Semi-hollow with bigsby that I also love and a Taylor 310 and 414.

I would or should I say will buy another Rickenbacker in the future. Probably a 12 string. For me the Ric is a unique instrument with a distinctive yet versatile tone that can't be replicated by any other guitar. Perhaps a Les Paul or similar humbucking guitar would help roundout my palette in the future, but it is the 330 and ASAT that bring a smile to my face right now.

My guitar is a 2003 Fireglo Model. It has all the usual appointments for a Rickenbacker 330 - Semi solid maple construction, Hi-gain single coil pickups, laminated fretboard, 'R' Tailpiece. Also has an excellent bespoke hard case complete with Allen Keys for truss rod adjustment, a manual to explain what the controls do and how to look after your guitar. I believe you also get a special cloth for looking after the finish, althought his was missing from the guitar when I bought it second hand.

Certainly the best package for a guitar I've ever seen 'ou-of-the-box' (as mine's not that old, I assume the deal hasn't changed much). Gonna give it a 10.

Prior to buying the Ricky, I'd used a Gibson Les Paul Deluxe for 7 years, and decided it was time to go for something completely different and in the opposite direction, hence the Rickenbacker. I didn't really know what to expect before I got it, I knew that they were of course used by the Beatles, other Psychadelic bands like the Byrds and also the Jam.

Rightly or wrongly, Rics are thought of more for their 'Jangly' rhythm guitar work. If you're doing your research, you'll certainly find plenty of references to this. Personally, I like to play a lot of bluesy lead work, so I didn't really know what to expect. I was very pleasantly surprised! Using the bridge pickup, you get a great almost country sound (using light to medium distortion) and a jazzy sound from the neck pickup. My favourite combination is an 'in between' pickup sound with the volume of the neck rolled off slightly. You can get a really cool bluesy honk from these settings that reminded me of a Gibson ES-335. Sure, it's got a brighter sound because of the maple, but with the contruction being along similar lines there are parrallels with the sound.

Of course you can get great chord sounds - not quite the same jangle you'd get with with a 12 string, but it's still there. The boomy psychadelic chords are all there, with such a creamy sound to them. Stabby chord work a la the Jam is of course possible, but I don't think the 330 works well with heavy distortion, unless you want an especially off the wall sound. Works well with Marshall type settings (unless heavily distorted) but it's not the kind of guitar you'd pair up with a Mesa/Boogie Dual Recitifier. I use Vox/Fender type settings for the majority of the recordings I do.

I am in love with the sound of the Ric - i'm going to give it a 10 because it's so goo, but don't forget I have another guitar for the heavy stuff - maybe I wouldnt score so high if I had to try and do everything on the 330.

My guitar was a couple of years out of the facotry when I picked it up from ebay. Other than a couple of scratches in very hard to find places, a quick cleanup made me see that this guitar is a work of art. To each his own with the finishes, but fireglo is the one i'd always go for, with maybe mapleglo as an alternative. It has a deep gloss shine with the grain of the wood visible beneath, and on the revese of the headstock and neck, there's a clear contrast between the different pices of wood wich gives a lovely striped effect (you can see this on the front of the headstock).

Action etc was all fine, I'm guessing this is how it left the factory from what I gathered from the previous owner. The neck is quite thin, which really suits me as i don't have especially long fingers. You do occasionally hear people complain about this, but I don't know if thats because it might make things a bit cramped on the /12 version. Personally, the ease of playing certainly took my lead playing to a whole new level, and with such easy access to the upper frets, its possible to get some really high sounding phrases with this guitar.

When I got the guitar, it had .09s on. I've since gone to .10s and might even go a stage higer, just for a stornger tone. I've also found that heavier strings, while harder to deal with at first, actually make me play much better.

Can't fault the guitar on this section either, so another 10.

Rickenbacker seem to be the only company who make guitars to a decent quality these days - why should you pay more than three times the normal price for a custom shop model when in the old days everyone got a decent guitar? Rickenbacker are still a privately owned family firm, and with no-shareholders to satisfy, it seems they've realised that reputation, quality and attention to detail are more important than squeezing every last penny out of a factory.

I'm sure the Ric would be fine live, although I haven't used it yet in a live situation (I record at home these days). Harware all seems fine, and the FF straplocks are a welcome feature. Old Ric's seem to go on forever, so there's no reason why this shouldnt. Not gonna rate this one though, only time will tell.

The Ric website has got a great forum thats alive with fans of the marque. Ask a question on here and you might get a response from the CEO or one of the other staff at the company - I don't know anywhere else where that happens! Not likely to use them in a "my guitar is knackered, what are you gonna do?" capacity, but people who do seem to be well treated. However, if you do have a problem with your Ric, it would be better to find better ways to deal with the problem that posting a message on there forum saying "Mr Hall, I don't like my guitar, what are YOU going to do about it" etc...

Been playing for 9 years, Having quickly gone through some budget stuff I played a Gibson Les Paul deluxe for years until i got the Ric. The Ric has taken over as the guitar I go for straight away, and it's been used on most of my recordings almost exclusively since I got it. It's just a real friendly guitar, you just pick it up and play.

I can't really explain enough how much I love this guitar - if it were stolen I would buy another, although I might go for a 360 for no other reason than it just looks a bit different. Like most other people who play Rics, one is never enough, so I definitely want to get a 4003 bass and eityher a 330/12 or 360/12 at some point.