Rickenbacker 360

standard fireglo, maybe 2003 bought new.
payed it a lot, but it deserves every penny.

I never had a guitar in my hand that sounded and seemed so classy...believe the hype : this one can do everything.
can chime and sparkle, when you strum or in arpeggios (that is absolutely the thing to do with this axe), and if it's distorted entering in a cranked my vox AC-30 (the natural partner) it's the most beautiful crunch I have ever heard.
no, the most beautiful is when I kick my bigmuff...people's jaws drop down when they hear what kind of fury this thing can produce.
it's a semi-hollow, and that means you can get feedback very easily...controlled, musical, feedback !
the guitar it's not as noisy as the strat I sold 1 year ago.
the only downside is that it has not an uber-long sustain, not like a les paul...until you jump on your bigmuff, or TS, or anything else and then the problem is solved.
closing the tones-a bit, not completely-gives you some woody, nice jazzy tone.
amazing versatility.
another pro : it's seems like this guitar makes ready-to-be -recorded tones...already compressed, know what I mean ? they cut thru the mix !

the finish, intonation, and everything was PERFECT.
the case was perfect.
I plan to put locking tuners on, but not to solve any tuning stability issue...it has not, stays in tuning perfectly...it's just that I'm a lazy guy, and I think I will change string more often, if I put them on.

I have it from 2005 circa.
it looks brand new.

I needed no support.

gosh ! it's already twenty years of playing ?..ehhh, time flies.
never been a pro for a single day in my life, but I made records,I made european tours, I played a lot of guitars, and I can say that this is among the best of them.
if it was stolen, I would meditate suicide -or homicide, if I knew who stole it.
I play a music that can be associated to the guitar, like middle-beatles, byrds and, when it gets harder, the who.
you can check it at www.myspace.com/philomankindband.
in our last recording session, we had two strats, with the much , deservedly, hyped woodoo pick ups,and this, plugged stereo in a bassman 135 and an AC30.
we used the strats for all songs except one, that needed a harder hard rock sound...well, that's the only really, really fantastic sound we got. we could have used it for the whole tracklist !

My Rick was built in March '09
Mapleglo Finish
2 Hi Gain P.U.
rosewood fingerboard
5 control layout (2-V 2-T, 1 Blend)
pickup selector
24 frets
maple body
maple neck
Schaller tuners
R tailpiece
bound body and neck
dual truss rods
standard jack
stereo Ric-0-Sound jack
standard molded case
triangle fretmarkers
6 saddle bridge

What can you say about the sound? It's a Rickenbacker.
It has that famous chimey, jingle-jangle. Bright and alive.
Nothing quite sounds like a Rick. I play thru a Fender Champion
30 DSP. I play blues and rock, but, you can play anything on this guitar.

My Rick was set up perfectly from the factory. I didn't have to do anything, just take it out and plug it in. No flaws, or blemishes. It has that beautiful mapleglo finish. The Chrome\Nickel hardware shines. Fast, easy to play neck, I like the triangle fretmarkers. Look sharp. All controls, pick-ups, switches work great.

This guitar is built like a tank. Solid as a rock. Rickenbacker is a family owned and operated company that takes pride in their works of art. They have been builting first class instruments for 78 years. They are America's best guitar company. This guitar is built to last, will probably outlast me. The Mapleglo finish is terrific, it along with their Fireglo finish helped put the company on the map. 2 Outstanding colors. I would replace if stolen, it's not leaving my sight.

I have contacted the company by phone and email several times for general questions and have always found them, friendly, helpful and eager to satisfy. The warranty is the standard "long as you own the guitar" contract.I would have to search around, I would think, to get repairs done, only a couple of dealers in this state.

I have always wanted to own a Rickenbacker, since I first saw John Lennon play one on Ed Sullivan in '64. I have been playing guitar since then. I have Fender, Gretsch, Epiphone, Phantom guitars (8 in all). This Rickenbacker is something special. Rickenbacker is a special American company. They build beautiful looking and sounding instruments. When guitar companies are having their guitars built overseas to save a buck. Rickenbacker keeps turning out theirs from Santa Ana-California, USA. I'm so proud to own one.
By the way, my next purchase will be a 330 in Fireglo.

1993 Fireglow, 2 volume, 2 tone, 1 blend. 2 outputs, one standard and one "Ric-o-sound" stereo output. Schaller tuners, double truss rod. This is one stunningly beautiful guitar, people who aren't into guitars gasp when I crack the case open. Strats and Les Pauls don't have quite the same impact.

It has a unique sound, its a big part of the appeal. You want chime and jangle, you need a Rickenbacker. Its one of the most tonally complex electric guitars I've ever played. Harmonically rich, just gorgeous clean sound but also sounds fantastic overdriven.

This is my second Rickenbacker, both had intonation problems. On both guitars I have removed the springs behind the low E and the G string because I couldn't get the saddle back far enough to intone the string properly. Before that I was constantly retuning and never feeling like it was tuned properly. Very annoying. The action is slick all the way up the neck, very very sweet playing guitar, although the neck not very wide.

It feels solid, its just so beautiful that I don't really want it to get into potentially damaging situations with drunk people. That's what Squiers are for.

nice website, always bought older and used, never thought of calling them up

Been playing for over 30 years. I sold my 330 a few years ago and had seller's remorse since. This 360 came my way this week and I will never let it go. Right now I've got a Reverend Manta, Gibson SG, Tele 52 Reissue, Tokai Strat, Gretsch 5120, and now the Ric 360. If I could only keep one, this would be it. I have a deep emotional attachment to this guitar, I think my wife suspects something...

2002 360 - with the standard high gain PUs, 24 fret. has ric-o-sound
( don't use it) , German Shallers, - the whole thing is stock other than a pro set-up years ago. Sometimes I miss a bigsby but I'd never change this

Here is how you make it sound rating a "6 or 7 " - plug it into some boutique Klon, Fulltone, analogman pedals than to an AC15, AC30, DC30, Lightning, Twin, marshall, bassman, mesa, Dr Z or anything else rated at more than about 10 watts RMS. With these amps in small clubs you get the volume up to maybe "3" at best - then you wonder " where is the magic Ric tone?

Hear is how you make it sound rating at "10" ( the way I eventually learned to find the magic ) - plug it directly into a non master volume 7.5 watt EL84 amp and turn the amp up to 3/4 full volume - then use the guitar volume knobs - then you smile.

This guitar moved me away from strats, teles, LPs and aeverything else once I figured this out. Also pedals are silly with a ric. they give pre-amp distortion ( no magic ) - but at < 10 watts you get the power tube saturation - then you get the roar and the wonderful ringing tone. Then you sell your solid bodies and matchless amps and silly $400 pedals. This is how it went with me. Those big amps would be ok for outdoors or big halls I guess. I have played 40 yrs and owned too many guitars and played big amps for WAY too long. The 360 taught me that guitar straight to amp with no pedals and using guitar tone and volume knobs is the way to go. I play in a cover band - lots of campy dance stuff people love - 60s R+B, poprock, AC/DC, beatles , maroon 5 , etc - My favorite moment is when a 20-30 y/o LP, strat,marshall player hears that ric though an amp turned up and their jaw drops... ALL kinds of music sounds just awesome.

There was a transition period of moving from years of rosewood, ebony and maple boards to the laminated board of the 360 but and after a few months I loved it. Obviously rics are rhythm monsters but lead playing grew on me and the bends are smooth ( even compared to old brazilian boards). Intonation is dead on - and tuning stability is absolutely the best of any guitar I have owned - which is wierd - no locking tuners. lubricating the nut and saddles does make a difference. For me it plays better with the bridge cover off - better right hand muting and position. Another wierd thing happened with the 360 - I found myself using thinner picks ( 0.60 mm ) - they just work right. There is maybe one thing I might change - I really liked the slightly wider neck width on my 660 that I had 10 years ago. I think the Carl Wilson model had this wider neck - would be fun to try it. Also I'm not sure the strap locks are needed - but no big deal. Another big deal is how nice 360s lay on your shoulders - they just feel right. 4 hours is ok with these - I don't miss those 8-10 pound solid bodies

No problems - I do bring a back-up - strings start to break after 3 weeks on teles and strats - longer on the ric.

I don't know.

I am thrilled with it. It is a refreshing 3 dimensional tone compared to years of those other typical guitars and amps. I get lots of positive comments. The hi gain PUs are part of the deal. My 660 had the vintage toasters - toasters are nice and jangly - but you can never get the growl - I sold my 660 - this was an eye catcher tho - really held value.
The only tone that comes close to making me this happy are Casinos. - the P90s + true hollowbody does growl like a ric - but you don't get that ringing sound with a casino. There is nothing like the sound of a low output amp turned up and unmiked - and this is it. The amp that works right for me is an English Gibson GA15 - 3 simple knobs ( in triode - 7.5 watt mode ) it's interesting - paid $400 for this used about 7 years ago ( out of production)- not handwired - NOT "boutique" and I have sold my bad cat, lightning and will probably let my old AC15 go too. Probably other 5-10 watt amps would be right - but probably needs to be an EL84 amp.

2 pickups

fireglo finish

24 frets

typical rick 360

I bought this 1989 Rick on ebay about 5 years ago. Both pickups were shot and did not work. The finish was cracked and chipping all over the guitar. A real relic that had been played hard its whole life for sure.

I tried every pickup Rickenbacker had to offer and settled on a Rick humbucker in the bridge position and a Rick toaster in the neck position. I use the stereo "Rickosound" out. The neck (toaster)pickup goes into a modern Orange ad30 head and the Bridge (humbucker)pickup goes to a vintage Sound City 50 plus head, then both heads go out to a stereo wired 4x12 Orange cab. Its all power! sounds amazing! Everything from Metal to Country and all the rest.

i play in a band that is kinda hard to describe -floyd/jesus lizard-just simple dynamic rock music.(www.myspace.com/thepoleslive)

This guitar is just a joy to play. Its pretty much the only guitar i can play now. Im in love. head over heals. But it was not love at first sight or play, it took time. Slowly building a relationship. It took me a long time to fall for this guitar, i owned it about a year before she started really sinking her teeth into me.

The action on the guitar is so low and easy to play its silly. No buzz. No dead freats. perfect tone on every string and every fret all the way up the neck, all 24 frets.

As i stated this guitar was pretty beat up when i received it. finish cracking all over the body. Large spots of missing finish. pickguard cracking and broken in spots. That's what i love about her! She's not a pretty girl. She's a work horse.

I never adjusted the neck or the bridge. just installed new pickups due to the old ones being shot.

like i said before i tried all of Rickenbacker's pickups ( high gains, toasters, humbuckers). I put a humbucker in the bridge and a toaster in the neck. A great combo i would highly recommend for any Rick owner. Because of the Rickosound, i get the hi-gain of the humbucker (with no squeal) and the power and fullness of a single coil mixed together for unbelievable stereo rock tone!

Its addicting i can't get enough of this set up.

This guitar came to me looking seriously abused. Somebody obviously treated this guitar very badly. Though it is 20 years old, it easily looks twice that age. After changing the pickups (which i did myself) i have never had a problem out of her. A rock solid guitar.

no need

A Rickenbacker is an aquired taste. If your used to playing Fenders and Gibsons it will take time get used to the Ricks ways but once you get past the learning curve its all gravy! These are quality made solid guitars with thier own charm and charisma. Try one but give it time grow on you.

USA made, fireglo finish, 24 frets, stock passive pickups, grover tuners, skb hardcase.
Very well finished guitar in every detail.

I pursued this guitar for a long time, I bought it in Florida 10 years ago, in a Sam Ash store to be exact.
I didn't even tested it, I fell in love instantly with it's glossy finish...what a mistake.
The thing is, this kind of guitars have an specific and narrow sound, they didn't have the acoustic values of any guitar I previously owned, so, my critic comes from a personal perspective.
I mainly played through an 1969 original silverface Deluxe Reverb Fender with telefunken/GE NOS tubes, the sweetest amp I've ever used.

It just never worked for me, the intonation was right, the action great, well balanced sound, very playable but without any soul. Very, very dissapointing through the years I used it as a lead guitar in a pop band. Tried to cover the holes to see if it seems to gain any body...didn't work

no flaws in this one, beautiful in every angle.

solid guitar, stays in tune, and stuff...

...

well, I have a strat model by Peavey, a MIJ Fender Jazzmaster, Epiphone Dot, a vintage MIJ Vox inspired Fiama semi hollowboby and my latest one is a 5198 Gretsch.
Just compared to the Peavey the 1000$ Ric was useless, it didn't work for me, I had to sell it to a Beatles collector, and I can??t be more happier with that ;)

Standard Ric 360. Bought it in 1998. Have used it steadily for the last 10 years, including gigs about once per month and weekly band practices.
Hardshell case included.
Jet Glo (black and white)
Tone and volume for each of the 2 pickups (neck and bridge) - pretty standard stuff. Plus, the 5th knob that controls blend between the two and ALSO controls the stereo output balance if you use the stereo Ric-O-Sound output (I never do).
Nice bridge with individually adjustable saddles to get perfect intonation.

I played this through a 1970s silverface Fender Twin Reverb for years and loved it. Recently, I bought a Vox AC15 Heritage Handwired.
All I can say is, if you want to sound like The Beatles, this is it.

But in addition, I've always been impressed by how you can get smooth bluesy sounds from this thing. Easing off the treble on the Vox amp, crank it up a bit so you get some breakup, and this guitar does a nice job with crunchy sustain and overdrive.

You will get fabulous jangly rhythm sounds from this thing, but you are not "sentenced" to only that sound. I wouldn't pick it for a metal band or for playing mainly hard rock or blues. But if you want to do a few songs like that in your set, you can get by.

But man, for classic rock, country, and anything in the singer/songwriter roots rock alt-country vein, this thing can't be beat.

I never use effects pedals. I hate them - batteries, noise, phoney baloney sounds. An excellent guitar like this and a good tube amp makes for a better sound than any silly pedal ever will.

Guitar came with their "compressed 10s" strings on it.
Light E is a .010, heavy E is only a .038. Since then, I've stuck
with that (Fender makes a classic 150 set that is .038 - .010)
After about 5 years, I did have to tighten the truss rod nuts, as
the wood has settled enough that the nuts had actually become
loose. But it was no big deal to do this.
Finish is beautiful - smooth glossy black.
All the parts fit and feel solid.

I bought this thing MAIL ORDER, and it was set up perfectly right out of the case.

My only complaint is that the individual bridge saddle pieces were actually a bit too wide and couldn't slide past each other. I couldn't turn the allen screws to make them move because the pieces next to each other would actually bind. So I pulled the saddle pieces out and hit each side (left and right) with a few swipes of a big flat mill file. That solved that issue.

But because of this, I knocked it down to an 8 instead of a 10.

Has been 100% reliable for 10 years of (admittedly) gentle, but steady, gigging.. I have never carried a backup
guitar. I can't even remember the last time I broke a string.

Never needed any.

Been playing for 30 years. Play mostly classic rock and singer/songwriter alt-country. If it were lost or stolen, I'd buy another one immediately.
My second choice would probably be a Telecaster - since I am a jangly rhythym kind of guy, but I like the semihollow body feel and I am more comfortable with the strings being up higher off the body on the Ric, like an archtop would be.

And man... for about a grand, it's one whale of a grade A guitar.

I bought this guitar in the early '90s. '73 USA standard 360, which I did a slight modification to (see below). Modestly equipped and well built, this guitar is close to being the perfect guitar for me. Only one small flaw (which to most players is a feature)...

I used to play a few different guitars, so I frequently had to plug in a new guitar for the next song. With the Rick-O-Sound stereo output on one jack, it was a hit and miss situation, a real pain. So I rewired to have both jacks mixing both pickups, but with split available when I use both jacks simultaneously.

Technical reference for those interested: I changed the jacks to standard mono with NC switches, and crosswired the switches to the pickup inputs. I.E. both switches connect between the two pickup inputs, so both jacks must be plugged to break the connection. I used properly screened wire between the jacks (although the gap is small, with passive pickups it's "better safe than sorry" I guess).

My style is mostly folk/rock, trough I try my hands in many styles. Originally an acoustic player, I tried a lot of different electric guitars. Really good instruments, some of them, but they still didn't quite hit home with me. When I first tried this guitar, the "organic" sound was the first thing that struck me. Maybe the semi-hollow body gave me the physical feedback I was used to from the acoustic, I don't know.

It needs a good amp with high impedance inputs to perform well, though. With transistor preamps it's sometimes flat and dull. Currently I use a Laney 30W all tube amp with an old Zoom digital effects box in the loop, and that provides what I need. (Most of the time it's only the guitar and amp, though.)

I did some fiddling with the pickup heigth and had to retune the bridge for proper intonation. It seems the previous user had put the bridge on backwards and adjusted it accordingly, but there was no evidence of it being played lefthanded (saddle grooves were intact). Other than that, the guitar was ready to play, and still is. It never needs any adjustments, it seems.

This is one dependable guitar. A few dents and scratches, but you need to come u close to notice. I once lent it to a friend who played in a punk style band, and it came back with one pickup dead. That's the only time I ever had trouble with it, and it wasn't the guitar's fault (foreign object inside one of the output jacks, easily fixed...). His belt buckle did make some dents in the finish on the back, though...

As I played different instruments when I used to play gigs, I could always fall back on the mandolin or acoustic guitar, so I didn't bring a backup. Never had a problem, though.

My only "support incident" was when I tried to find out how old my guitar was. The web pages provided a serial number input, and told me the guitar left the assembly line in september 1973. Not enough background for me to rate the support, though.

My Ric is a 2003 with Ric-O-Sound stereo output and it was made in the USA. Pretty much has the same features as any other Rickenbacker 360-- just a standard model. Two tone knob, two volume knob, a blend knob, and 3-way selector. Hi-Gain pickups.

I bought the Rickenbacker basically because I saw Tom Gabel playing a 330 the first time I saw Against Me!. Of course, upon further research, I found that the 360 is a much more luxurious guitar. I play everything. At the moment I am in a rock/punk band, but my tastes when playing solo are much more experimental/ indie/ blues sounding. Basically, I need a guitar that sounds unique and does what I need it to. My current rig is a '66 Fender Bassman Amp and I run it through a RAT 2 OCD. The single-coil pickups are kind of noisy at extremely high volumes, but you'll have that with any single coil pickup and still most humbucking pickups. The clean is jangly and sparkely, on pretty much any amp (but especially Fenders!) and many complain that this is pretty much the only thing that Rics pull off well. But I must contest. With the proper pedals, you can pull off any kind of sound you want with a Ric, regardless of what people say. The catch is, it will have its own unique tone seperate from any other kind of guitar. For me, this is especially good. The only thing that I hate about the Ric is that it doesn't do well with palm mutes. Personally, I never palm mute, but in the rock/punk band that I'm in, there is a lot of palm muting. If it were me, though, there wouldn't be so much.

In any case, to wrap it up, don't listen to what people say about versatility. A Ric can do anything with the right pedals-- just don't be lazy and you can get some really unique tones!

I got this used, so I can't say how things were straight from the factory. But when I got it it was set up perfectly. The finish is thick and extremely shiny- gotta love that. The fretboard is also laminated. That adds to the speed of the neck as well as comfort. Pretty much no flaws. My only complaint is that the finish is pretty easy to scratch.

This guitar has taken a lot of abuse. I've had it for about a year now- got it Christmas of 2006. I beat the crap out of it, and you can barely tell. If you maintain your guitar, clean it, and so on, it'll last forever. I already use it without a backup, though it's always good to have one just to be safe. I'm just an idiot.

Haven't really had to deal with it. Parts are really hard to come by though, and that's kind of unfortunate.

I've been playing for six years, and I also own a Fender Esquire 50's Reissue as far as guitars. If it were stolen, I'd be up shit's creek because I'm poor. So I would buy another... but it'd take a while. So, basically, I would have to find the thief and beat him with my Esquire until dead. Better that I destroy the Esquire to get the Ric than lose it. I love the unique tone of the Ric, and the versatility, I just hate how easily the finish scratches, especially since I don't have a case. But that doesn't affect anything except aesthetics. It's hard to compare a Ric to other guitars, seeing as that's basically comparing apples and oranges, but I'd just like to say that anyone planning on buying a Rickenbacker should consider that the tone is considerably different than any other guitar out there. So, if you're looking for "run-of-the-mill"... get a Les Paul.

I got a standard 360 made in 2004. It has all the standard features which Rickenbacker is known for. I didn't expect nothing more or less.

I love the sound of this guitar. It's always a pleasure to play a Rickenbacker, but I don't understand why they (Rickenbacker) replaced the toaster pickups with the High-gain pickups?? A toaster pickup sounds better...

Rickenbackers are known for their finish - not without reason! The high gloss finish is briliant and the workmanship is exelent. It's truely a quality instrument made of only the best materials available.
A standard Rickenbacker makes a Fender custom shop look like a cheap guitar.

I had two custom made Fender guitars - the first came with a defect pickup. The Second was painted in the wrong colour and had the wrong finish and it didn't sound like an old one - some exspensive shit made by mexicans.

It's a Rickenbacker!

Fast response

2007 Rick 360 in Blueburst - serial no. indicates it was manufactured in the first week of April 2007, I bought it in June 2007. The Blueburst finish is the 2005 Color of the Year, which can no longer be ordered, but Rick is still making them while they work on their order backlog, and if you look hard enough it's still possible to pick them up from larger dealers in the US. It's a knockout, and it's a Rick.

Has that chimy Rick sound - you either dig it or you don't. I do and wouldn't part with it for the world.

There is more high-level craftsmanship in any Rickenbacker than you are likely to find in a container-load of guitars from other mainstream manufacturers. Every Rick is at a level of quality that some other makers call their Custom Shop work. On the 2007 run however, Rick seems to have widened the string spacing at the nut over an earlier model that I have compared it to. This difference is not huge - about 1 or 2 mm over a previous year's example of this guitar. The problem that results at least on mine and I know of a few others as well is that the Top E string can slip off the fretboard at the 2nd to 5th frets if you are not careful. This was discussed on a forum on the Rickenbacker site recently and funnily enough the Thread seems to have disappeared. The change appears to have been made in response to customer complaints about narrow string spacing on earlier models. Rics have always forced players to fret the neck carefully as their necks are generally quite narrow, so this change will please some players and annoy others who find their style of playing will push the Top E off the neck periodically. Apparently even George Harrison once found this to be part of the quirky charm of playing a Rickenbacker, so be aware. For me, it's a 10 in almost every respect, and a 5 for the new nut, so I'll saw my rating off at a 7.

It's a Ric - enough said.

Rics can only be repaired under warranty by sending them back to the factory in California. I personally find that a pain, as that is bound to be an expensive and lengthy proposition. The good news is you are unlikely to ever have a problem with a Ric, but as for customer service I've never dealt with them, and if I ever did have a problem I'd order whatever part was needed from their website and have the work done locally. So in that sense, their warranty doesn't mean much to me, but at least some common parts are available on their site.

Own too much other gear to list but including one other Ric - the Rics are what I dream about.

1991 mapleglo with black hardware & pickguard. Looks awesome. The Ric-o-sound is a cool item but one rarely used by most. I think Ric should include the box & cables with every stereo guitar. Otherwise it has good features that are well positioned. They've had a lot of years to perfect it.

If you are primarily a rhythm player (I am)this is your axe. The chime is what we all remember & gave Ric its reputation. I have to admit that I always bring a second guitar for my occasional lead work. Its just not gonna cut like a Strat or growl like a Gibson. Great mid to highs but a little thin on the bottom.I love the sound but it doesn't work for every tune (probably good for 80% of our stuff).

I have 3 Rics & this is why. My first, a 1965 Ric 450-12, I bought in 1966 & still gig with it. I have not seen consistent quality control over the years from anyone else. The fit & action are top notch & the finish will give the PRS dudes a run for the money. Only ever replaced six machine heads on the 450 to keep tune better & just did that 2 years ago.

Well see above. I had a drunk fall over on my 360 several years ago & feared the worse. Amazingly it was perfect except the G string was a little flat. It may look fragile but its a tough bugger. I only have backups for my lead work.

Only dealt with them once in 95. Took a bit but they handled it.

I would give this guitar a "10" if were just a little thicker on the bottom but maybe then we would lose the patented chime that we all love. This is the most attractive guitar in my whole 14 guitar collection. You WANT to hold it. I will always buy & love Ric's. I have the 450-12, a 1996 620 & this baby. Rock on!

Mine was an '80s model with a brown sunburst finish. Evidently the brown sunburst finish was discontinued in the late '80s or early '90s. I think it was an '86 based on the serial number.

two single coil pickups that looked like soapbars, rick-o-sound, 2V 2T and a frequency pot of some sort, and all the standard features. Grover tuners.

The tone was rich, but not fat. I could not find a pickup combination that I really liked that much, and I found it to be very bright overall. I guess I mean it had a broad spectrum of bright tones, or something...It could get pretty raunchy with distortion, which was kind of cool. Sustain was poor.

Action was low and comfortable (probably not factory action, though), fit was nice but there were some glue spots on the inlays. Finish was good and attractive, and the look is art-deco cool. There's really nothing quite like a Ric for looks and style.

I was not convinced that this guitar was all that durable. The hollow body and thin neck made me nervous. The guitar was well made, and all that, and was not flimsy at all. It did fine on stage, and the hardware and straplocks were fairly sturdy. The guitar was used, and the 'R' shaped string holder at the bottom of the guitar was starting to corrode a bit / lose it's chrome.

No idea.

This is a neat guitar, but not a 'one and only' for me. I only used it on stage for a few songs, because it had a limited range. No low end. Cool mids, but strong, strong highs. Maybe humbucker pickups would sound better?

Hand Made in America! I won't bore you with all the features, but let me say I've never owned a guitar like this before! The semi-hollow body with the classic Ricky sound is really refreshing! Coupled with the Vintage Toaster pickups, this guitar resonates and sustains so well. Ok...here is where I was suprised. The guitar out of the case was completely flawless. The maple-glow finish is totally custom shop quality. The frets were highly polished, intonation was right on and the flammed maple/walnut neck is so sweet! The rosewood finished fretboard and sharktooth markers are awesome looking and the feel is even better!

So...I've been a Gibson, Fender and PRS player (snob) for many years. After the purchase of this guitar (Rickenbacker 360/6) I felt ripped-off in the sense that..."Why did I wait so long to try a Rickenbacker?" Being from So. Cal and Rickenbacker only a few miles away, I can't figure out why I snubbed them for so long! Anyway, I'm glad I pulled the trigger and finally got one. The sound is full, rich, and lush very organic sounding. Rickenbacker just has that sound that no other guitar can get! My guitar has the upgrade with the Vintage Toaster pickups. Clarity is an understatement. The 5th tone and "blending" knob is where this guitar really stands out! Endless variations of tone and volume combinations. You've heard that you can't play lead guitar on a Ricky? That's not even true. For all you Les Paul fans...Try playing your leads on the neck PU and your rhythm on the neck PU. That's the secret. Just opposite so to speak of the Les Paul configuration. I have two amps. 1. I play a Carvin Belair 2x12 (El34's and 12AX7's) and 2. A Mesa Boogie Rectoverb 1x12 (6L6's and 12AX7's) single rectifier. Sound so sweet on both amps! Grant it...The Ricky is NOT your typical Heavy Metal Shredding guitar...this guitar is for mature audiences only! :-) Really, you need to try the Rickenbacker as it would be a great addition to your guitar collection!

Fit and Finish...again custom shop quality! Hand Made in America! Amazing to look at and even better to play. Top-notch guitar in my opinion.

The 360 is light and very durable I'm sure. It stays in tune! I'd have a back-up at any gig no matter what I play. My 360 will not be my number one guitar on stage. It will be used for those appropriate originals and covers that require the Rickenbacker sound. I can see me using it on a Blues set too! Time will tell.

Very friendly in Santa Ana, CA...I called asking them about their strap locks. They make their own but are milled and designed for the Schaller system! Good thinking! Still can't believe Gibson does not offer strap locks except those "Cheesy" aluminum stock ones they insist on using.

If you've ever been curious about a Rickenbacker, check one out! I bought mine at Wildwood Guitars and I'm glad I finally got a Rickenbacker. Been playing 27 years and can't figure out why I never tried a Ricky until now! Go for it, you'll be totally stoked you did!

Bought in '06, Jetglo with R tailpiece, 2 single coils, stereo outputs, 5th blend pot to adjust volume of neck pickup when both coils used together and to fine-tune the volume of the neck pickup when used by itself.

That might not sound like a lot of "features", but the design of this thing gives you tons of functionality. Think Florence Griffith Joyner, all muscle, no fat... A Whammy bar or a piezo (which you can get) would be, 90% of the time, useless, but just enough to push this guitar to a perfect 10. Right out of the box, it's got everything I could ever need.

For the money, you won't buy a better guitar, end of story! It's playability, quality of construction, and components all contribute to a huge tonal pallette that your fingers will be eager to explore. No, you won't get the chunk of a solid-body guitar with a PAF in the bridge, or the bright bite of a strat, but... you'd be amazed at how "right" the sounds you can coax from this guitar feel when applied to musical styles that you wouldn't have expected! You can play the hard stuff with this guitar if you're willing to sound different! The jazzy tones that this guitar can produce absolutely floored me and it's simply perfect for any kind of vocal accompaniment. Neck pickup lead lines are extremely robust... very full with immaculate clarity.

Flawless finish and the action is the best I've ever seen, right out of the box. I've played for 20 years and have owned/played a lot of guitars. Up until I put my hands on this guitar, my custom shop Fender and my Carvin were tied for best action... this guitar has forced them into retirement, no competition. The binding around the neck, the fret work, the finish, the intonation, everything was dead on.

If the late George Harrison could take the same guitar on the road for 30 years, I'm thinking it can more than stand up to stage/road abuse! If you only get in one car wreck in your lifetime, you're doing better than the national average... but you still pay insurance every month. I think having a backup on stage is just as smart, and usually just as unnecessary. This is a hollowbody, but it's not overly delicate.

Don't know yet. Reputation seems more than solid, though.

I've had my USA-made Kramer stunt guitars, Gibson hollow-bodies, Fender custom shop solid-bodies, boutique acoustics, you name it... A lot of which are truly and regrettably overpriced. Of that lot, I place my Carvin (custom made, as are all Carvin electrics) at the top of the list for handmade quality with an upscale import pricetag. I surprised my wife by counting up the number of instruments I've owned at one time or another, and out of the 30+, this guitar, which is the best built, most versatile, and best sounding of all of them, is by far the most enjoyable instrument I've ever owned. It is much needed relief from GAS (Guitar Acquisistion Syndrome), which plagues many, many musicians. I don't think I need to buy much else, except for maybe another Rickenbacker!

I bought this Rick in Feb of 2006...serial number indicates it was built in Jan 2006, 100% in the USA, as all Ricks are. Mine is a Jetglo 360 with white pickguard and trussrod cover...a beautiful guitar. When I first got it I simply opened the case and stared at it for minutes....since I was 13 I've dreamed of owning Ricks, a 6 string and a 12 string, and though I've played a couple in music stores over the years, now that I'm 26 this is the first one I've owned and I am ecstatic. It's the standard 360, maple body, 24 frets, rosewood laquered neck and fingerboard, 2 Rick pickups, two tone knobs, two volume knobs, the blend knob, three-way pickup selector. It has the 6 saddle bridge with cover/handrest, the classic "R" tailpiece and is just a GORGEOUS guitar. Schaller tuners which are the ONLY parts of the guitar not made by Rickenbacker themselves...even on their webpage they state how they tool and machine ALL of the metal for the guitars except for the tuners. Guitar came with the standard Rick plastic case (I am gonna buy the wood/tolex Rick vintage case when I have the money), came with keys, tools, polishing cloth, and a bunch of literature. A fantastic guitar. My one gripe is that the pickup selector switch feels a little flimsy, but everything else feels solid. I am surprised at how light the guitar is....I also have an Epiphone Dot 335 with Bigsby and this feels much lighter even though the factory specs for the two axes has the Epi being a pound LIGHTER....

I play music that's a cross between classic rock (Zeppelin/Cream/Who/Hendrix) and more melodic rock (Beatles, Blur, Mansun, Suede). I play through a LARGE pedalboard: MXR DynaComp>Ibanez TS-9>Vox Wah> Dunlop Tremelo>Ibanez AD-9>Dunlop Univibe>MXR Stereo Chorus>MXR Phase 90>MXR Flanger>MXR Auto-Q> into Vox amps. This guitar sounds wonderful, I can get that chiming Rick-only sound but also some more growly, warm tones. Fantastic.

This guitar, as per Rick's tagline, was indeed "ready to play straight out of the case!" I found it to be set up wonderfully, with perfect action. The guitar looks flawless, from the joints and frets to the famous Rick finish. Just GORGEOUS from top to bottom, front to back.

This guitar will withstand live playing, I'm sure. While Ricks have an (undeserved) reputation for being flimsy, for a guitar that is a light as it is, it feels surprisingly strudy. The hardware, except for the flimsy pickup selector, seems solid and the finish on these badboys lasts forever...I played a 30 yr old Mapleglo 12-string once and it was still gorgeous. I'd use this on a gig with no backup...this is my dream guitar (although I still love and play my Epi too!)

Never dealt with the company but haven't heard anything but good stuff about them.

I've been playing guitar for 16 years and FINALLY have my first Ric. I've always wanted a 6 string, 12 string, and bass from Rick and I'm 1/3 of the way there. I've also always wanted a high-end acoustic, and after contemplating Gibsons and Martins for years, I'm gonna go with Rick on those too. They're super-high quality and for the price, they smoke Gibson and Fender and all of the other big manufacturers, whose prices keep going up. Rick is also the ONLY US guitar maker that does it ALL (unless you're talking super-high end Gibson and Fender custom shop stuff, which will run you into the $2500+ range). Plus, EVERYONE and his brother has a Gibson or Fender. Rick's look different, sound different, and have always been my favorite axes. Aside from my awesome Epi, they're the only guitars I'll ever play from now on.

Well, here's a different opinion, if you can handle it. I really like the design of this guitar, i.e., this model, and I really tried to like it, but...
You know the features. I don't remember all the details offhand (because I didn't buy one), but, in addition to what I've seen since, the first one I really paid serious attention to was one I saw in a music store in Kent, OH, a-way back somewhere between 1973 and 1975. It was used then, so it was obviously older than that, and apparently one upon which it made its reputation.
The laquered rosewood (or rosewood-related) fingerboard surprised me, as it didn't seem practical, and may well not be as far as ease of play. Over and above that, as I recall, the high E string in the upper registers was nearly off the edge of the fingerboard. I can't see how this could happen just from use, as the neck is a fixed one (and your stuck with it that way). Add to this that the neck is 1-5/8 inch at the nut, rather common, but with Ric's it seems to be somewhat narrower still: there just doesn't seem to be enough room between the strings. Last time I checked, they didn't offer a model with 1-11/16 inch, and the next width up they offer is 1-7/8 inch--too wide for me, but...who knows what it really is?
As far as pickups go, the only ones that seem to make a Ric a Ric are the ones that give it "that sound"--the single coil, relatively weak ones--which is OK, I guess, but seems to limit its functionality to rhythm, primarily (think John Lennon).
The "R" is my favorite tailpiece; Ric tremolos like on the John Lennon model are a joke; the trapezoid tailpiece is way too unsophisticated looking; and the bridges are a bit strange.
Everybody seems to rave about their finishes, but I've just never been impressed. They look painted on to me, as if with a brush (not quite that bad, really). But I have yet to see a mirror finish on one, invariably noting streaks that follow the wood grain (you've got to look at it at an angle if you know what you're doing).
I like the idea of a semi-hollow design because my shoulder doesn't like too much weight (are you really worth the effort, Les Paul?), but the first time I picked up a John Lennon, 3/4 size model, I was surprised at how heavy it was. So much for any advantage there.

See above.

OK, so there is a certain mystique about this guitar and its sound, but, sheesh, for the prices they command, you'd like some playability and versatility. Don't get me wrong, I still want to like them (and so I'm up-rating it for its "vibe"), but back then I went with an ES335TD that I still own and I've never regretted it, if that tells you anything.

lefty fireglo made march 97 bought used in 02

thru blackfaced '70s fender twin (7581a's in the power section)via dunlop wah then echoplex (in mono mode). my tech rigged my twin for the ric-o-sound, bass into 1, treble into two, reverb and trem on both channels. i dont use effects with this set-up, but it's freakin heavenly.

beautiful, buttery, and did i mention beautiful?

friends who've held it are surprised at how solid it is. i guess 2 truss rods'll do that for ya. i gig with it always, don't worry too much about keeping it perfect. it's MY guitar dammit and every dent has a memory! did have the stereo jack replaced once.

n/a

favorite guitar of all. don't play the american strat at all anymore. this and my mexican tele'll get the trick done.... the tele is the backup.

This is a revision to my previous review (see immediately below). I was wrong about the string gauge, it ships with .010's. I asked Ric customer service how thick of a string gauge I could get away with putting on it without having to have the nut recut, and I got an immediate reply back that the manual that ships with the guitars had that misprint. They also emailed a link to a PDF of the manual with the correct specs.

The fact that I am used to .011's combined the shorter scale length must have solidified the illusion that I was playing .008's because the strings do feel skinny to me. But if they are 10's,most players will probably feel quite content with them.

sent them a question and got a reply back immediately, and my follow-up question was answered immediately. Very happy with this, they seem to walk the walk.

Ric features are well enough documented now, so I'll skip the obvious. A lot of people don't mention the infamous 5th knob anymore (George Harrison once remarked that as far as he could tell, it didn't do anything!), but it is actually very useful. Essentially, it's a fine tuning control for blending the front and rear pickups. Yes, it is a bit redundent since you already have a front pickup volume knob, anyway, but the 5th knob is more subtle and allows you to dial in some more tones. Try it, you'll like it!

Included Schaller tuners are great and reliable.

Weird thing, guitar ships with .008 strings! I've never seen a professional guitar ship with such skinny strings. I normally use 11's, and the .008's made the guitar feel very odd at first. The nut slots are so well fit to the 8's that you'll need to have the nut slots recut if you want to use thicker strings, there's really no leeway there. Kudos to Ric, I guess, for such tight precision tolerences in manufacturing, but it's a pain to have to resize the nut slots just to change to my preferred strings.

However, having said that, there is a playability issue involved with string gauge, read below.

Again, the Ric sound is legendary, so there should be no need to overdescribe it. I got frustrated with solidbodies years ago, the midrange always sounds too constricted to my ears. The Ric hollowbody yields a much richer, warmer, more dynamic sound. But it's not too deep (thickness-wise) like a Gibson or Gretsch hollowbody (also great sounding guitars), so it still has a bit of chunk to the sound, it's a big part of that Ric "Kerrrang" that you hear through the pickups when you strum.

Not sure what all the fuss is about "toaster vs. new pickups" - the new pickups sound great. They're bright, but not thin or shrill. I think it's a testament to how good they sound that the guitar sounds rich and fat even with the puny .008 strings!

The guitar sounds great for just about anything. Put it through a clean Vox or Fender and it has all the sparkle and chime you'd expect. Overdrive the amp and the guitar sounds fat and rich, not at all like a Strat or Tele with that tinkly Fender high end. Even with an overdriven amp, though, it retains definition and clarity that makes a Les Paul (a humbucker Les Paul, anyway) sound like mush in comparison (this is all from hands-on experience with AB'ing my various guitars and amps, not a rant - I think Fenders and Gibsons are great for what they are, but they're just not really my cup of tea).

The fit and finish straight out of the case put to shame anything else I've ever bought. Setup was perfect, intonation perfect, couldn't find any flaws anywhere. Finish definitely has that famed Rickenbacker mirror-like shine.

However, that thick lacquer finish on the neck and fretboard has got to go! I know that's been a "signature" of Rickenbacker from the early days, but one of the reasons Rickenbacker perhaps hasn't grown much as a company is that they don't seem to listen to what players want. The lacquer on the back is bad enough - it's thicker than Fenders and Gibsons - but the lacquer on the fretboard makes playing leads nearly impossible. Bending is particularly hard because your fingers get caught up - it only takes about 1 minute of playing before your fingers start to get that sticky feeling.

And that's too bad, because there's nothing inherent to the Ric design that makes playing leads on these guitars hard, contrary to popular belief. The neck's back profile is similar to a Fender C neck's, maybe a little thick for my tastes buy certainly not an impediment. It's just that darned lacquer!

I talked to a guitar shop pro who advised I do nothing about it for a year; the lacquer is still curing and some of it will seep into the wood. After the finish stabilizes I plan on having the neck and fretboard rubbed out to get a more satin finish-type feel.

The double truss rod probably necessitates the thicker C shape, but I can't see any real advantage to having 2 truss rods. Perhaps that works well on their 12 string models that have stronger string pull on the neck and perhaps it's just easier for them to tool their line so that all necks are made the same way, but for the 6 string models it would be nice to see a single truss rod with a softer 60's slim taper neck for easier grip and lead playing. I have single truss rods in my Fenders of similar scale length and I've never had a neck problem, not sure why Ric thinks it's necessary.

The frets are small even by older Fender standards. Again, with the skinny strings it doesn't feel so good, but I've owned guitars with tiny frets before and putting on heavier strings alleviates this problem. Actually, it feels great - for an experienced player who prefers heavier strings, the smaller frets actually feel great underneath the strings. Heavy strings w/ large frets feels like you're playing on railroad tracks! Shredders would probably disagree with me, but this obviously isn't a shredder's guitar. The kind of leads I'm talking about playing are standard blues-rock stuff (the kind of stuff that - ahem - Rickenbacker supposedly builds these guitars for, no?), not shred leads. Yngwie and Nu-Metal disciples obviously don't need to be considering this guitar, anyway!

Too bad again about the nut being cut only for .008's, but I have to say the craftsmanship is perfect. I don't think I've ever seen a nut cut this well for an off-the-shelf new guitar.

And if I put heavier strings on it now, with the fretboard gloss still so sticky, it would probably be a huge nightmare, so I'll just deal with it for now.

The bridge saddles are a little scary looking. There's no smoothing or polishing, so they literally look like they were just cut from the metal yesterday. Very crude looking. Again - Ric - why are you hellbent on making everything look and play like it did 40 years ago? I'm all for vintage vibe, but I think it's ok to make little updates along the way, particulraly for little details like this. I don't know that this would have any effect on string life provided the actual string grooves are cut properly and they still put that cover on top, anyway (it's removable if you like), so maybe they just assume no one's looking!

The cover's an interesting idea, though, because it prevents your hand oils and moisture (and resultant rust) from forming on the strings right at their weak spot where they break over the saddles. Perhaps this may increase string life and reliability, too early to say. The cover stays low enough over the strings that you can still use your normal amount of palm muting and pressure, at least it didn't seem to affect my technique any.

Everything else is solid as well - electronics, switches, pots, etc. Everything feels top notch.

It's a hollowbody, but it feels very sturdy. There's no way it could be as sturdy as a solidbody, but unless your name is Pete Townsend it shouldn't be an issue. It doesn't feel prissy or rickety, feels very solid. I'd prefer to take care of mine and not subject it to too much abuse, anyway - this is not a guitar to make your Van Halen Frankenstein or SRV Number One abuse therapy, use your Strats for that. But, with normal care it should be fine for all playing situations from honky tonk bars to stadium shows.

Never dealt with them, so I can't comment. I do admire their tenacity to maintain their build quality - lots of Fenders and Gibsons leave their factories without the kind of quality control you're entitled to expect from such companies - even if it means staying smaller as a company. And I do think that philosophy probably indicates that they care about their products' reliability and reputation. I just wish they wouldn't be so bullheaded about the little stuff that could make their guitars more popular and appealing to a wider market.

Been playing for 20 years, left the business long ago and I just play at home for fun now. Always wanted a Ric and finally got the one I wanted. FYI I bought a 330 new about 10 years ago and, although the build quality was also exceptional, it just didn't have that Ric sound. It sounded very dark and muddy (yes, I checked the tone knobs!). I ended up sending it back. Strange, considering the build is nearly identical to the 360's and the pickups have supposedy been the same for many years now. Maybe I just got a lemon, who knows. Something to consider for the rest of you.

I do know that this 360 sounds exactly like I hoped it would. I'm baffled, actually, that people play Strats and Gibsons of questionable quality when for the same price they can be playing Rics that sound so much richer and more dynamic. It takes all kinds, I know, and I love the SRV Tube Screamer through a Fender sound as much as anyone, but if you've ever heard a Ric through a nice amp you'd wonder if you even needed the Tube Screamer and all the other baggage to get that richer tone.

If Ric would only make a guitar with a friendler neck, maybe players would recognize this!!!

Features covered well below. I had a 330 and got rid of it because the neck was just a little bit too clunky. This neck is different and easier to play. I like the body style better too.

I has that nice jangle but it also has a really neat fifth knob that has two purposes. First on the neck pickup it is a master volume, so you can alternate between elads and rhythm with a twist of the knob. the same knob is also a tone blend when set on the middle toggle setting, neat. It has a lot of great sounds, most versatile guitar i own in that regard.The tone knobs are not traditional for gibson players, and their placement makes them less easy to use live than a tele for volume swells ( the volume controls are the two bottom ones, farthest away from your pinky).

Finish is excellent and rivals my G&L Bluesboy in that regard.The fingerboard is narrow but requires a little more precision. When i switch back to the Bluesboy though, I am a better player. OK for most leads I play. ( I am no shredder.).

Wonderful American made instrument that will appreciate,. Their quality has always been good so there is no " golden period" of manufacturing. Therefore the value will hold.
Action is easy to adjust. Don't people know that? Intonation was dead on.

It is light and easy to hold.It is very well balanced. the strings are not hard to change at all, I just bend the ends up and they catch in the tailpiece. they suggest you change one string at a time, but I like to clean the guitar at the same time. As I'm using those new fangled teflon strings, I change a lot less often and need to get at the dust. It looks good too. When you pick it up you are amazed that it weighs so little. As i get older that is a factor. It stays in tune, it is a pleasure to own. And as has been said, it sounds like nothing else out there. I think I have the only one in this town and that is cool too.

No idea.

I own a fender tele, a G&L Bluesboy and other guitars. this guitar is not my primary one. It is however the one that i write a lot with, and enjoy listening too. It has an almost tele sound but fuller I'd say. The G&L is the only guitar that I use with it. between them I have a wonderful variety of tones. Plug it into an Allen Old Flame amp and there are no excuses for sounding bad. Well worth the price of admission. As i said I had a 330 and found it hard to play. But you know what? I missed the tone too much. Saw an add , did a horsetrade and I'm back in the saddle. I'd like to try a 12 string one day too.

It's a 360 from 2004 in a light blue finish which looks rather sweet. I got this one from EBay from the USA secondhand but unblemished. To be honest I bid on it after a few too many beers at #750 & expected to be outbid. I wasn't, so had to pay $100 shipping & $200 import duty for it!! Came with a nice silver case & an old-fashioned Rickenbacker strap.
This one has "vintage" pickups, so they look like toaster tops rather than the individual pole-pieces of my 360-12.
Controls??They seem in the wrong place to me.....I'd prefer the Gibson set-up....being used to that, these confuse me. Despite having a manual to tell me what the 5th tone knob does I still can't figure it out!
Heaven knows what woods it's made of, I guess a look at the Rickenbacker site will tell you.

Well it sounds like a Rickenbacker...maybe not as limiting as you might think. I play pop/rock/ blues and I can get most sounds from it. If it were my only guitar I'd need to adapt my style, but as it is it's fun to have around & it will do most things.
I use a Gibson Goldtone GA15R & a Peavey Classic 30 which suit it well.
Bright sounds?? You bet! Also the ultimate rhythm guitar.
Versatile?? For me, yes. But then you won't be buying this for heavy rock or metal, so I guess it's not THAT versatile.
Mind you, a Ramirez Classical won't play heavy metal & you would be foolish to criticize it for that!!

Given that it was bought used it was set up fine with no visible flaws. Better than new Gibsons in my opinion!

It all seems very solid, well made & finished & reliable. I NEVER gig without a back-up.....strings can break, connections short...guitars fall off stands.....

Never dealt with Rickenbacker. Nice website though!

Lots of other guitars & amps. Gig mostly with MusicMan. Would not use this as my only guitar but it's fun to have around

March2005 Fireglo Ric 360/6 Kick ass guitar except for on the book match grain on the back you can clearly see worm trails. Not a huge deal but considering I ordered it online and couldn't see what I was getting before I bought it, I thought that kind of weak.
But overall a good 360. Bridge pickup was blown when I got it. Came with rectangular Ric case, tools, poster manuals. Good smell.

Tough to master any Ric, but the 360 is all across the boards. But once you get used to its nuances - you will love it.
I think I was fortunate that the bridge pickup was blown when I got it, cause I wouldn't have gotten to know the great full dark tones of the neck pickup. This is the body of the 360 tone. Mixing the 2 pickups is really useful and allows you to have a myriad of tones on the spot- from wooden bounding tones, to thick cutting slabs of attack, to 'ric'kly, Johnny Marr golden pinprickes. You can make it sound like its raining thin golden coins in full voiced chords, or you can make it growl, and make the floor pounce with heavy boom. Its very very versitile. But it is not a lead guitar. Its a lead if you play double/tripple stops with your solos, but its not a bender, or a space solo guitar. I'd say the 360 is half acoustic guitar/Les Paul. Great for ryhthm work, and singers.

The setup from Ric was shit, but easy to fix. All the tools are included, so made setup easy.
Pickups pissed me off more than anything, but easy to rip out, setup, rewire. etc.
Bookmatch was questionable. I have worked with wood a great deal so to me the grain was course, off-knotted, and unclean, especially on thr back with wormtrails. Bridge needed resetting, but nothing restringing it didn't fix.
I didn't see any flaws other than the bridge pickup not working, and the grain not being perfect or special.

I got this beast for playing live as a backup to my strat, and of course found myself playing it more than the strat. Its easy to get sick of a Fender tone, no matter which incarnation of Fender it is. They do all sound the same. A ric doesn't hit that 'Overly repeated' stop in your harmonic memory, so it grabs listeners attention- making even non musicians think- 'What is that sound? Thats really cool.' So I found myself setting the strat aside for backup.
Hardware is top dollar, ric doesn't play games with hardware. Even though its tough to string and the floating bridge is weird, all the hardware is really top grade.
Strap buttons work fine- even with the Schaller strap lock without having to replace the OEM ones.
Its s dependable guitar unless you break a string, and I had a 'G' go out of tune on me during a song randomly. Must have been user error.
I would probably use it at a gig without a backup. Depending on what the set was.

Well my ric situation was pretty messed up at first, I'd have to say - ordered it online, which sucked, cause you can't see it/play it first. All good except bridge pickup didn't work so I swapped its replacements pickup. After that works great. Ric sucked about it but the dealer was really cool.

Been playing for 13 years off and on, and more seriously for the last years, especially since I found some really good players to play with. I have an American Strat with David Gilmour EMG's on it, that really rocks. I am playing them both through a Line6 Flextone III (which may suck, but I spilt a beer on it last gig, and it STILL works.) I have a Vox AC30CC2x en route, and after playing the Rick through one, with use it as my clean, and the line6 for distortion (its far superiour for distortion than clean).
Stolen or lost? Small town and I know everyone so I would find it. But I would buy it again after much chagrin.
Love about it? The flavor. Its like really good cuisine- has lots of flavor and fills you up just right.
Hate about it? That adjective should not exist when discussing anything musical.

2005 Rick 360 Midnight blue, standard features, standard pickups

It sounds ok.

WARNING! I was sooo disappointed when i received this guitar today that i just have to let others know. the sound is ok, better than my les paul but not stellar (Played through a Peavey Classic 30). what really disappointed me was the quality of the guitar. For 1K, you'd expect that a guitar would be handcrafted at least in a way that would look well put together. i don't know if all ricks are handcrafted at any point but this guitar definitely looked like 'a second' even though I didn't buy a blem or second quality instruement. It looked so cheaply made from the plastic pick guard to the toggle switch which felt so cheap and light.

What was most disappointing is the finish. You can see the glue from the frets under the laquer and on mine, the glue on the first fret is oozing over and then they laquered over it so it looks so cheap and sloppy. There were also white marks all over the sides of the neck which i managed to scrape away with a pick. But the glue under the laquer cannot be 'scraped' away and frankly looks very shoddily made.

My dad saw the guitar and picked it up and asked if it was a toy. It is very light and cheap feeling.

Don't know how this is live beacuse i have to return it because i cannot justify spending 1K on a guitar whose craftmanship looks like it costs about $200.

never contacted them.

if you want a rickenbacker and have tons of money and like to throw it around, i guess you'd have one for your collection. but if you are looking for a quality made, highly crafted guitar worth it's money, i would look elsewhere.

maybe i'm too used to the quality of taylors and martins (which cost about the same 1-2K) and even my mid-grade epiphone les paul which cost half the rick reveals a better quality of craftmanship.

I don't know. May for 1K i'm expecting too much, but I don't think so. 1K for goodness sake! I just want a guitar that is nicely made and sounds great.

what a disappointment.

Mine is a Fireglo Red (more red than I see usually) 6-string model from the earliest of 90's. Semi hollowbody construction with the standard Rickenbacker pickups. Standard with standard jack and Ric-O-Sound jack which allows you to split the pickups and direct them to two different amps (stereo). Two volume knobs, two tone knobs, a mystery mix knob and a three-way toggle switch for the pickups. Adjustable bridge, floating tailpiece, Shaller tuners. All high quality stuff.

I play alot of alternativey and alty/country type stuff. I find the Rickenbacker very versatile in these areas. Not quite as smooth and creamy as a Les Paul...not quite as bright and piercing as a Strat. The Rickenbacker does plucky, chimey, growl chime very well. It's own sound as many have already stated. It's unique sound fills in all the empty spaces in between the hollowbody and solidbody.

The action fit and finish on this guitar is wonderful. Rickenbacker knows how to pay attention to detail and have made almost every part of this guitar, unique. It's a work of art with it's laminated fretboard, R-tailpiece and sensually curved body. My only concern would be the cost of a re-fret when that time comes. Who the heck is gonna do it?

I've had the guitar for over 10 years and has never had any problems. I would use this guitar without a backup...if it wasn't a secondary guitar to begin with. I probably play this guitar for 1/3 of my songs. A small bit of chipping on the laminated fretboard, so I'll have to drop a point.

A great guitar to hold and play. The neck is very comfortable (my hands are medium sized). I figure that some giant ape of a guy might find the neck a bit thin.
For that Rickenbacker sound, there's only one...Rickenbacker. Although it may not be the strongest classic lead instrument, it can be very versatile. Makes any amp sound more alive and blends very well with effects pedals and other instruments.

3rd week of 2005 Rickenbacker 360 fireglo made in Usa, 24 frets, semihollow maple body,maple and rosewood neck , high gain single coil pick -ups , R-style tailpiece, Schaller tuners,2 tone and 2 volume controls,plus a fifth control knob that blends tonal features of the 2 pick -ups.
Original hardshell case,polish cloth, tools an manual included.

One of the reasons I bought the rick 360 is the awesome,unique sound,crisp,bright,ringing and percolating from every note you play.
This guitar has got a whole arsenal of sounds in it.I use it with an all tubes Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp and it`s simply stunning. I mainly play classic rock ,and blues-rock, I have got a very good Epiphone Les Paul Standard (perfect neck,one of the best necks i Played in my life..) and a wondeful Epiphone Casino (still love it very much) and a good Telecaster copy,but the Rick is entirely another planet:every pick-up is very clean and definite ,you can really hear every single note you play ,the bass notes are deep and warm ,sometimes the sound is so expanded that it looks like the reverb control on the amp is full on 7 ,while is still on 1 !!!
I find the fifht tone -control very useful ,it adds something to the tonal palette.
The action was pretty good straight out of the case,even if i prefer lower bass strings after the 12Th fret.Think I`ll lower them a bit .
The distorted and saturated sound is very warm and beautiful as well,sustained notes are really easy to get with a bit of distorsion,but surely this isn`t the right guitar for metal or extreme hard rock,though I Played some Zeppelin stuff with it and it sounded great.
I noticed the typical hum of single coil pick -ups,but that`s nothing new.

Wonderful finish on my fireglo,wondeful smell as well,the wood is absolutely top-quality .You could use the guitar as a mirror,it shines.
The pick up selector was buzzing a bit between changings( I easily fixed the problem by removing the pickguard and tightening the contacts )something you don`t expect on a guitar of this level built with such care..
One of the screws of the nameplate is so much tight that it ruined the plastic of the nameplate itself ,fortunately it`s almost invisible if you don`t look very carefully close-up.
Minor flaws anyway,the 360 looks absolutely fabolous.

It`s just 10 days I own the guitar,but It seems very solid and well built,I` already played a gig with it ,I carried a backup not for the Rick,just in case of string-breakings.
Finish and hardware look built to last.

I e-mailed Ric site about confusing information on the manual and official site about the recommended strings-gauge.
I got A quick and useful answer,they admitted there was a misprint on the official manual.

I`ve been playing guitar for 25 years, the last 12 years semi-professionally(about 50-60 gigs a year..) ,also play lots of solo acoustic gigs.
If it was stolen I`d be mad and start saving again to buy another one.
I love almost everything about it,the gorgeous breath-taking looks,the sound and versatility,the absolute quality and craftsmanship ,the tradition of this instrument.
I`m a relatively new Rick user so I can`t find anything really bad in it so far ,I bought it knowing exactly what kind of guitar is ,which sounds it can provide ,and what`s not to be done or played with it.
I played lots of guitars during the years,Fenders, Gibsons, Guilds, even vintage Gretsches and this is totally uncomparable, no other guitar sounds like a Rick,this was important in my choice,to have something unique.
I still love Gibsons a lot ,but everybody seems to play Fenders and Gibsons,everybody sounds the same,everywhere....it`s so boring..
I`m glad to have a different guitar with a truly different sound,and a different look as well.

One last advice I `d like to give to europeans like me ( I live in Italy): you can save a lot of money on these instruments buying them in the States. In Europe and particularly in Italy Rickenbackers are incredibly expensive and not very easy to find in the stores(I just found ONE 360 out of all the stores in Rome ,the city I am from, and it was mapleglo( not my favourite finish..) ,and it was sold for 1750 EUROS!!!!!) so they have to order the model you want ,and it takes forever,and it`s really too expensive ( they told me a fireglo costs around 1800 Euros).
I bought my Rick surfing the net ,found a good guitar store in USA,got a very good price, good shipping rates and didn`t pay that much for customs duties,and I ended up spending half the money (included shipping and customs duties) I would have spent in an italian music -store,and the guitar was at my door 3 days after paying the american store!!!!

This is an all-American (much of it the old-fashinioned by-hand way)Rickenbacker 360 six-string version, born in September 2004, and features a high gloss (mirror-like) Maplego finish, semi-hollow body, two high-power single-coil pickups with three-way selector and five controls (separate volume and tone controls for each PUP, and a fifth blend control), Schaller non-locking tuners, micro-adjustable bridge, 24 frets, maple body and neck with African rosewood fingerboard, deluxe hard case with the usual case candy. Stereo and mono jacks, twin truss rod adjustable neck.

I mainly play blues, classic and folky rock, and contemporary Christian with some country. I do not play metal or shred, but I don't mind cranking things up and playing loud. Generally I use few effects (although I have the normal array of toys for when I need one) and prefer clean with some reverb and tremolo -- or nothing at all. I play through a slightly modified Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Limited Edition, with an Reverend All-tone 1250 speaker, and sometimes use a 30-year-old Marshall 1960 4x12 cabinet as an aux speaker cab.

This guitar has incredible tonal range, from the classic Ric "jangle" (think Byrds, Tom Petty, etc.) to straight ahead blues and rock tones (The Who comes to mind). My experience based on 35 years of playing, is that the tone controls on most guitars -- Fenders and Gibsons -- are worthless. Anything less than full up treble on the tone sounds like crap ... but not on this Ric. I have dialed in very convincing, woody, acoustic tones on this -- rich deep, smooth. The controls are very sensitive and provide a full palette of tones and sounds. The fifth control is the icing on the cake, and allows for some interesting tonal variations in addition to the standard choice -- I still haven't gotten a handle on everything it can do, but it is amazing. I sold a Tele to help buy this, but kept a Strat as a second guitar. After playing this, I have no use for the Strat and will sell that as well. This does not sound like a Strat, but it gives me everything I want for what I play.

Some reviewers say the neck takes some getting used to - (1) it is narrower than most, (2) it has a gloss finish on it, and (3) the frets are closer together (24 of them on this neck). It's not to say they don't like it, but many say they had to adjust. For me, there was no adjustment. It is a lightening fast neck begging your fingers to fly on it, and seems to be made for my smaller hands and shorter fingers. I don't do super hard bends, but I am a blues player. This is not solely a rhythm guitar -- it is a solid instrument and very capable as a lead guitar instrument. I do it all on this -- even jazz leads and some old Nugent licks.

Fit and finish are to die for. The Rickenbacker Web site says they spend more than an hour buffing their guitars to this high-gloss, glassy finish (verses about 15 minutes for most other companys' mass-produced guitars), and I believe it. It truly does show. I have never seen such quality and attention to detail in a guitar as in this Ric. Very solid -- it is built like a tank, but doesn't look it. Rock solid, stays in tune (although stringing it can be fun the first few times, until you get a handle on the tail-piece. Everything on this is top shelf. The body is contoured and rounded (unlike the 330). Much of what Ric does, it does by hand, the old fashioned way.

You don't see many of these in your local music stores, so you might have to order from Musicians Friend (where I bought mine) or Music123, or any of those -- but do it.

The set up out of the box was perfect, as was the action (very low and effortless). It does come with an odd gauge of strings (compressed 10, I think going from 10 to 42). I restrung it with GHS lights (10-46) which work very well with this, and adds a bit more bottom punch to this. By the way, every string is so clear and distinct on this.

This is one solid guitar and built to last. It does come with Schaller strap lock strap buttons, but not the bit that goes on the straps. They seem solid. I kept a Strat as a backup, and am going to sell it. I feel this guitar will do the trick for me. It is well balanced on the strap, and weighs in at about 8 lbs. The hard case is pretty solid and weighs a ton.

No idea -- haven't had any problems. The warranty is worth mentioning. Basically it is five years from the date it was born -- the date is stamped on the warranty card. It must be mailed within 10 days of purchase. I don't expect I'll need wrranty service, but it looks to be a bit cumbersone should you need it.

I've wanted a Ric for almost 40 years, but I guess if you don't see them in your local music store, you tend to buy what is on the wall (Gibsons, Fenders, and the usual). This one lists for around $1,600, but go new through the catalog dealers for about $1100. Be careful on the ebay market -- I see folks selling used (but not vintage) Rics, maybe a few years old, with starting prices of a grand and "buy it now" prices of $1500. My point, email the catalog folks (Musicians Friend, et al) for their current price -- none publish it, so you have to call or email -- and you will see that you can buy one new for the price some guys are selling them used for on ebay.

If it was lost or stolen, I would replace it in a heartbeat. This guitar does it all for me, and I'm just sorry I waited this many years to finally buy one. The feel, tone and sound -- it does it all (except maybe crunch and shred, although it can scream and roar when you want it to) and very well. Man, that Ric tone -- I feel like that young buy I was almost four decades ago when I plugged in a guitar for the first time. That is a great feeling.

Your Standard Rickenbacker 360, built in February 1999 in California and bought in September 1999 in Canada, in the jetglo finish. 24 frets, hollow-body electric, 2 pickups, each pickup has it's own volume and tone knob, with a blend knob thrown in. Came with the standard Rickenbacker hard shell case.

Excellent sounding guitar that stays in tune. I usually use it with the switch in the middle position. With my limited ability I am able to get any sounds I want so as far as I'm concerned, there is a great deal of sound variety.

The guitar came from the factory ready to play. No nicks or scratches in the paint job but in the crag where the neck meets the body, there was some cracked binding...........five years later, it hasn't progressed any further.

So far after 5 years, it has survived everything that has been thrown at it. I certainly have no complaints

Shortly after buying this guitar, I sent an email to the CEO and it was responded to within 24 hours and answered the question in detail. Since the only adjustments made to the guitar since buying it have been strings I have had no need for the warranty.

There was a 10 year gap between wanting a Rickenbacker hollow-body electric and actually buying it. My original preference was for the 325/325V63 but after trying it I wanted a full-scale guitar, and after trying the 360, I fell in love. While waiting to buy the guitar, I played a Fender Telecaster and I can honestly say that I have a definite preference for the Rickenbacker.

I have the standard Ric 360. It was made in the States. It's black. It has high-output single-coils. It has pretty much the same number and sort of features as any other guitar you can buy, except for a funny small knob on the far right which changes your tone in a slightly different way than the other tone knobs. Much has been written about this elsewhere but I don't see the joy of it.

I play noisy rock music. It does surprisingly well. I use an Aphex compression pedal and plug it into my amp. It sounds pretty good loud, but (as every nerd on this review page has written) "different" than a Fender or a Gibson. I suppose the main reason I'm writing this review is to assure potential Ric customers they'll sound "different" too if they get one. It isn't just hype. The difference, however, is pretty subtle and takes getting used to. I hated the way this guitar sounded when I first plugged it it, but over time I've grown to appreicate its unusual snarling. Chords ring out pretty clear on it and it can get REAL trebly if that's what you want. Also, the bass is always clear on this guitar and quite well-defined, which surprised me. It cannot do long, heavy sustains like a Gibson. It is ill-suited to soloing. I imagine I'd be more satisifed if I played quieter music with it, but it looks neat and is the most comfortable of guitars on one's hands. It sounds neat, though, and my roommate tells me "more like an actual stringed instrument" than my other guitars. However, if you don't like the pickups you're out of luck; they're weird and different and not readily replaceable.

I bought this guitar used. Everything about it seems correct but I get the impression Rics get bowed more often than other guitars since no one can go paragraph without mention some crucial "neck adjustment" he/his tech/the local wizard/luthier made.

This thing is stronger than it seems but the finish is easily marred and asks a lot of its owner. The manual suggests a special cleaning fluid and a special cloth and rubbing techniques... I think they're asking too much.

I've never dealt with Rickenbacker. Their website is deceivingly in-depth but forces readers to download .PDFs and charges insane prices for accessories, all of which are difficult to find in stores. The 5-year Ric warranty is tyrannical and the company's policies seem paranoid.

I've been playing since I was a boy. I own several guitars but nothing spectacular or particularly noteworthy. I like this instrument well enough, but would consider something else if I lost it. I think as a piece of, like, art, it's quite handsome and feels very good to play, but it lacks the depth I'll look for in the next guitar I buy.

OK, most people who would be reading a review on this kind of guitar have probably seen it already...Mine's Midnight Blue, with 2 hi-gain pickups, polished rosewood fingerboard with 24 relatively small frets on a slim 24 3/4" scale neck. Thinline semihollow design with cool "slash" soundhole, not that prissy "f" style thing you see on other semi-hollows; that's for cellos, not electric guitars...covered tunamatic-ish bridge with classic "R" tailpiece.

It's been said before but I feel in my case it's true-the kind of music I play really cannot be catergorized. The basic sound, though, switches between open string jangle and searing power chord chunk. The 360 can do them both, despite what many Beatle worshipper/wannabes will tell you. I agreed with them until the day I decided to tune down the first string; I was channeling Helmet (if you don't know who they are, check 'em out and then throw away your Chevelle and Staind CDs in protest of them not getting the credit they deserve). Also, I don't use round wound Pyramid strings; they're too dark sounding and hard to bend. Instead I use regular 9's-much easier too bend, and pick slides sound much better (I doubt Paul Weller of the Jam used round wound strings on his 330, since he was a huge user of pick slides). Due to the neck this is admittedly no shred machine, but rhythm players and noise leadmen and women should definitely try this before automatically buying an SG or Les Paul.

I'll admit I can get a hard sound out of it at least partially because of the amp I use-a Crate GX65 (I really need to break down and buy a better amp; I've been looking at an Ashdown Fallen Angel), rather than a Vox or Fender.

And of course, since they're single coil pickups, there is some hum and feedback, but that's OK for me because I'm into bands like Sonic Youth, Nirvana, My Bloody Valentine, the Jesus and Mary Chain-bands that don't/didn't shy away from noise and feedback. I give it 9 only because it could use a bit more bass.

Rickenbacker finishes have an interesting quality-they seem to change color a bit depending on the lighting of the room they're in, without any use on metallic flecks or cheesy holographic tricks. Sometimes in looks Navy Blue, other times it looks more Indigo. Cool.

I got this used, so I have a few personal gripes that are probably not the fault of the maker. It smelled like cigarettes, and for some reason the strings seem to be oriented more towards the bass (left if you were looking at it on a stand) side of the fingerboard. It plays and sounds alright like this, but someday I'll have to get this checked out.

Built like a tank-it made out of maple, a very strong wood. Strap buttons are small but hold realtively well. Admittedly, I've never played live (yet) but I don't think I'd need a backup unless I were to break a string, because it's never crapped out on me.

Never dealt with the company. Sometimes I hear if you have a problem they'll give you they're deepest apologies and even cook you dinner when a representative personally visits your home to fix it, other times I hear they sell in-store warranties offered by salesmen quite well.

I've probably already voided the warranty on my Ric 620 by not sending in the card right away and on my 360 by using non-Rickenbacker strings.

I have two Rics-the aforementioned 620 (I've posted a review on that one too, though I might have been too hasty) and this one. I've gotten rid of all my other guitars because, personally, I believe these sound better. If it were stolen, I'd definitely get another one, but probably in Jetglo or Mapleglo because if I were to get another Midnight Blue one it'd remind me too much of the one I lost. The neck does take some getting used to, but once that's done, the possibilies are nearly endless-I say nearly because if you're looking to play death metal leads, this probably wouldn't be your best choice (get a BC Rich; they're more sonically and visually suited to that vibe).

2004 fireglow Rickenbacker 360 with all the standard trimmings: semi-hollow maple body with binding, three piece duel truss rod laminated through neck construction, rose wood finger board with binding and trianglular position markers, two octave neck (24 frets), tiered adjustable pick guard, two high output single coil passive pick-ups, three way pickup selector, mono and stereo outputs, schaller non-locking machine heads, finished off with two volume and tone knobs with a blend adjustment.

Mostly use this guitar for blues/rock and will dabble in other kinds of music (jazz, surf, funk) with it as well. I use a Peavey Bandit 112 Transtube generally with a Dunlop Cry Baby wah and either a Boss Blues Driver or Boss Hyper Metal, depending on the type of gain or distortion I am looking for. I personally like to play with alot of reverb and the 360 pulls it off bueatifully because of its semi-hollow design.

Overall this guitar's tonal capacities literally rock my world. The 360 can go from a whining treble to a bass punch without doing any serious amp adjustments. With a small tone pot adjustment the entire voice of the guitar will change. The bridge and neck pickups, unlike on many single coil guitars, do not sound nasaly or hum loudly when played by themselves and produce a very clear tone, even with a decent amount of gain.

The actual tone of the guitar is very noteable. Lacking any type of Fender-esque sparkle/emphasis on treble or Gibson style mellow sound on bass, the Rickenbacker projects an extremely potent Alto range. This happy median helps this semi-hollow produce excellent tones that focus on a gripping mid-range and producing one of the most decently accoustic sounds I have heard from an electric without a piezo system. When playing with gain, the tone does not become murky or muddy and stays crisp, which is a big plus.

My only gripe is that when the gain is high enough, the guitar will squeal very loudly and/or will produce alot of feedback. This isn't too much of a problem for me, because I don't play with that much gain in the first place.

The entire set up of the pickups, string tension, neck, etc. is excellent.

My only gripes are the heavy lamination on the finger board, the R tail piece, and the lack of a vibrato. I would be happier if 360 had through body string mounts or if the R tailpiece had individual wells for the strings (like that on the stop bar of the Gibson Tune-o-Matic) instead of slots with catches for the ends of the strings, this is just a personal preference. A G&L style vibrato would have been nice on this instrument (to help bring out some melodic phrasing), but again this is also personal preference from playing a G&L Legacy for years.

Other than the above grievences the instrument is spick and span with a gorgeous finish and excellent wood work with exceptional binding, especially on the neck and the inside of the "f-hole".

I would not really want to gig with this guitar, in fear of ruining it, however if I did gig with it I would bring a back up, for common sense reasons. For a hollow-body this guitar is built pretty much like a tank, it is rather heavy and thick for a hollow-body/arch-top with a ton of laminent, which will help protect the wood and finish .

The laminatent on mine is starting to crack a bit around the 9th fret, however it isn't very serious nor seems as if it will ever really become too serious. I really do not know much about the 360's durability since I pretty much baby the instrument. Tuning is a problem sometimes (as is with all guitars), but it has never been an issue.

Never dealt with them; however the warranty lacks.

I have been playing guitar for about 8 years on and off and this by far one of the best sounding electrics I have hear owned or played. I Also own a MIM Fender Stratocaster, Tacoma PM 15, a Martin Sigma, and a G&L CLF Custom Legacy, and this guitar has taken preference over all of them as of now.

Before buying this instrument I was looking at SG Standards, Les Pauls, Fender Big Apple Stratocasters, G&L ASATs, various Gretsch hollow bodies, and at Guild Bluesbirds, but none of them blew me away quite like the 360 did. Although it was a bit pricey new, its "quality for the money" factor was higher than that of any other brand I looked at, and that is what finalised my decission to purchase it. All of the other companies were too much of the same once revolutionary, boring overpriced features, tones, and designs. The Rick 360 build really had not changed much since its conception and it looked better, it was built better, and it sounded completely different (in a good way) than anything I had ever played. Shows The workman ship, tone, and quality on the this "deluxe" model guitar is enough to justify the cost of this intrument.

My Ric 360/6 is a '99 in Jetglo. I bought it a little over a year ago (used on eBay). I expected it to be a neat alternative to my Gibson SG '61 Reissue, which has been my baby for quite a few years now. I'm sure you know enough about the Ric's features by now. The 5-th knob, the dual truss rods, the stereo jacks...it really is a well thought out guitar.

Something that i'm not sure anyone has mentioned is the fact that the knobs are placed opposite what most guitars have. Assuming you're looking down on the guitar as if you're playing it...The Volume knobs are placed on the bottom, and the Tone knobs are placed on the top...as opposed to volume on the left and tone on the right, like a Gibson, which is what i'm used to. It played tricks on me at first, but now my SG feels odd when I pick that up. Stupid, I know, but musicians are picky, I figured i'd make mention of it.

Like most people say, it's true...these guitars are way more solid than they appear to be at first. It's almost all hollow, so it's not gonna feel like a slab of wood. But I definitely don't feel like I have to baby the thing, and it doesn't get played any less aggressive than my SG does.

Good points i'd like to make about the guitar:

It's made very well. The attention to detail is great, and I think they're the best bargains out there. These go for about $1000, and I don't think it's any less of an instrument than my SG, which was a $2000 guitar when I bought it. In some ways, the build quality is actually better than the SG.

It has it's own feel, it's own sound, and it's own vibe...a Rickenbacker is a Rickenbacker, and there's no other company that's making guitars that sound feel, and play like this. It does a lot of sounds very well. The action is smooth as silk when it's set up nice. The whole body resonates with a nice warm, woody, full bodied, clear, sustaining tone. It's very full, very articulate, and very clear, even when overdriven pretty heavily.

So so points about it:

First off, the thing is a pain to set up. The R-tail piece is held on by the string tension alone, and it makes for a real hard time if you ever take all the strings off at once when restringing or to clean it. Also, the bridge isn't fixed to the body. It's just kind of sitting on top of a metal plate that's bolted into the body. The string tension alone holds it in place and keeps it from vibrating. The metal plate it rests on does have small divideds punched out so the bridge doesn't slide around. But when changing strings, it's not too hard to bump it and put the intonation out a bit. Also, the pickups aren't potted from the factory, which they really should be. I probably use this guitar with a lot more volume and gain than most people, but I had a feedback problem big time until I potted the pickups. It's fixed now, but I would've been out of luck if I didn't have a little guitar know-how. Just keep in mind, it is a hollowbody with unpotted single coils...

All in all, I think it's a great guitar, and I have no regrets about buying it. My SG has taken a backseat to the Rick...something I never thought would happen. But I believe that most reviews are way too gleaming. Nothing is perfect, and I do my best to lay down an honest opinion about an instrument. The Rick is a fantastic guitar, no doubt about it. Just be aware of some of the quirks when deciding if it's right for you or not.

A Gibson sounds like a Gibson, a Fender sounds like a Fender...and this guitar, it sounds like a Rickenbacker. It has it's own tone, and this is the only place to get that tone. I use this guitar through the following amps: Vox AC-30, Vox AC-50 head, Orange OR-120, Orange GRO100, Mesa Boogie D-180, Marshall Superlead, Marsall JCM800...all with great results.

The guitar came stocked with the "High gain" single coils. The bridge position I found to be great. A little bright with some amps, like the AC-30, but it has a nice bite to it without being overly harsh or twangy. As mentioned above, I did have a bit of a feedback problem with it. The high gain in the bridge gave me a good deal of squealing when overdriven at high volumes. I potted that with wax and never had another issue with it.

The high gain neck pickup was way too bass heavy for my tastes. It sounded good clean, but when overdriven it had so much bottom end, i'd find my amps motorboating with the bass on zero. Way too much for my tastes. I decided to try a vintage style Ric toaster pickup in the neck positon. That pickup sounds MUCH better. It has a balnced amount of low end and more clarity all around. But that one had BIG feedback problems though. It was way more microphonic then even the high gain in the bridge was. So I potted the toaster, and it didn't help much. I actually wound up picking the wax off and wrapping a rubber band around the pole pieces, which killed the feedback. I then repotted it to seal everything, and the guitar sounds fantastic now. No more squealing.

For clean stuff and semi overdriven tones you probably won't have any feedback problems. Don't forget i'm playing this pretty distorted through a 100W Orange head into a 4x12, standing 10 feet away. There's gonna be feedback. But the potting managed to tame it, and it's not even an issue now.


At any rate...This guitar will do a lot of things, and do them well. I'd say it wll excell at anything but metal. It's got a real neat texture to it. You can't call it twangy, you can't call it gritty...it's just got texture, no matter what pickup position you're playing it on. It sounds very clear and very full no matter how you're playing it. It holds clarity when distorted, and the string articulation is great. My SG sounds like a muddy mess in comparison, and that is a great sounding guitar. Well, maybe not a muddy mess. But it's definitely less clear than the Rick.

It'll do that classic Rickenbacker chime through just about any amp. It'll chime through the Orange, and through the JCM800. You'll get beautiful cleans out of amps that you never thought would sound good clean. It'll do thick, woody sounding, textured overdrive through just about any amp too. I love the toaster pickup in the neck position. It sounds awesome distorted, and clean, it's got a great clear, full bodied clean tone with plenty of girth to it and plenty of clarity without being too bright. Nice and woody, warm, and clear.

All in all, you can't argue with the sound of this guitar. It sounds fantastic through just about any amp i've played it through. I will say that it doesn't seem to pair well with the Mesa D-180. But my SG only sounds good through that amp on the bridge pickup, so i'd say it's a finicky head. I've even played the Ric through a Dual rectifier with good results...so it can sound good with amps that have inordinate amounts of pre-amp gain.

The Rick is a headturner, both in looks and in tone...and for good reason. If you haven't heard one yet, you owe it to yourself. One neat thing to try is to cover up the sound hole with your arm while you're playing, then uncover it...you really can hear the difference. It makes you realize how much the sound resonates from the inside of the guitar out...

overall...great sounding guitar. I wouldn't change a thing about the tone now that i've fixed the noise issues and the overly bass heavy neck pickup. But in stock form, the sound quality gets some lower nu

If you're strictly a lead player, i'd say there are better guitars out there for you. The laquer on the finger board maked bends a bit difficult, and the string tension is a bit higher on this than most guitars. I use 10's, and the action is set nice and low. My SG has less string tension, and is more playable when it comes to leads. The Rick however, excells in anythng but ripping solos.

When you pick one up for the first time, you'll know right away if it's the guitar for you. It's got a very different feel that will definitely grow on you in time. But either you're intrigued by it, or you don't want to have anything to do with it ever again.

Like I said above, it's a pain to setup...I'm not even going to get into the dual truss rod thing here. If you ever have to adjust them, just take your time and make the adjustments in SMALL increments. It will take a day or so for the adjustments to manifest themselves fully on the neck, so be careful.

Anyways...The action is low and buttery smooth, but again, the string tension is a bit high for lead playing. For anything else the guitar is well balanced, easily playable, and feels great. The playing position is nice, and the only thing that took a little getting used to was the fact that the neck it a bit far off the top of the body compared to some guitars. By that, I mean that the strings are farther away from the body than I was used to, because of how the neck is set into the body. You rest your hand on the body, and don't think much abuot it...but it was a little odd for me at first. After a day or 2 though, it was second mature.

The finish is fantastic...everyone else has pretty much summed it up. It's like a black mirrior. I put some belt buckle wear on mine pretty early on, but the rest of the guitar has held up really well. Again, it's a lot tougher than it looks. The wood is definitely more resistant to knicks and bruises than my mahogany SG is.

All in all, it takes a little getting used to, only because it's so different from any other guitar. But it feels great after you get by the transitional period. And every time you pick it up, it feels natural, no matter what guitar you just had in your hands.

Other than the microphonic pickups I haven't had a problem. Again, tougher than it looks, and made just as well, if not better than most guitars costing twice or even 3 times as much. Great instrument. The hype is true, and it exists for a reason...Ric is a standup company with some great products...I think this instrument is very high quality, expecially for the price.

Never had to deal with them, I bought it used.

If it were lost or stolen, i'd buy another one immediately. But i'd be pretty upset, as i'm very attached to this one already, only after a year. It's a very personal instrument, and one that really grows on you over time. It's not for everyone, and like every guitar, it has its strengths and it's weaknesses. I happen to be one of the people who accepts it for what it is, and it suits my playing syle and my music very well. I didn't get into any of that, but feel free to drop me an email if you need any additional opinions or info about it, i'm always happy to talk shop.

They're hard to find in certain areas, and the dealers usually have a long waiting period...but if you're thinking about a Ric...find one to play, and you'll definitely know weather or not it's for you. Don't nitpick about the quirks, they'll work themselves out. It's a very different instrument, and one that may feel a bit different at first. Give it a chance, if it's up your alley, it may just be the one guitar you never get rid of.


I give it a 7 because it took a little work to get it sounding right where I wanted it to. You should be reading the low numbers first anyways...those are usually the honest reviews. ;)

Rickenbacker Fireglow 360 made in April,2004. Hollowbody, 2 single coils, varnished rosewood fretboard (fretboard shines like fine antique furniture), 3 way selector, 2 volume, 2 tone, 1 pickup blend knobs. Beautiful red over blond burst type finish, white binding, set neck.

Using it with a Crate VC 6210 tube amp and Fender Super Sixty tube amps. The sound is stunning to my ears, deep and almost 3 dimensional and echoey, compared to my other guitars. The two pickups are markedly different in sound, which gives a wide variety of sounds.
The Ric-o-sound jack lets you route each pickup to a different amp. The standard jack operates like a standard guitar jack.

Set up was perfect. All the strings were tuned flat, just needed tightening to pitch. No flaws. Case had some kind of dandruff. I called Rickenbacker and they said they didn't know what it was, maybe glue from glueing the felt to the case. Vacumed it out a few times, mostly gone now. The most beautiful guitar I have ever held. Had that Ric-o-smell (vanilla carpet fresh smell). Some people say it's the polishing cloth. At 8 pounds the guitar feels light and perfectly balanced.

Although AMS usually gives you 45 days to check out your new guitar, with Rickenbacker guitars you only get 5 days to return it if you don't like it. I spent the last few days giving it a pretty thorough workout, and I found no problems. I sent in my Rickenbacker warranty card today.

I called Rickenbacker asking about the ric-o-smell and case dandruff. They were polite but didn't know. There's alot of ric-o-smell posts on alt.guitar.rickenbacker. Apparently it's no problem. I just wanted to be sure my guitar was OK. No one has posted on the case dandruff, but that is minor. Rickenbacker gives you a 5 year factory repair warranty from date of manufacture (card must be mailed within 10 days of purchase).

I've been playing about 30 years. My other guitars are by Vaccaro, Steinberger, Jackson, Ibanez, Yamaha, Martin and Takamine. I've grown to like the single coil sound and wanted a hollowbody. I was worried about the other reviews that say this guitar is hard to solo on because of the narrow finger board. I have large hands (size 11 gloves). I found that if I bend a string with my ring finger and let my index finger overlap the string I am bending by a quarter inch, and travel with the string, my index finger pushes the string below the one I am bending out of the way. I'm no great solo player, but after a half hour of experimenting, I could do everything on this Rickenbacker I could do on my other guitars. I was seriously worried about the price of this guitar, but $200/month for 5 months pays it off, so I took the plunge. It's the in a whole other class from anything else I have. I probably won't play any of the other electrics I have very often again (too bad). I wish I would have bought this guitar 30 years ago. All of the superlatives on the reviews here made me decide to go ahead. They are all true.

Made in 2003. Semi-hollowbody. 24 frets. 3 way pickup switching, two tone knobs, two volume knobs (one per pickup), one blender knob. Maple body and neck with rosewood fretboard. Schaller tuners. Hi-gain pickups with mono and stereo (Rick-o-sound) output. Thinline body. Binding. "R" tailpiece. Hardshell case included.

My style would probably fall into the "indie rock" category--my favorite bands include the Pixies, Sonic Youth, the Feelies, the Dead Science, the Smiths, Unwound, the Velvet Underground, Fugazi, Richard Hell, Television, Pavement and the Beatles. I play through a Marshall DSL-401 and occassionally hook up an MXR chorus. On the clean channel, I can get incredibly bright sounds through a balance shifted slightly towards the bridge pickup with the tone halved on the neck pick up, slightly more nasally sounds with the bridge pickup, and very rich, bassy tones through the neck pickup alone. The overdrive channels allow me to get a nice distorted rhythm sound somewhat reminiscent of Frank Black's playing but with less of his Tele's characteristic twang. Darker overtones introduce themselves as tone is cut or when switching bias towards the neck pickup. The guitar is very versatile for rhythm, and the neck shape is very conducive to that type of play. You can coax extra sustain out of it with the right effects, but I wouldn't characterize this as a lead guitar.

The action was far too low when I got it from the factory. The strings buzzed against the frets and made open chords sound awful. With a minor adjustment, I was able to fully resolve this problem, so it's really not a big deal. It plays just as easily now as it did before, and I have the saddle adjusted to its highest level. My only other quibble is that the finish, although beautiful, is very delicate and the neck requires regular polishing so as to not slow you down. Overall it's a great guitar, though.

The strap buttons are kind of tiny compared to a Strat, and if you're a violent player, it's possible for your strap to come off; however, this is probably fairly unlikely. I've had it for about nine months now and aside from the initial action adjustment, everything's been perfect and I anticipate that its record will remain blemish-free for years to come. As long as you're not incredibly abusive, a guitar like this shouldn't give you any trouble.

I haven't had to deal with them thusfar, and hopefully I won't have to.

This rhythm guitar is great for a number of sounds, and I'd be heartbroken if it ever parted from my company. It's an excellent and reliable rhythm guitar that was definitely a stairwell up from the Strat knockoff I had before. It's just a really beautiful and reliable piece of machinery.

this is a 1983 rickenbacker 360, 5 knobs 2 tone, two volume one blend knob. Vintage pickups came with case and finish looks damn good for a 21 year old guitar. this things is a tonal heaven.

Our music is all original . to sum up the sound its a jumbled up
alternative/late 80's new wave/ hard rock. Im plugged into 2 Top Hat club royale 2x12 both of which has miss matched speakers , green back and webber and the other has a greenback and vintage 30. one amp runs dirty the other runs clean. im using a few effects in my chain, in order its
a digitech whammy, analogman clone, maxon ad 80 delay and a dunlop stereo pan tremolo, the other amp has a keeley baked ts-9 , keeley compressor , keeley 3-way rat and a boss tu-2. im using a few true bypass pedals and a few non true bypass pedals. This guitar isnt noisy at all and has the best sound i have every heard. in the past 3 years i have been through 22 guitarssome of them were modified and the others were left stock. I have been a gibson , fender guy for a while but i find it childs play to yeild the tones of a strat and lespaul via rikenbacker. the blend knob makes this guitar so damn versitle and makes me wonder why other company's dont put one in their guitars. it handles alot of clean very well but more importantly it can handle being distorted. if it didnt handle disortion then i would hav eonly gave it a 5 in sound , the fact that a guitar sounds good one way means it only half good , but when a guitar can cover the full freaking spectrum of vintage rock and roll , blues, country picking , rock , hard rock and even some metal then this guitar deserves a 10. and believe me it can cover almost all grounds. i only have 3 guitars at
the moment , Rickenbacker 360 , Burns Brian may , Reverend Rocco.
with those 3 guitars i think i will be pretty much set for life when it comes to tone.

for a vintage guitar the neck is nice and straight , the finish still looks like it was out of a factory. the only thing i hate is restringing the guitar. im just use to the fenders and gibsons i guess. but this aint gonna hurt my rating.

just bought it about 2 weeeks ago , however since its been working perfectly since the 80's i would have to say it must be able to stand the test of time.

dont know dont care

pretty much covered all this ground already. i would def. kill the person who looked at this in the wrong way. I finally found the sound i heard in my head all these years. you should test it out cause its a great guitar.

2003 Fireglow Rick 360 model. See other reviews for full details. Paid $1070. Mainly writing this review as a compare and contrast for people trying to decide between a 360 and a 330/340 model. I actually ended up returning the 360 after a week of playing it and traded it in for a 340. The 360 costs a bit more, however I realized I prefer the feel (especially on the neck), and the look of the 330/340 models better. Also thought I'd mention that the Fireglow color looks a bit different in real life than it does in some of the pictures I've seen, it looks more like a brighter red in person.

I absolutely love the sound of this guitar. This guitar sounds killer in clean mode. But don't underestimate it's distorted tone. You definitely CAN use it for a variety of styles including heavily distorted music. I actual prefer the sound of this guitar to my friend's 1977 Les Paul Custom, the treble notes really cut through the mix providing a very unique heavy sound. People say this guitar isn't good for hard rock, metal,etc. I think that's solely because most people are used to hearing Les Pauls, SGs, Jackson, Ibanez, etc. in the heavy music realm. However that certainly doesn't mean this guitar won't work for heavy music, it just provides a unique sound. Same goes for the 330 model since the pick-ups are the same in both guitars. I'd love to see a heavy metal band all playing Rickenbackers, maybe i'll start one up.

For how well the guitar is made I'll give it a 10. It's exquisitely built and finished. For personal tastes I'll only give it a 8, hence the 9 overall. The action was perfect straight from the store I purchased it at. I mainly dislike the binding on the neck and body of the 360. Especially the neck because it takes away some playing room and like another reviewer said "it serves no purpose". The 330/340 model doesn't have neck binding so it feels and plays better in my opinion. The 360 has a contoured body (which I dislike) and one of the cutaways is shorter than the other and stubby (looks kind of cheesy). Also should note that the lacquer is laid on too thick for my tastes on the 360 whereas it was perfect on my 340.

This guitar may look delicate but it's built like a tank. I'm sure it'll out-live even me (and I'm only 25). Something to pass down to the grandkids someday.

haven't dealt with yet. 10 year warranty from original purchaser, meaning the guitar store not the individual. Which kind of sucks but hopefully I'll never need it.

This guitar is suberbly built and plays and sounds great. I think Rickenbackers are by far the best guitars you can buy for the money anywhere. I also own a Lakewood M-14 acoustic 2002 model. Lakewood are another superb and over-looked brand. Check one out if you are looking for an acoustic, don't just settle for a Gibson, Martin, Guild..Anyways back to the Rick review, overall the 360 is a great guitar. My only real dislikes are the neck binding and some of its looks (the 360 looks too much like a toy in my opinion, whereas the 330/340 looks like a killer guitar). But that's all personal preference. Anyone interested in a 360 be sure to check out the 330 as well, you may prefer it as I do and you'll save yourself $100 or so. I've been on a search for my keeper electric for awhile now. Owned an Ibanez SZ, a Fender Telecaster for a bit but it just wasn't quite what I was looking for, have played my friend's 1977 Les Paul Custom a lot, and a Les Paul is a Les Paul but it wasn't the guitar for me. But I finally found my perfect guitar in the 340. I highly recommend this guitar and especially the 330/340 to anyone interested in looking for something other than the usual suspects (strats, les pauls,etc). Also highly recommended for anyone interested in creating unique and innovative music.

Rick 360 fireglow made '03 fresh out of the factory. 24 frets (although seems to be more when you look at it) born in the usa as all ricks are 2 high gain 'bubble' pickups, bass/treble tone and vol controls and an indispensible 5th mixer dial for versatility. All maple body (I think) laquered to death with the classic fireglow red finish. R stlye tailpiece and tuneomatic type bridge. Schaller tuners + tank like case/cleaning cloth and tools

anyone who mentions the word Jangly and stops there is a fool who has never played a rick in their lives. this guitar goes from the j word right up to fat jazzy earthy sounds. The mysterious 5th dial adds a balance between the pickups that allows a guitarist with enough savvy to exploit the rick and get a huge variety of sounds. from bright airy etheral tones to screaming townsend feedback. Crank up the overdrive and hear this baby growl like a sonofabitch.

Unlike most other reviews I've read, the action from the factory was awful for me - It was high, and the intonation was completely out. However of the 15 or so guitars I've had, only one didn't need a professional and that was a lowden - so fair enough. these guitars play VERY differently to anything you will have played before. Many say the sound is the most unmistakable thing about a rick, I disagree - put a blidfold on me and put a rick in my hand and I will know straight away what I'm playing. no other guitar plays like this the heavy lacquer on the neck and the NARROWNESS of the neck take some getting used to. However - if you are a competent player, you will triumph over this beast. Lead is the biggest obstacle to overcome, but I think anyone who complains that you can't solo on a rick simply isn't prepared to treat this guitar with respect and learn to play it properly. see johnny marr/pete townsend if you don't believe me!!! don't buy this guitar If you don't have any patience and want an easy ride.

In terms of finish this guitar is more beautiful than any girl I've managed to bag in my lifetime. The finish is 8miles deep and I don't know anyone who doesn't come over all gooey when they see one of these beauties close up. slightly quilted with a colour like rasberry ripple Ice cream.

This guitar has been put together better than anything I've ever had (excluding my lowden - which I consider to be my baby) It looks a damn sight more fragile that it actually is. This guitar was designed in a time when guitars (or anything for that matter) were built to last. solid isn't a sturdy enough word to describe this puppy. I wouldn't hammer nails in with it/use it as a snowboard/do a pete townsend/try and kill someone with it/use it as a tennis racquet...........you get the point - but I reckon I could have this guitar until I die.

hear they are phenomenally bad. however I can't think of a reason why I would call them. (unless the neck fell off etc)

Been playing for 10 years and also have a standard tele, and the lowden 035 blackwood. The Rick is a great guitar but don't be afraid to really try one out before you buy it. Push it to the limits of your playing styles and see if it's the one for you. I play art rock (I hate that expression!) indie ish stuff but I also dabble in country/folk n jazz and I use it all the time with the Tele. It rocks as a chord machine but also has great potential as a lead guitar as long as your not into hair rock or indeed hat country. If you play metal or heavy rock with Vai style solos obviously you aren't gonna like it, but it isn't as limited as some guitar shop flunkoes would have you believe.

1998 RB-360, I call it a "loaded classic setup" .Others here have given very accurate discriptions.If you know ric,then you know what it is.

My/bands style we call 'FUNKENROCKMUZIK' 50% originals depending on the room. Stylistically from Hound Dog Taylor to Collective Soul.My amp setup tends to be a Mesa DC-5 head thru a 1 x 12 Mesa Theil Cab w/a Celestion BLUE and a Roland Jazz Chorus 88 w/a Morley A/B box for some different clean sounds . Live I really only use a crybaby wah. I have a Yamaha CH-10M chorus dialed into the effects loop but this I use sparingly. I am searching for a nice delay and flange again to dial in sparingly. I have a Boss ME-6 MULTI EFFECT UNIT but havn't used it with Ric or really at all in the last few years. Any overdrive sounds are the Boogies "DOMAIN". Ric is a lil noisey but that works right into her vibe.
"RIC" is a tone machine,a daunting array of tonal possibility. I came into this guitar through a round about way and it was not my first choice because I have many others that I thought suited my style better. For many years "Ric" just sat there and looked pretty, rarely plugged in and never gigged.I allways would plug him in using the same settings as my main guitars,1972 Gibson ES-325 and 1990 Fender USA TELE PLUS,both fine tough toneful instruments. I have played these guitars for many years and know them intimitly.BUT,what a mistake I was making!I allways thought that Ric sounded dead on my gear and that I needed an AC-30 OR BEATLES/PETTY music.Also I am hard on a guitar and don't really care about smacking my tele around during an intense live performance. I just didn't feel comfortable with the ric in the same way.
One day I sat down with Ric and dialed up some sounds like no others that my other guitars could emulate.The rythmn to lead possibilities between the pickups as well as the pickup blend switch leaves me shaking my head in wonder. The rich tone even at lower volume on a powerful tube amp like the Boogie is very satisfieing.The whammy bar effect of the hinged ric tailpiece is deadly kool live and allways brings a grin from my musician buddies.Nice woody chords on the treble pickup w the treble tone backed off and hot full leads on the bridge pickup wide open. I am still perfecting the elusive Ric chime that I hear so much about but I am sure it is there and is just one more tone to look forward to.
I could go on and on but I am only beginning to apprecieate this fine tone machines possibilities and truly look forward to what my future musical relationship will be with "ric"

Ric is very pretty,beautiful in fact, my wife allways comments that she is our most distinctive guitar.We have a house rule " A guitar in every room " and many fine instruments, Ric allways has a place of honour.I was never caught up in the Beatles thing, I just appreciete beauty.
If I could change anything and I probably will, the lacqeur on the neck is exessive for my taste.Also the bridge makes me cringe by the end of the night because the heel of my hand feels like hamburger. The Ric bridge has some sharp corners and my intense style is sometimes oblivious to the damage until later. Ouch!!
Ric is teaching me a more finesse style with all of her quirks and knobs, unlike Tele who just loves a good bang.

Ric is tougher than I ever thought and can easily be gigged without backup when I get more familiar with all of her tonal possibilities.
RIC'S finish is glossy black ,sparkly white bindings,shiney chrome pickups,bridge,tailpiece,schallers,teak neck "whoa you so pretty,you so sexy".Strap locks are great.
Dependable!

Never used, thought about calling re Ric O Sound but never did.Warranty is long enough 5 years although I never used it.

I have played music for 35 years and play professionally on a regular basis.
If stolen or lost I would miss this guitar but would look around.My only emotional attachment to an instrument is to my Gibson 'just too many years together' That is the instrument that I will pass on to my son.Hopefully Ric and I will develope such a relationship as that, time will tell.
I loved the look of a Ric since as a kid I had the Live at Leeds record with the killer shot of Townsend, I was never a Lennon/Beatle fan,no disrespect to that fine man. I had no idea what a Ric really sounded like except for Petty.Now I am beginning to understand allllllllll of that.
Other gear
Takamine EF-391R, dual pickup small body, archtop, acoustic
Godin 12 string Acousticaster
Gibson 1972 ES-325, FINE RARE Vintage INSTUMENT
Fender 1992 USA Tele Plus, 3 lace sensors and coil tap
Mesa Boogie DC-5
Roland JC-88
Dunlop original Crybaby GC-95
Yamaha CH-10M chorus

I traded a Mesa bass head "400 Plus" for this guitar and the Roland JC-88 because the head had no use to me.Ric hung on the wall for many years as a piece of art and only now am I coming to my senses.

Standard Jet Black 360 bought about 5 years ago for #600 in Glasgow, Scotland. From the serial number it came out of the factory in December 1972, so it is a lot older than other guitars reviewed here. The paint and chrome are still in brilliant condition which gives a good idea of how modern Ricks will last. I had a little plastic shim made to bring the height of the bridge pick up closer to the strings, but other than my guitar is stock.
It has grover tuners which may not be original, but I cannot see any holes screw holes on the head stock where different tuners may have been fitted. From this I reckon they may have been fitted in the factory.

The Sound??? Absolutely brilliant. I only use the guitar with both pick ups engaged and the little tone control turned on a little to add a bit more bass to the sound. The two volume and tone controls are left full on. The sound of open chords through a good valve amp is amazing. It is not going to be everyones cup of tea, but I regularly get asked for the guitar from friends who want to record with it.

It does not give a typical fender or gibson sound, which for me is the real beauty of it.

Hard to comment about the set up as my guitar had over twenty years of playing in it when I bought it, but before I modfied my bridge pickup the output from it was pretty non existant. No rust on the guitar at all though and the paint work is still sound.

Everything on my guitar seems to original, but I do get problems with the pick ups squeeling when the gain on the amp gets turned up. This can be a problem gigging more than recording.

Not sure, but parts in Britain are extremely expensive.

Really is a good solid guitar. I would be surprised if anyone could get by with this as their only guitar but it really does offer a sound which you can only get from a Rickenbacker. Looks cool as well.
It matches my Vox AC30 perfectly and the chimy chords it generates are superb.

Not sure what year this is, although the copyright date on the manual is 1992. The Schaller tuners still have "Made in W Germany" stamped on the back, so I'm a bit perplexed, seeing as how there was no longer a West Germany in 1992. So for all intents and purposes, I'm guessing this is an early 90's model. Jet-Glo finish, which some gripe about smudging quickly, but I find that it doesn't look as dirty as quickly as some would have you believe. Maple thinline semi-hollow body and neck, lacquered rosewood fretboard with sharkfin inlays, tune-o-matic style bridge (with saddles that make the ones on my Gibsons look girly), NICE hardcase, polishing cloth, etc. Dual Hi-Gain single coils, with bass/treble knobs for each, 3-way p/u selector, and the magical blend knob. A nice complete overall package, that should be par for the course for all manufacturers.

I play very tight, rhythmically technical indie rock. Think Fugazi, Don Caballero, Braid, etc. I like a full-sounding, but chime-y sparkly clean tone, the kind that's usually impossible to nail unless you EQ stuff in a studio. Still, I'd like to think I can nail that straight out of an amp. This comes as close as I've heard. I run through a Fender Custom Shop Prosonic twin, and as far as effects go, it's a Boss stage tuner, and a Vintage RAT. that's it. Whoever says a Ric isn't versatile needs to have their head checked. This is the most versatile sounding guitar I own. Hell, it has more knobs and controls than any other guitar I've owned...did anyone actually mess with the controls on these guitars before they deemed them "not versatile"?? There's an infinite number of tones you can dial in, which I suppose may be intimidating to some of the "slower" folks among us. With the Hi-Gains, it has the fattness of a Gibson, and the bite of a Fender, while somehow not being annoying like a Fender. Definitely not thin and wimpy for a single coil guitar, nor is it noisy, even running it through a dual stage rectifier drive channel. There's a LITTLE hum with the gain cranked, but that's it. On the clean channel of my amp, I usually have to leave the bass at around 2.5-3 before the tone starts to flab out on the bottom end with my Gibsons. For a reference point, with my Fenders (even with hotter pickups), I can go to about 6 or 7 before things start to lose definition. The Ric uses the same amp settings tonally as the Gibsons, and has an extra reserve of chime if you really dig into it on the bridge or middle settings. And the middle position...ohhhhh my GOD. It IS the perfect blend of sparkle and fullness once you play with the blend knob a bit. Words cannot describe it's complexity and nuances when played loud through a good tube amp. Solid state (even a nice solid state amp like a JC120) will not do it justice. It rings like a piano, chimes like a bell, drives the input a bit, without sounding "dirty" if that makes any sense. It sounds unreal. Fluid, with plenty of shimmer and fullness. Now I sound like I'm describing a new conditioner. Some complain about the lack of sustain, but I haven't found it to be an issue. Sure, it doesn't sustain like my Ric 650 (Neck-thru-body), but not many things do. It's maybe slightly (if at all) behind my SG in terms of sustain. As long as you leave the treble turned up, ALL the pickup positions sound great overdriven/distorted, which I've never found to be the case on single coil guitars. Natural harmonics also ring through loud and clear on all positions. As close to perfect as I've heard.

Can't speak for the "from the factory" action, but the action is once again...awesome. It is LOW, lower than my SG's, and there is nary a buzz to be heard. Some gripe about the thin neck, and I find it easier to play than a Strat. I have fat, stubby fingers, and I'm used to WIDE necked guitars...yet, I don't stumble all over myself like I do on a Fender. Must be a difference in the radius. Some hate the lacquered fretboard, I really have no complaints, and I'm picky about fretboard feel. Maybe the lacquer is a bit sticky when new, I dunno. There's a bit more resistance to bending strings than on my SG, but nothing to realy gripe about unless you're a complete weak knee'd...err...fingered shrimptoast. The neck was a bit sticky compared to my SG's, but then again I always keep them polished so smoothly they'll slide right out of your hands if you're not careful. ;) The bit o' stick annoyed the heck out of me, so I got brave and decided to go against the manual's reccommendation of only using the Ric cloth or automotive grade carnauba wax to clean the finish, and sprayed a bit of Gibson polish (the kind in the orange pump bottle) on a clean old cotton sock, and went to work on the back of the neck...I figured if it DID damage the finish, no one would notice back there anyways. I'm happy to report the finish is still fine, and not turning tacky or losing shine, and the neck is slippery smooth. Problem solved. No flaws in the finish, none in the fretwork or binding, no misaligned pickups or pole pieces, NO oxidation on any of the metal despite being at least 12 years old. The chrome must be 5 layers deep. Like I mentioned before, some people moan about how tough it is to keep the Jet-Glo finishes clean, but either they finished them differently back when mine was made, or these people have too much to complain about. It doesn't smudge and fingerprint up anywhere nearly as easily as some would have you believe, and a quick run down with the cloth after playing gets rid of any goo. The finish is awesome, like the paint on a Bentley...it's not like paint, it's like a black tinted mirror. The finish has held up well too, as the only evidence of wear after all these years are a few MINOR belt scratches on the back, that judging by their superficial nature, could probably be polished out if I were so inclined. The finish on my Gibsons/Fenders would have dinged or dented at the sight of belt buckle contact. I pity the fool that has to do a refret on a Ric. Except once again, the frets on mine still look almost new, despite the fact the guitar was allegedly played a LOT, and there isn't that much fret there to begin with. Best finishing and assembly I've seen HANDS DOWN. Yes, it's not as aestetically gorgeous as a PRS, but as far as a functional working guitar goes (i.e. not a wall hanger or a "use it for 1-song status symbol"), the craftsmanship is as good, if not superior in terms of durability and longevity. I've seen plenty of other 10-15+ year old Rics that have been gigged nightly and still look almost new.

Yes, this guitar will withstand live playing. I'm not a guitar smasher by any means, but I do tend to get a bit lively and toss my instrument around a bit. While I admit I'm a bit easier on the Ric than I am my SG's, it puts up with me quite well. It's strange, when you pick it up, and tap the back of the guitar, it feels like the flimsiest thing on earth. Then you strap it on, and all notions of 'flimsy' quickly disappear. The neck feels like it would take Herculean strength to break. The body is light, balances perfectly, and is EXTREMELY ergonomically comfortable. I'm kinda on the short side (5'8") and it looks big and dorky (sorry, Rics are beautiful guitars, but large and dorky at the same time) but it plays so superbly I can forget about that. The neck never makes your wrists tired. It NEVER goes out of tune. The Schallers are accurate, and hold a tune quickly, and without fuss, way better than the Grover Rotomatics I use on my Gibby's (which still work VERY well, but not as well as the Schallers). I use locking straps, so I have no fears of dropping the thing. This is the one guitar I would use WITHOUT a backup. Gigged with it the other day, and where my Gibson would have freaked out for a bit due to the temperature changes of being removed from my house (the default climate), being put in the backseat of my car (in FL), and being in the heat until the A/C cooled everything off again, then unloading everything in the humidity again, then getting into an air conditioned building again, which gradually grew to be warm and humid again, the Ric NEVER went out of tune or displated any tuning/intonation weirdness. The G string went out a LITTLE on occasion, but nothing your average person wold even notice (sorry, I have canine hearing). Credit must go to the dual truss rod neck. However, while I'm usually pretty brave about making adjustments myself, if i had to mess with the neck, it'd be one of those rare occasions where I would pay someone else to set it up. I wouldn't suggest trying it at home. I've heard lots of complaints about warped necks on Rics (huh?) and my only guess is amateurs messing with the truss rods, as the necks on both the Rics I own are Golden Gate bridge-like in their stability. Don't try to hit home runs with it, defend your property, or beat overzealous groupies with it (use a disposable guitar like a Fender for that), and it should last forever.

Ric only has one service center. The factory. This is a blessing, and a curse. BUT I understand the reasons behind it. First off, it keeps the quality of repairs consistently top notch (hopefully), and the quality on these instruments is equal or better to others at twice the price new, and they have to cut corners (I hate using those words, but bear with me) somewhere...so they basically make it a complete pain for you to make a minor warranty claim, in the hopes that you won't bother sending it back to them to tighten a knob or something. It's not that they don't care, but A) those things are EXTREMELY rare on these guitars, as they are S-O-L-I-D, and Ric's QA seems to be much more thorough than Fender or Gibson, and B) they keep the cost of the instruments down by simply making it difficult for the consumer to send the instrument back with a *minor* issue, and pointlessly costing them money. HOWEVER, if you have a legitimate problem, they DO take care of you very well. My 650 was delivered with a bridge pickup that somehow became very "quiet" during shipping, and it was handled quickly and superbly, considering I'm on the other side of their universe, and it's not exactly their most expensive instrument. If I had minor issues with any guitar, I wouldn't even bother sending it back and having to play the waiting game. I'd just take it to a local tech and deal with it. I'm coming to the conclusion more and more often nowdays that the customer is not always right, and this is why policies like Ric's exist. People are lazy, refuse to take responsibility for their own destructive actions, and basically think everything should be guaranteed and last forever. For those who insist the factory take care of every little detail, and call customer service when you break a string, when a jack starts to fuzz after you've yanked the cord out of it the wrong way 300 times, when you've damaged the finish while trying to do your Tom Morello impression with an allen wrench, or when you've effed up the neck messing with the truss rods so you could tune down to A and play some PHAT SHIZNIT KORN riffs, here is my suggestion: you might want to pass on a Ric, and cough up twice as much for a nice Les Paul, so they can pad your inevitable silly warrantly claims. Also, Ric's warranty is from the date of manufacture, NOT sale. I assume this is to prevent claims on an instrument that's been beaten on by stupid kids at Sam Ash/etc. Once again, it's not so great for the consumer, but if retailers would take care of their stock, and not let kids bang on $4000 instruments, maybe it wouldn't be an issue. In that case I'd be wary of anyplace trying to sell me a Ric that wasn't hung on the highest hanger on the wall. Ric seems to be more helpful over the phone, rather than email. Most (if not all) companies are, simply because of the volume of junk we all must wade through anymore. Anyways, enough babble. I can understand why they have a somewhat convoluted warranty, and I'm fine with that. Others may not be.

I'm 23 and have been playing for 10 years. I own an '87 SG, a '91 SG, an '89 Japanese Strat, and a new Ric 650 Sierra in addition to my 360 (yep, SG's and Rics...you suppose I'm a Fugazi fan?). My 360 has quickly become my most valued instrument in the short ammount of time I've owned it. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING comes close in terms of sound, playability, and quality of construction. With the exception of the 650 (which still doesn't even compare to it's older sibling), all my other supposedly NICE guitars look like shop projects. Owning a 330 or 360 will warp your perspective. Humans just don't make things like this anymore. The construction harkens back to a bygone era of hand tooled gun cases, fancy smoking jackets, and giant cars with tail fins. I always find myself just staring at all of it's little complex details in awe for a few seconds before I put it back in the case. A work of art that happens to work as well, and a downright steal for $700. Usually, a nice used one fetches between $800-1000+, and I'd have no qualms paying that kind of money (or just buying a new one) if this were lost or stolen...if it couldn't be recovered by other, more sinister means, heh heh...

2003 Made in the U.S.A Rickenbacker 360 Jetglow(black). Came standard with a hardshell case. High Gain single coil Pickups, hollow body, ric-o-sound etc. Alot of cool features including the ric-o-sound and the dual trust rods.

Im into soundgarden, tool, hendrix, pearl jam, ac-dc...basically hard rock...so most people would not expect the ric from me, instead more of what i normally use, the SG. But i would take the ric over any guitar any day. This guitar gets an amazing clean sound(of course)..but i use it more with distortion, it sounds so cool and unique. Being in a band that does some cover music, i have played alot of different types of music and this guitar works great with all of it. I use a Peavey Ranger 212, 120 watt tube amp, and it sounds amazing through it.

When i first picked up this guitar i couldnt believe how perfect it was already set up, the action was comfortable and the neck felt great. The finish is amazing looking, this guitar gets the ladies looking just becuase it is so good looking. This guitar is so perfect right now being new that i will probably cry when i get my first ding.

I havent had this guitar too long but long enough to know that its not as delicate as many think. Basically i wouldnt go throwing this guitar around but i wouldnt worry too much about it. Besides the durability the reliability is very good. I have not had a single problem and other people i know that own a ric havent had problems either.

The warranty is five years long, but only one year for the paint and finish. Other than that i havent had to deal with the company yet.

I have been playing guitar for about 5 years now, I have owned a telecaster, and i still own a gibson SG, but this ric is the best thing i have ever owned. I have been looking for a guitar to buy for about 3 years, and i played many guiars over and over again, and this is the one i got becuase it just had something special about it that no other guitar had. Also the fact that it was fairly priced for such an amazing guitar. I agree with Tom Petty in saying that these guitars are beyond normal guitars, and are more peices of art.

1992 Rickenbacker 360 deep rich fireglow made in the USA.
All maple bound body and neck, with highly polished rosewood fretboard.
Schaller tuners, R tailpiece, ric-o-sound, 2 high gain pickups,
2 volume/tone, blender knob.

played through an ampeg 212 reverberocket.
guitar just chimes on clean channel.
gets a wonderful gritty sound when you turn up the gain.
chords don't seem to get muddy...
this rick is not as bright as others i've played (not a bad thing)
i also don't think it has a limited sound...
i can get country twang
brit pop
stonesy rock...etc.

bought guitar used at action music in arlington, va.
(one of the best guitar shops i've ever been to?based mostly on their customer service).
guitar was set up perfectly (for me)...very low action...
0ver 10 years old and looks brand new...
finish is perfect
i think the sharkfin shaped inlays are a bit sloppy (uneven with too much fill)
hardware still shines
nice silver case

rickenbackers are solid, well built instruments...
nice wood and sturdy hardware...
just don't give pete townsend one...

never dealt with them...
i think there warranty is a bit lame though...

had the guitar for about 2 weeks...think i'll keep it...
i've tried and owned quite a few rickenbackers but this one just works for me...
i really like playing it (they way it sounds, the way it feels)
though, again, i think they did a poor job on the neck inlays and dot markers on the side of the neck...just very sloppy...
i also have a 660 rickenbacker 12 string...

2002 Rickenbacker 360, jetglo, with vintage pickup option, made in the USA, of course. All maple body and neck, with highly polished rosewood fretboard. Schaller tuners, R tailpiece, ric-o-sound, 2 pickups, 2 volume/tone, blender knob.

I didn't really think these pickups would be that different from the hi-gains, but man was I wrong! This thing chimes like nothing else! Beautiful, beautiful sound, just what I've always wanted. I had a 330 with hi-gains, and it was also a very nice guitar. It had what I would call a "dry" Rickenbacker sound. Very little sparkle or chime, but still could cut through anything. The hi-gains were also louder and much better with distortion than the toasters. However, I think you get THE Rickenbacker sound with the toasters. There is no comparison. For $100 more, I got the authentic vintage sound I've always wanted. Absolutely perfect!

No flaws, that I can see. It's black though, so it's bound to show every little smudge and fingerprint. That's ok, though, because it looks killer! Most people wouldn't know it from John Lennon's 325. It also plays like a dream. Neck is nice and smooth, a bit fatter than the one on my old 330, but that's ok, this is better. It really is the most comfortable Rickenbacker you can play.

Rickenbackers seem very fragile, but I don't think that they are. It's not a solidbody, so you do have to be somewhat careful with it. Everything seems to be very solid, though, so I have no worries. I would use it without a backup, no question about it.

Haven't dealt with the company....haven't had to. I also have a 370/12, and have had no problems with it, either.

I've been playing for 17 years, now. I also have a Ric 370/12-string with hi-gains, a Gibson Les Paul Special w/humbuckers, a Martin D-15, a Yamaha APX4A acoustic/electric, a Rogue violin bass, a MIM Fender Telecaster, a Danelectro Baritone, a Fender American Standard Precision Bass, and a Gretsch 6119-HT Tennessean re-issue. I absolutely love this guitar! I'm even considering selling my 370/12 and getting one with the toaster pickups. They are that good, trust me! If anyone stole this.....well, it won't happen, because I won't let it out of my sight. I wish the black finish didn't smudge so easily, but I can deal with it since it look so good. Excellent guitar from Rickenbacker!

This is a new Rick, fire burst, standard features including two single-coil pickups, two volume, two tone, small blemding knob, rick-o-sound and standard jacks. Schaller tuners, overall excellent parts & features.

I play lots of styles of rock, almost exclusively studio work these days. At home I use a Mesa-Boogie 22 watt and a Tech 21 10 watt. In the studio I generally play through a 5 watt tube amp, miked, sometime s with a Pod, J-Station, or other outboard effects. But the main thing is the standard sound of the Rick - nothing else sounds like it. It is also capable of a very good variety of sounds, but that strummed, open crystalline Rick sound is the reason I purchased it. It is slightly noisy though, like most single-coil guitars. I would give the sound a 10 for character, but I had to subtract slightly due to the noise.

This is a brand-new guitar, and it is flawless. Parts, finish, fit, etc. all top-notch. The setup was OK, but I changed strings from 9's to 10's so I had to do a little adjusting (very little, actually).

Well-made instrument. I'm confident that it will perform & last well. I do take good care of my instruments, though I often dream about arriving at a gig and finding my guitar neck broken. Anxiety? Hopefully not a premonition. The Rick looks and feels like it will outlast me.

Have not needed to deal with them.

I have been playing guitar for over 30 years, and someday I hope to get it right. I have a PRS, a 70s Fender Lead I, a Gibson Melody Maker, Carvin fretless bass, and a couple of cheap bargain guitars. The Rickenbacker occupies its own territory, and has its own personality. I would certainly replace it but hope I never have to. The Rick is all about sound - it's unique.

Standard Rickenbacker 360/6 Mapleglo finish,top quality hard case supplied-the rest you know/read before.

Perfect-what more can you say?.I mostly play rhythm and this is the perfect guitar for it. A multitude of tones can be achieved by experimenting with amp/guitar settings -from solid crunch/distortion to the trademark 'chime/jangle' sound that could make a grown man cry with it's clarity of tone.I play my Ricky through a Vox Cambridge 30W twin-a perfect combination, and sometimes through my Marshall 15W Valvestate-good for when i want some heavier sounds.I use the fifth(mixer) knob a lot to get the tone/sound i require, but have not tried the rick-o-sound option yet

Perfect-straight from the box, plugged in and strummed-no string buzz/pick-up probs/rough frets.etc- An immaculate finish.

It should last a lifetime if you take good care of it-i recommend purchasing strap locks, just to be on the safe side. Overall a top quality/trustworthy guitar.

Brand new-so no contact yet as such-i did find the Rickenbacker website helpfull for info/history on the various models.

Been playing now for 5 years-i also own a Yamaha MSG deluxe and a Yamaha APX6-NA-but my 'Ricky' is my fav. The sounds, looks, build quality, playability are perfect. If it was legal over here in Scotland i'd marry it, and if i ever lost it-i'd goto prison because of what i'd do to the guy that nicked it.

Made in the USA ( the Rickenbacker factory is actually about three miles from my house!). Not exactly sure about the year, I would guess late '90's. Solid maple semi-hollow design. Two high-output single coil pickups (high output in comparisson to Rickenbacker's vintage "toaster" pickups). Two tone and volume controls with a pickup blend knob (that small knob at the rear). Standard and Ric-o-Sound (stereo) inputs. High gloss Jetglow (black) finish. Non-locking Schaller tuners. Thin vintage-style neck with small vintage-style frets. Mine came with a beautiful black tolex case with a deep blue lining.

Rickenbacker 360's have a unique, instantly recognizable tone. "Jangly" is a cliche description, but it does fit. Through my Fender '63 Vibroverb R.I. this guitar sounds heavenly. The neck pickup is warm yet articulate. It can produce mellow, jazzy tones or rich, biting blues tones if you add a bit of overdrive. Plenty of bass, but never muddy. The bridge pickup is much thinner sounding compared to the neck pickup. I had to lower the neck pickup slightly in order to balance the output between the two. Add some overdrive to the bridge pickup and you get a nice bright, cutting sound that is great for rhythm and vintage-style lead tones(think Paul Weller's tone on the early Jam records). The middle position combo of the neck and bridge pickups is, in my opinion, THE classic Rickenbacker tone and one of the greatest ever guitar tones, period. To say that it is complex would be an understatement. Through a clean tube amp, this pickup setting produces a pure, bell-like tone that is a perfect balance between smooth and bright. I have never heard another brand of guitar that can achieve this particular tone. Add some tremolo, and it will make you weep. If you want to nail Peter Buck's chiming tone on the early REM records, look no further. Add a little dirt, and you can get those cool Fogerty tones, too. Sometimes, I run my 360 in stereo through my Vibroverb and a Laney LC15. There are alot of cool options when you use the stereo output and run through a splitter box. This is a very cool feature.

Overall, the guitar is very well made. However, mine has a few minor flaws. There are some cracks in the fretboard binding near the bottom of the neck on the right side. Luckilly, they are not visible from the playing position. Also, two of the frets past the 12th fret were not completely leveled properly. This caused two dead spots on the high e (first) string. I fixed this problem easily by slightly filing down the right sides of these frets. Otherwise top notch action, fit and finish. I bought this guitar used, but the owner hardly used it. I lowered the action slightly and that was it. The intonation was dead-on as was the neck relief. After 2 years, I still haven't had to make any truss rod adjustments (the neck is equipped with 2 truss rods). This is a beautiful looking guitar!

This is a very high-quality well-built guitar that should last forever if you take care of it. It is somewhat fragile due to its hollow body construction and set-neck design. You can't just throw around this guitar like a Tele, but it shouldn't give you any problems as long as you are careful with it(no Townshend immitations!).The hardware is very good and the Schaller tuners are smooth and accurate. The strap buttons look cool but I would install strap locks if you plan on playing this guitar live.

Haven't needed to deal with the company.

I own alot of other guitars (Fenders, Gibsons, G&L, Gretsch) and I can say that the 360 is unlike any one of them. This is a truly unique guitar, both visually and sonically. The neck is more suited to rhythm playing because it is somewhat narrow and the frets are rather thin and flat. Bending is not as easy as on guitars with fatter, taller frets, but definately possible, especially if you have smaller hands (like me). This guitar is not for everyone, but that's one of the main reasons why it is so cool. Its not a conformist!

Standard Ric 360.Sturdy case, beatuiful instrument.

I purchased this guitar after 3 months of searching many many music stores. I played at least 200 guitars in the price range. A salesman at a favorite music store told me he had a Rickenbacker 360 in the back that was on hold for someone else,but i could try it. That day changed my life. Never in my dreams could I imagine an instrument so smooth. I held it in my hands for only 2 seconds before I knew my search was finially over. I ordered one the next week. I am very happy and convinced this is my perfect guitar.

WOW---PERFECT----WOW

I needed to find a guitar that I will grow old with.I have purchased my final guiar. I will never be in the market for another guitar.

never delt

Ok I have playd almost everything before purchasing. The runner up was a G&L semi-hollow tele style (very nice) Tone wise,cannot match. As far as finish goes nothing comes close. All my equiment is insured. I would get another. Strap Locks are a must. Uses Schaller. This guitar lives in it's very sturdy case and is only removed 3-5 hours daily for exercise. Then carefully polished and returned. Very fine instrument.

1991. 24 Frets. All Ric Stock features. If Rickenbackers were cars, they would be Volvos...no nonsense, narrow market, perfect everything, unique marketing and does not manufacture their product based on meeting competing company's initiatives. There. The Red paint on this guitar looks like a mile deep.

As a chunky rhythym player, it kicks ass and no, I don't have do Beatles, R.E.M., etc., I get everything out of this thing. I run it through a Fender Ultimate Chorus, so obviously, the Ric is not running at full pop. It's probably like running your Volvo without a couple of spark plugs. I am not pro anymore, but when I do get asked to gig, it's often: "definitely bring your Rickenbacker!". This from non-guitarists. I am known to come play with a Gibson ES-150, Les Paul 25/50 and a old Tele, but no...bring the Ric, they say, bring the Ric! It's obviously better than I am. The Ultimate Chorus does though allow the Ric to have the 12-string brightness with the Chorus ON.

Action perfect for me and to everyone who picks this guitar up. The fit and finish are flawless. I actually have seen so many Fire-Glo Rics, that I am sick of them (sorry George), so this torch red version seems very rare and easy to keep shiny.

I don't know why this guitar screams "fragile" by the feel, but when I look at my collection of "rugged" fenders, they are worse for the wear. The Ric is already 11 years old, but looks new and fools the casual observer. I can conclude that it is more durable than it appears. I loaned this Ric to a touring pro about 5 years ago. It was gone for about a year. While I have heard rave reviews about what it did for this guy's band from numerous people, the guitar looks like it never left it's case. (I was lucky, but I have grown to rely on this guitar so much, it is never leaving my hands again.)

Owned since 1993, but never a problem...wrote for an owner's manual as I bought used, got a current (wrong year) owner's manual promptly in the mail...no charge...plus I am in Canada. They did NOT ask for a dime.

I have been playing since 1964 @ 7 years old, why I still do not play well is confusing. I collect and trade (not sell), because it is more fun than dealing. I have all the popular stuff. Growing up, I was considered weird as I played a Gretsch Duo-Jet and not a "whatever". I was laughed at for declaring my goal as someday having a Rickenbacker. "Are you nuts?...why not a Strat/SG/Tele/Les Paul?". Well I loved the Sound of the Rics from Johns Kay, Fogarty and Lennon, George Harrison, Pete Townshend and Roger McGuinn (although he should have practiced that solo in Eight Miles High before hitting the record button). Finally, when I brought a Ric 325 into the band, I was actually disappointed, wrong model I guess. When I play with the Ric now, I have audience approaching me with comments about the sound of this thing. I am also surprised of the non-guitar people who will comment that I have John Lennon's guitar. Well, John never played a 360, nor did he ever play a fire-engine red guitar, but this comment is frequent...go figure. A Rickenbacker, regardless of model or year, is still one of life's really good deals!

The 360 has a maple body and neck, with a rosewood fretboard. It has a really nice finish on the fretboard. The wood that can be seen through the finish looks very nice too. The inlays are not mother of pearl, actually they're plastic, but it looks fine. Good enough for Peter Buck of R.E.M. This a thinline semi-hollow body, with binding around the neck and body, also on the slash f-hole. 24 frets, schaller tuners, 2 high gain pickups. There are two tone and volume controls plus a fifth knob for more tone control. I never use it except to make the middle pickup selection more trebly (by turning the fifth knob clockwise.) This guitar has a big round neck and a thin width to the fretboard, the frets themselves are easy to slide over. Very nice playing neck and comfortable body. I give it a 10, though it doesn't have tons of features, what it has is perfect for me.

This is a great sounding guitar. I play through a Fender Vibro Champ, usually with no effects, except maybe chorus. It has a great clean tone, contrary to what some people say. A good example of its clean tone can be heard on records by Fugazi. (Also, on their new album The Argument you can hear the beautiful lead sounds they get from it.) They use a 330, which is similar to this except 15% larger in the hollow body department. It's very bright but has some sustain and is not just a piercing, harsh, Mexican strat type sound. I hate to use this word but it is LUSH sounding on the chords. The bridge setting is biting and the neck setting is full, although it is still pretty bright for a neck setting. It is pretty hard to describe the sound of this guitar. The most remarkable sound that I've gotten out of it is on the middle pickup selection, using both pickups, with the Vibro Champ turned up to 8, 9, or 10. It has an incredible bass sound to it, but also extremely jangly. It's a jangly yet crushing distorted sound. It seems like this guitar is well suited to amps with 6v6 tubes. Played it through a silverface Super Reverb (6L6 tubes) and it sounded like the perfect guitar for dub reggae along the lines of Augustus Pablo. If you are even remotely interested in this guitar you should try one out through an old Fender amp and see what you think. It gets a good range of sounds, of course it won't sound like a guitar with humbucking pickups. Fugazi sounds great because they use a harsh distortion/lush clean Rickenbacker in conjunction with an SG for crunch. This is an excellent rhythm guitar and also good for lead, despite what people say. The band The F**king Champs lists it on their album liner notes (where they include what equipment they use.) They used it with a Marshall (like Fugazi) and get good video game music sounding metal leads from it. (Apparently the guitarist uses a Yamaha synth device.) Radiohead uses this guitar too, apparently. It's good for all kinds of "art rock" applications. The notes on the higher frets have weird rings and sustain to them, like on an acoustic guitar. (With distortion it sounds crazy, I know all guitars do that on the high frets but this one has a unique sound to it.) Kind of a smooth sounding guitar for one with single coils. Pretty incredibly good all around. But I can't do it justice with my description, you have to play one to see what you think. You could easily find a $400 guitar that you preferred to this. A guitar is a guitar, as Nels Cline says it's "the notes you play and how you touch the instrument" that matters, and they all sound like guitars when you come down to it. That said, with the middle pickup selection and the fender amp turned up, it chugs in a way foreign to most rock music. Practically sounds like a snare when you palm mute fast chords and un-mute for explosive emphasis, remotely comparable to Shellac. This guitar is not really going to sound like a jazz guitar or a les paul but it does what it does extremely well. I give it a 10 because it has a unique sound and that sound is extremely good to my ears, and it can do alot of variations on the sound it gets.

What is going on with the g string tuners? The ric 220 I used to own had that tuner FALL OFF of its own volition. This expensive, new guitar, from a respectable company, also had the g tuner loosen on its own. This is kind of strange. But the action was great when I got it and still is. Everything else is fine and will probably last forever. I've had it for over a year and people think it looks like a vintage one, except in the condition of a new guitar. But due to the mysterious tuning peg failure I have to give it a 7.

I use strap locks, it seems slightly unreliable in the strap-staying-on department and a dropped one would not look pretty. Everything on it seems like it will last forever, although I wonder what was going on with the tuning pegs. This bridge is not too friendly to people like myself who are not "technically adept."

Only had one contact through email, they were helpful.

I've been playing this nonstop for over a year and I love it. I've been playing for about 9 years, not really seriously but very obsessively. It's conducive to just messing around and being mesmerized by how amazing it sounds.Itdidgive me some problems with the tuning pegs and once I tried to adjust the bridge (stupidly) and that caused me some distress. I wish I had a fireglo or midnite blue one sometimes but that is pretty unimportant. This one looks impressive too, and is more hardcore looking since it is black. There are alot of rickenbackers out there, this might not be the one for you. It's great but I want many more Ricks. Particularly the 481, that's insane, also probably cheaper than this one. If you want a rick, maybe you don't want this one, because it won't do the crunch that most people deep down really want to play. There are ricks that do that out there. But this does what it does really well. Of course I want dozens more guitars but this one will do fine. It is not that expensive and will last you forever and sound vastly better than most guitars you would walk into a store and play. Also, PM Blues Guitar Heaven in Pawtucket, Rhode Island is a great store. They were helpful when I told them what was wrong with the tuning peg. Of course I never bothered to go and have them fix it but they were friendly about it and inspire alot of confidence. It is great but I could never be happy with just one guitar. But it is stil great. It deserves a 10 for playing, sounding, and looking great. (tuning peg problem being completely ignored in this equation because I have such a love for the instrument.)

A 360 fireglow (1995) semi. this guitar has 2 more frets than most electrics which is useful. I love how the neck is higher than the body which give you alot of room to attack from the bass E which makes it great for rhythm. It's a guitar, how many features does it really need?

This is why I like this guitar - it has a really amazing tone - there is so much personality to it. It isn't as quiet as a Tele USA standard, but it is all part of this retro sounding axe. It has this gritty sound which is perfect for rock distortion and subtle overdrive. though I wouldn't recommended it for very very clean sounds, it gives a clean channel a little bit of overdrive which takes away the clinical sound of digital amps and adds personality to any amp. this guitar isn't for metal or pop but anything inbetween. it is an amazing rhythm guitar and is also good for riffs etc. but isn't as good for lead (lead is quite hard to play on it). Brilliant.
i would give this a 10 for how i use it and a 9 for being the only guitar in your set up.

the only thing i don't like is the fretboard, as it is mahogany(?) which isn't as good as maple.
the build quality isn't great (the neck isn't very tighly attached), but it isn't going to be as strong as a solid body guitar.
i'd give it 10 for playability as it's addictive.

this guitar is used by so many famous people at gigs (e.g. my fave. radiohead). i've never had any problems with it in 3/4 year, for gigs and recording. i'd trust it with my life.

5 year warranty

i own a USA Tele Standard, i've played Strats alot (not to my liking), i've been on LP Standards and for rhythm and character this has been the best.

This 360 is a 1997 model which I was told by the salesman was "a little over a year old" when I bought it in August 2001. That upset me a bit but as I learned more about Rics and how they build them, I guess they haven't changed anything on the features for quite a few years so I guess it really doesn't matter. Mine is a Mapleglow and I must admit looks very attractive. My wife really fell for it and she doesn't even play! Semi-hollow, loads of clear-coat that really shines! "Ric-o-sound" stereo out, and this wonderful idea I never seen before and now that I think about it, I wonder why nobody else has a fader knob to blend different percentages between pickups! That is really cool!!! Use that feature prominently.

My main axe is a Fender strat and I haven't played in a band for about 20 years so I bought this more or less as a spare for my Strat. Well I'm starting to log more time on my Ric and enjoy the personality of this classic chimer. When I'm playing a song that is really a knuckle-grinder, I still need my Strat, but I do use it in some pretty heavy numbers that I think others feel it is unsuitable. One thing I dislike is this and when I heard it, I was zapped back in time to the college band I played in at Michigan Tech. Our bass player had a Ric bass and he cranked it through this big Sunn amp and when he was playing loud the pickups would sqeal feedback when he would turn certain ways. I was playing pretty hot the other day and out came that familiar sqeal again! I felt like Christofer Reeves in "Somewhere in Time" flying through a dark tunnel to the old days! Just something to watch for...

Action was too low but it was in the store for some time and I'm sure it was monkeyed with. Have it set good now. Neck thickness is more than I'm used to and I have short fingers but the width seems to compensate for it. I can still grab a F# on the low E string which on cetain guitars is sometimes a stretch for me. Pick-up height was good the pickup switch rattles a bit. The chrome is unreal!!! I don't know how many times they plate it but it is deep...

Live play would/will be fun. Not concerned for any harware failures. I bought strap locks for the new strap when purchased and they worked okay right on the factory strap pegs. Hate to drop this woodworked beauty. I always believe in a backup- not so much for hardware failure but for string breakage.

Due to the length of time spent in the store the owners manual was lost and the factory was happy to send another. He was a bit zealous to tell me that due to the time the guitar was for sale in the music store that the factory would not honor the finish warranty! Go figure that... That doesn't reveal a whole lot of confidence in their product does it?

I have always had a strange curiosity over these guitars and never played one prior to buying this one. Am quickly becoming very attached to the Ric heritage. I play it through a Peavey Ultra 120 watt # channel tube amp with a few stomp boxes. This gutars sails about as pretty I have ever heard- especially with chorus effects engaged. It's much lighter than my Strat which probably contributes to the bad pub on lead playing. (Not real impressive sustain=light bodies) I keep getting mixed up on the tone/volume knobs. Ric uses a different arrangment of the placement. Its actually more logical but just inverted/backwards from traditional placement. I'm sure I'll start to get used to it... just in time to pick up my Strat and start all over again! Am very happy with the purchase even though my 14 year old rock star son thinks it looks cheesey... kids,kids,kids...

A 2000 Rickenbacker 360 Fireglo, made in Santa Ana, U.S.A.
It has 24 frets, Semihollow, Neck and body are made of maple and a rosewood fingerboard. Two single-coil pickups (passive) , 2 tone knobs, 2 volumes, a 3-way pickup selector and of course - the famous blend knob which determines the blend between the pickups. Absolutely beautiful fireglo finish and a gorgeous "R" tailpiece. Comes with a really nice hard-shell case.

This is undoubtedly the best sounding guitar i have ever played!
I just love the sound. It kinda grows on you. Before i bought it i used to use only the neck pickup or both pickups on all my guitars but since i got it i just can't stop using the bridge pickup, it just has this unbelievable crisp trebely tone! The blend knob is really a nice feature, it changes the sound completely. what can i say? it's a rickenbacker - it just doesn't get any better than this. Some say that rickenbackers are not versatile... - crap. It can do early beatles, byrds, REM, who,radiohead perfectly, but it can also handle any other style of music in existence! Although i wouldn't recommend using it for metal, i recently saw a metal band on mtv that used a 360!
It's clean sounds are just so crisp and coherent, you hear every note so clearly. It sounds even better distorted (if that's possible). The thing that amazes me the most is the never ending sustain it has... and its a semihollow! This guitar is just the best sounding/looking piece of wood i ever had the pleasure to play.

Action? how low can you go... ? This one goes pretty low - without any buzzes. It came nicely setup but the strings were pretty rusted.
After i replaced them everything was fine. Some people find rick necks uncomfortable but i just love the neck, it really suits me well... the strings might be a bit too close to each other but you get used to it pretty quickly...
The finish is great...

This guitar could last a lifetime, if you treat it right... it seems to me that the finish could be very easily scratched... it also requires constant care... you need to put it in the case whenever you're not playing and clean it with the ric cleaning cloth that comes with the guitar. Overall i think it's pretty durable but you shouldn't abuse it... by the way, i've never broken a single string on this one...

Never dealt with 'em.

This guitar is just the best value you can get for your money... it does it all, and does it in the best way possible. I use it through a korg ax1000g multi, into a fender solid state amp. I'd love to try it with a good tube amp... I also own a gibson les paul custom (terrible muddy guitar - and costs much more than the rick...), a Guild DeArmond X-155, Fender Bullet Guitar (similar to a tele) and i used to have an American Telecaster... Ever since i got the rickenbacker i haven't played the les paul even once! it just really irritates me that that crappy sounding guitar costs twice than this fabulous ric...
This 360 is my idea of a perfect guitar.

Rickenbacker model 360 6 string. Turquoise. Semihollow body with binding. 2 Ric single coil pick-ups with a volume and tone knob for each. There's also a blend knob and 3-way selector. Has 2 outputs for your guitar cord: standard and "rick-o-sound" which requires a stereo cord. My opinion, don't bother with the Rick-o-sound. I know nobody who uses it and it's a hassle because you need 2 amps (or two inputs on one amp). It gives it a chorus type tone which is not as good as a decent chorus pedal. The neck is narrow with thin frets, making chording fairly easy. The fretboard is a glossed rosewood with shark-fin shaped inlays. Set neck.

This Rick sounds just as you would yhink. Clean, bright, and sparkly. If you're looking for fat, heavy tone, then walk away right now. The sound is made for pop rhythm guitar playing, but it does it well. The sound mixes well with the rest of the band because it's not competing for low-midrange with other instruments, thereby sounding muddy. It definitely lives in the high-midrange zone. A little distortion sounds good, too. Not great for lead work, but a breeze for rhythm. If you don't EQ your amp right, it can sound thin and "spanky" but maybe that's how you like it. Don't bother with the Rick-o-sound.

The guitar plays well for chords anywhere on the neck. The neck is not that wide so is easy to handle. Personally, I like necks a little wider. The highest & lowest strings are fairly close to the edge of the fretboard. The thin frets make lead work a little tough as does the gloss finish on the fretboard. But it's perfect for jangling out those Beatles and REM tunes. No feedback problems when playing loudly through tube or solid state amps. I would stick with a combo, though, like Vox or Fender. It definitely fills a niche in my collection of 26 guitars.

Both reliable and durable. A professional guitar.

Lousy, lousy, lousy. I ordered some replacement pickguards and a new Tail piece (want to change mine from white to black) through Guitar Center, a fairly large and well-respected retailer. It's now 3 months later and still no sign of my parts. Rick sent Guitar Center a statement confirming the order and giving a delivery window of January 26- February 6. It's now March 8th. I ordered the parts December 3rd last year. Go figure. You can order parts & accessories direct from the factory, but they charge you full (and expensive) retail prices. Delivery is pretty quick, though and is the only thing keeping them from getting a rating of "1" in this category.

It's a solid guitar for pop & rhythm playing. I also own a 330 which is the same guitar but doesn't have body binding, fretboard inlays, or Rick-o-sound (just a standard mono jack). I actually like the 330 much better and it was cheaper. It's a classic guitar which does it's job well, but is not very versatile. Customer support through Rickenbacker retailers needs help, but chances are you won't need them. I'm glad I have one in my collection, but it wouldn't be the guitar I save if my collection was on fire. I would check out the Rick 620's and 330's if you were interested in a 360.

1994 model that I bought used in October 2000. Standard five controls -- volume and tone for each pickup, plus the "blender", plus toggle switch to select pickups, plus the "Ric-O-Sound" and mono jacks.

Natural Mapleglo finish with rosewood fingerboard.

I play rhythm in a cover band, with tunes from Beatles to Lucinda Williams. This is the perfect guitar for me. It has the classic Ric sound, which is to die for. High-gain pickups, and a gorgeous, gorgeous tone. I play it through a Fender Deluxe Reverb, and the sound could not be better.

Plusses and minuses here. The action is ridiculously low and easy -- it feels like the strings are just sitting on the frets. But it plays in tune all the way up and down, with no buzzing.

The minus is that the finish has LOTS of checks, and it apparently came that way from the factory. Because of this, though, I got an excellent price for the guitar.

I use it without a backup, and it is rock solid. It stays pretty well in tune (though not as well as my American Standard Strat) and seems very reliable.

Don't know. Haven't tried it.

I love this guitar. It is a true classic. Despite the quirky bridge and tailpiece, it has got to be one of the most beautiful models ever made. And even despite the checks, the mapleglo finish is a beauty. I would definitely get another one.

Mine's got standard Equipment, Oct 1997. It's "Midnight Blue", a relatively rare color, with black hardware. $800 used. These are real nice guitars.

I'd also like to mention that 360's go well with flat-wound strings. Shell out $20 for a set of Pyramids and you'll like what you hear.

I'm not going to go into the technical details, but let's just say that the Ric has large "diversity" of sounds. It's sorta classic sounding, like you'll notice yourself sounding like stuff you already know. I'd say the sound is the main selling-point of the Ric, followed by its attractiveness.

The dude I got it from was a total nut - he had the action set so high I could practically stick my finger between the strings and the fretboard by the bridge. He said he played really "aggressive" music, whatever that means. So I had to screw with it a ton to get the action and intonation right, but I was VERY pleased that after being so messed with, it was right-on once I fixed it. It's not like some other guitars where they just won't intonate no matter what you do. The neck on this Ric is solid, and probably won't ever need to be adjusted. I brought the action down really low without any buzzing, which is pretty amazing around the 24th fret range. The finish is really pretty, it makes you want to rub it. The back is totally flat, which is a bit unusual but actually pretty comfortable once you get used to it.

I think it'd be a lot easier to break than most guitars...not exactly slab construction if you know what I mean. But I think that for its design, the guitar is pretty well put together. I haven't had any problems with it, but it is brand new...

I own a Std. Tele and this Ric, and I use them both. The Ric has more sounds and is a bit cooler sounding. The tele is good for soloing and bending and stuff; I like its action a bit better in the high range (unless I need to get up to the 24th fret - not often!). The Ric is cooler for playing unplugged, too; it's not loud like an acoustic or even a semi, but it's got that semi-sound. The downside of course is that the thing costs $1200 for a new one with a case, so it's a "mature" guitar, not one you want to learn on. Maybe you can convince yourself that it's an "investment".

A Ric is a Ric is a Ric. So hard to be critical of these axes. Mine is the standard beauty. 24 fret, standard scale. Made in California USA in '98. All maple, natural maple finish. Fast neck, medium frets. Schaller turners. Standard Ric "bubble top" pickups and bridge set up. Triangle fret markers. The '64 type carved one-piece top. 5 knob, adjustable pick guard, 3-way selector switch. Stereo output. Recieved tools, Ric hardshell case, polishing cloth, Schaller straplocks, strap, 2 sets of replacement strings and power cable. All for $1100.00 US.

What style ya got? It's a Ric...Play with the knobs and the amp a little and it'll make any noise you're talented enough to figure out. I'm pumping mine through a Laney HC50 twinhead. Want crunch? Flip the 3way up and turn the trebs down on the amp...It'll chew like a Les Paul. Hendrix fan? Switch down and pop the overdrive button...watch your little brother's ears bleed. It will play clean in overdrive. Many say the Rics won't...that's bull, these are solid body afficiandos and they don't understand the acoustics and control techniques a semi needs. Set the switch in the middle and that's the classic Rickenbacker sound. Nothing sounds like the Ric in it's natural state. Nothing. These axes have a tone quality that is unsurpassed. It can mimmick almost any other type of electric guitar made, short of the classic Grestch. It takes a lot of control to handle all that tone swimming around out there. Most hardcore Ric pickers I've spoke to or have read about use compressors. It helps keep the volumes of the tones even. I plan to get one eventually. It's really usefull for the 12 string models.

The only thing that can match the Ric's rep for tone, is the Ric's rep for fit and finish. These guitars are as near flawless as a production model guitar can get. I had played this creature in the shop about 3 weeks before I bought it. I nearly cried the first time I touched it. The action was just perfect for a straight rhythm player like myself. Later on when it came to live at my house I attacked it with a pick to see what would happen...no difference. No pops, pings, creaks or moans. I'm no "lead" player but I've been playing intro lines and chordstep solos on it. Like all Rics the hardware is mounted on the top deck. The only thing I've been winceing at is that complicated bridge assembly. It's classic Ric. Change the strings and tune it one string at a time. If that baby comes apart you might have to call an engineer to get it back together again. Do it by the numbers and take your time...no problem. The high gloss finish on this axe is so thick you can look across the edge and actually see the thickness of the overcoat and measure it with a ruler. I hope it'll never need a fret job, they'll need a blowtouch to cut through that finish and weeks to redo it to match the rest of the guitar. The tuners are typical Schaller, precise, simple, and fully enclosed.

Rics are musician's instruments. Some insist that they're fragile. Again, that's just nonesense. Players who can't tell the difference between performing for the sake of the show instead of the sound are the ones who make these claims. No...you can't use it for a ball bat to whack beer cans into the audience. No..you can't hack an amp up with it like a fire axe. You can't throw it on the floor and stomp on it with combat boots and call it soloing. This is not a damned ol' Fender solid body. These guitars are tough enough to hand down to the grandkids someday. They are sturdy, and quite heavy for a hollow body. With reasonable care they should last just as long as any solid body out there. I'm no pro, but all the pros I've reseached and all the working pickers I do know agree, the Ric doesn't need a backup. Reliabilty and versatility are excellent.

The 5 year warranty is a bit weak...but I don't know of anyone who has had to use it.

Been playing nearly 20 years. Have a Fender Gemini acoustic, a Seagull Cedar +12 12 string acoustic, and a Yamaha BB300 P-Bass. All bought new over the years. Laney 50 twinhead, Ampeg R50 Bass amp and several Crate amps. One Fender Frontman 25 bought used. Lots of cheapie odds and ends and used stuff not worth mentioning. If I lost this 360 I'd be sick for days, then get it replaced with another. The funny thing about this guitar and me is the fact that I honestly believe the Rickenbacker is the ugliest electric guitar ever made. I'm a sucker for the 60s sound of my youth. The classic Rickenbacker jangle. I Love the high end jangle of a rich tone guitar. When I went looking for a serious electric axe the Rics were far from the top of my list...ugly and, I thought, far out of my price range. It turns out that the Rics are the best priced guitars in their class. They're still ugly, but this is a top of the line instrument for a price that is just unbelievable compared to anything else. I went with the 360 '64 because the rounded edges and smaller horns aren't nearly as ugly as the sharp edged models. It still has the classic Ric look but it's not nearly has sharp and "horny" looking. The headstock isn't as bad as it used to be...I guess it's growing on me. I did a lot of research on electrics before I went with the Ric. This guitar beat everything else hands down. I wanted a blue one, but there were only 3 Ric dealers in my area at the time, and only 2 360s in stock between them. I went with the Maple finish, the other was black. My bass is black and it always looks dirty and shows every nick and ding. (It's 17 years old...it's got nicks and dings!) So I didn't even go to look at the black one...I knew I'd get it instead, and would wish I hadn't once the fist scratch showed up. Besides, no one should play a black Rickenbacker except John Lennon...Some things in my generation are just sacred like that. My next piece will be a Rickenbacker 4003 bass...now that beast is in a class of ugly all by itself...I might even get a black one.

Rickenbacker guitars feature one volume and one tone knob for each of it's two single coil pickups. A two tier adjustable pickguard and a "blend" knob to balance the pickups. Also a toggle switch for pickup selection. My 360's color is Fireglo and is a 1997 model. I traded my 1982 Les Paul Standard for it, as the "Paul" really did not fit my playing style. I was not sure of the trade entirely until I recieved it in the mail. You see, I found someone through the classified section of this web site who was willing to trade their mint condition Ric for my relatively used Les Paul Standard in Tobacco Burst Finish. The prestige of owning a Les Paul was more satisfying that actually playing it but I would be lying if I said I didn't miss it. For Live applications it was just too heavy for me. Okay, Now that I have tried to justify the trade, let me give you the run down of the Ric. It is a tonal monster! I have found this guitar to have the highest level of "fun factor" as compared to most of the guitars I have played since I started which, by the way, is approximately 16 years. I mostly enjoyed stratocasters but this Ric has really opened my musical palette to new levels.

The sound is rich and springy. Almost piano like at times. I noticed that the common agreement was that you cannot solo on a Ric as the neck is too thin. Well the neck is thin, but give me a break! I am not the big solo'er, but I have no problems attempting it. Clean, it sounds very rich and well defined. Snappy and punctual. Resposive and "woodsy". I love the sound! With distortion you can have all kinds of fun. It sounds very saturated and full. I like to play The Smiths, Cocteau Twins, Beatles, R.E.M., Radio Head, Aimee Mann, just to name a few of my favorites as well as many of my own compositions and this Rickenbacker fits the bill nicely! It almost has a "chorus" like sound even without any effects. It is very "alive".

The finish is amazing. Very well done. The hardware is unlike any other guitar, so I must not try to compare it to others. However, the bridge is quite bizarre as it seems so basic. So simple it almost seems inadequate but it certainly works just fine. The rosewood finger board is high gloss and the grain that shows through is beautiful. The guitar is comfortable and well balanced, light and resonant. Wonderfull!

No problems yet. As with any instrument, you just have to look after it. Overall it seems very sturdy and well made.

I have only called them once and that was for a catalog in which they were very prompt in sending.

Love it! If you are considering a new guitar, I would definately suggest checking out a Rickenbacker. They really are quite different which is refreshing in a world of redundant choices. These guitars have been around a long time and playing one sounds somewhat familiar (Gee, I wonder why?) The sounds that come out of a Ric are beautiful, original and yet new. Enjoy!

This Rickenbacker 6 string has 24 frets, solid carved maple top, maple back, maple/mahogany neck, bound rosewood fingerboard, two hi-gain pickups, three-way selector switch, tone/volume for each PU, and the famous fifth knob. The fireglow finish is impeccible and the chrome hardware is neatly machined. Pictures do not do this guitar justice. It is gorgeous. The "R" tailpiece and adjustable bridge are definitely top of the line. The attention to detail is simply beyond belief for a guitar that sells for around $1000. The supplied SKB style case is perfect--very sturdy and sporty. How about including the Ric-O-Sound cable and box with this guitar? This guitar comes with Schaller tuning machines and a nifty dual truss-rod system.

I compose and record my own music--mostly pop/rock with a bit of folk and blues thrown in for variety. My favorite artists include the Beatles, Blues Traveler, Muddy Waters, Sunny Terry & Brownie McGee, Nirvana. This guitar suits my style well. I have an extensive pedalboard, but I like to run this guitar direct to the clean channel on my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with a Celestion V 30 speaker. It chimes like the 60s with the tone controls at 12 o'clock and the reverb set to 5--beautiful! Through the drive channel, it quacks nicely, without losing its personality. This is not a high-gain metal guitar, but with some creative use of the volume and tone controls and a little patience with amp settings, you can get this guitar to go from the most beautiful zingy rhythm sounds to a chunky blues growl--outstanding.
I often run my 360 through a Boss DD-5 digital delay with a 300 MS delay and use an aggressive muted flatpick with my right palm muting the strings just above the bridge. The 360 really responds well, emitting a haunting sound that I cannot get from my Tele or Strat. Very cool!

I ordered this guitar by mail. It arrived neatly double boxed, just like it left the factory. The setup was nearly perfect. I did not like the supplied strings, so I replaced them with D'Addario .10s. This improved the sound and feel of the guitar. The string height and intonation were right on. The hardware is top notch.
This Ric is extremely comfortable to play with its rounded top edges and bound fingerboard. I have small hands, so the compact Ric neck suits me well. The action is great, and the finish on the neck, while a bit sticky when brand new, broke in very nicely. It is now comfortably slick with a satiny feel. The 360 with its semi-chambered body is very light and does not stress my neck and back like my Tele reissue or my Les Paul. I can play this guitar for hours without a break.
The Fireglow finish is truly a work of art. The maple woodgrain on the body shows up well; the laquered rosewood fretboard is equally well dressed. Of the many guitars that I have owned in the last 30 years, this one is the best in terms of action, fit and finish.

This guitar should hold up well. I've seen 35 year-old Rics with Fireglow finishes that look terrific! The whole package is tremedously solid. I have always gigged without backups--no concerns with this guitar.

With lifetime warranties a standard among elite guitar manufacturers, the 5 year Ric warranty seems a bit weak!
I have had no experience in dealing with the company.

I own several guitars including a 52 Telecaster reissue, a Standard Strat with Fat 50s pickups, a Godin Radiator, and a heavily upgraded Les Paul 100. This is the best of the lot in terms of quality. I love the sound too. Some days it is my favorite sounding guitar. Other days it may run second or third behind my Tele and Strat. When all of the stars are aligned perfectly--my amp is running sweetly, I am playing in a nice acoustic environment, and the sound guy has the band mixed really well--the sound of this guitar will make you weep with joy! Other times it might sound irritatingly chunky and bottom heavy. On an average day, it has alot of zing and chime that people who know nothing about guitar sound really like. I get tons of comments about the sound of this guitar by non-guitarists. I rarely get comments about the sound of my Tele or Strat.
My main amp is a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with a Celestion V 30 speaker. This is a great match for the 360 especially the clean channel. I would buy this guitar again if it were lost or stolen.
Compared with PRS and Gibsons, this guitar is a tremendous value for an American handmade instrument. You have to like the sound of the Ric too--it is an acquired taste, kind of like good single malt Highland Scotch.
I hung this guitar on the wall of my home studio/home theatre room next to my 52 Tele Reissue and my old Martin D-18. It's a real showstopper when people come to visit. I love talking about guitars to non-guitarists, and they always ask about the Rickenbacker!

1991 Made in the USA. Fire Glo in colour, with the normal 5 knobs and switch. It has the pickups with the screw heads, although I prefer the reissue look. The double cutaway body is in reasonable condition although the previous owner has not taken really great care with it. The guitar smells like bars and smoke, so I gather it's had a working career. I really like the way the body is rounded on top and bound at the back, and it it feels so great when you put it on. It just nestles uunder my arm feels really good.

I just cant believe the amount of tone you can get from this thing! You can have it on one setting then change your right hand position to move it further up the neck and the sound changes complately! I love the jangle sound, but there's so much more you can do.

I bought the guitar from a hock shop in Florida on Ebay. After it arrived in Sydney I had to have it set up for me. The ric o sound jack had come loose.

looks solid enough to last. I worry about the binding on the edge of the neck, it looks like it's already come from a vintage guitar! The finish looks well applied and te laminate on the neck will be there for a long time.

Dont know Rckenbacker only have agents in Sydney

I have been playing since I was 13. I'm now 43, I still play every day and even have a band with my kids! My other instruments include a 66 Tele, an EMG fitted Strat, Yamaha Electric/acoustic (for work), a Gilet OO acoustic (from one of the best luthiers in Australia), and a Seagull Grand which is an acoustic with a tiny body (I think its referred to as a parlour guitar) but a great sound. My favourite? Depends on my mood but I love 'em all! I haven't had the Ric long, but it's becoming a favourite. I think its a really unique instrument. One of things I'll always remember was that the first rock and roll band I ever saw had a lead singer who played a Ric. I think for the money I paid its a great guitar.

This is an American made 1990 Rickenbacker 360 guitar. It has a hollow body with a carved maple top and sides and a two-peice Laminated back. It is in the high-gloss "JetGlo" black finish. The comfortable and thin neck is made from a 7 peice laminate of shedua (I think that's what it's called) and maple and has Rickenbacker's patented double truss-rod. The fretboard is a heavily laminated Brazilian rosewood, which hasn't been stained darker like on alot of rosewood fretboards, it has triangle shaped position markers inayed on the front and cream colored binding on the sides (which was probably white at one time). There are 24 frets and a graphite nut. The neck joint is set in, halfway into the body as a matter of fact, you can see it by looking inside the "cat's eye" shaped soundhole, which is also bound. There is also binding around where the top meets the back. The way the top is carved is kinda rounded, and attaches right to the flat back. There are two cutaways, which are also rounded-off giving it its own distinctive look. The bridge is adjustable, similar to a Gibson tune-o-matic, just larger, and with better height adjustment. The strings are anchored to a large metal trapeze tailpeice with a giant letter "R" on it. The tuners are Schallers with the "snake" logo on them, and read "made in W. Germany" which also showes the guitar's age, old yes, but the tuning is smooth. There are two pickups of Rickenbacker's Hi-Gain variety, which are not routed into the body, but are attached right to the top, and rubber grommets seperate the pickup's casing from the body. The controls are located on the two-layer pickguard, which is another trademark of Rickenbacker; there area selector switch and 5 knobs: two volume, two tone and one master tone, which work wonders with Rick-o-sound (so I've heard.) All around the guitar is neat looking, the 360's appearance hasn't changed since 1969. And the hardshell case that comes with all Rickenbackers is also beautiful, but the silver ones of the '60's and modern reissues is supposed to be nicer.

The Rickenbacker sound is more than just the Byrds "jangle" that everyone knows. It can do alot of things. Pete Townshend of The Who, Peter Buck of R.E.M., The Edge of U2, Paul Weller of The Jam and The Style Council played various Rickenbacker models and use them for about a million different sounds. They have a great distorted sound, like no other guitar, just it's difficult to drive up an amp without a pedal, due to the low-output of the pickups. I, right now use a vintage (I'd call 1963 VINTAGE)Kay amp with a cheap Aria distortion pedal. The sounds are useful, especially since the artists I mentioned earlier are among my heroes. The distorted sound is punchy, and is hard to really describe. Alot of different tricks can be used to harness the distortion, The Edge tunes down a half-step, Peter Buck tunes the first string down to a D, Pete Townshend shook the guitar and played with the amp's knobs and did things too squeeze more feedback out. The clean sounds are brilliant, Townshend and Buck used them alot, although Townshend preferred using the 12-string for clean. Many have said it, and I'll repeat it, Rickenbackers can do it all.

I wouldn't know about the factory, this guitar hasn't seen the factory in 9 years. I bought it mail-order thru a shop in New York City. It came to me set-up well, I just lowered the action a little, with Rickenbackers, low action is what you want, I got my action a hair under an eighth of an inch over the fretboard, and it can go lower. As for the condition of the guitar, it has a couple small dings and one noticible scratch (you don't see the scratch now that I put a sticker over it, now it looks just like Peter Buck's 1982 Ric 360.) Everything else is fine. The guitar barely feels broken in.

This guitar has seen 9 years of various stuff. I wish it could talk, I wonder if its previous owner played any gigs with it. It seems to have seen alot of play time, but it was taken good care of. I have taken immaculate care of it myself. Everything seems solid and trustworthy. Peter Buck's favorite Ric has seen about 18 years of use. I'm sure mine will come close to that. I'd probably switch between it and another guitar if I tour, but that's becasuse I may want a vibrato on some songs, or a different tuning. Knowing me, by then I'd probably own another Rickenbacker for that purpose.

I don't think there's any warranty now. I take good care of my guitars, if It needed repairs, God forbid, I hope it's something electrical or a refret, or something I can do myself, I'm considering replacing the pickguard, it's kinda dirty around the knobs, it doesn't seem to come clean. Maybe I'll take it off and scrub it when I change the strings.

I've been playing for about 5 years. I've owned the majority of the cheap and/or unknown brands. Here's some examples: I currently own a Karera Rickenbacker 330 copy (it's junk compared to this), a Squier Strat, a Squier Tele, and an old Kyomei classical-style accoustic. I have owned a Hohner Les Paul copy, a Kent Gibson SG copy, a Memphis Precision bass copy, a Harmony accoustic and an Aria accoustic. As you can tell, a wide varitey of junkers, clunkers and crap. This is the first name-brand guitar I've ever owned. I'm proud of it, and I love it, I don't regret getting it. I regret getting the copy, but I can modify that to be more user-friendly. I have wanted a Rickenbacker since before I ever learned to play. The sight of The Who's "Maximum R&B" poster with Townshend windmilling on a modified 1997 SPC is famous. I can give many reasons that I chose this guitar. The feel, the sound, the weight, I didn't know jack squat about when I fell in love with them. Now that I do. I love it even more. If I was ever to lose this guitar, I wouldn't buy a new one, I'd buy a gun, and hunt down the person who stole it. Nothing can express my love for this guitar.

Made in 1995. 24 frets. Classic features, no upgrades. Natural wood finish.
I haven't tried the ric-o-sound box with the stereo jack yet.

I use it with a Fender Blues Deluxe amp and a Zoom 505 and play all kinds of music. It can make a wide variety of sounds & it's really great to be able to get so close to the sounds I hear on early REM CDs.
The pickups provide a pretty high-level of output, which is handy since the Fender amp I have doesn't overdrive very easily.
It's easy to get a really rich sound out of it as well as the more traditional jangly sound.

I lowered the action just a hair from the factory setup. There aren't any obvious flaws -- it plays really well with the exception of trying to play lead since the strings are so close together. You can get by with leads, but you really want a different axe for that.
It's really easy to play this guitar.

It's been really reliable so far; no problems at all. I worry about scratching it up, but it'll just give it character.

If I lost it I'd definately try to replace it, but it would be difficult to find one. I looked all over the greater Seattle area and couldn't find one. I ended up finding it after hitting 8 guitar shops while on vacation in Los Angeles.
I had to other cheaper guitars before the ric -- there is no comparison.
The guitar plays and sounds great -- no regrets.

My rick is black with white binding. It has 24 frets which all play really well, (I had problems with playing high notes on my telecaster). It has a pickup switch to select between bridge and neck and in the middle position there is another knob to finely adjust the balance between them.The tuners are non locking schallers. It also has two outputs, standard and rickosound. I find the rickosound very good when overdriven but a bit too sharp when playing clean. In my band we are thinking about using 2 amps from my ricks 2 outputs!. When I bought it second hand I got a case and a strap but not a rickenbacker one. The neck isnt very wide which could be a problem if you have fat hands.

Our band is one that likes to go from one extreme to the other often in the same song. I found that I couldnt get a guitar that did both well. The rickenbacker is very good either overdriven or clean. The sound is very aquired and if you are conisdering one try it out using your own amp. Our bass player does not like the sound of the rick clean. I use a crate GT80 and when the amp has the valve selected the sound is near perfect. As I listen to REM & the byrds the sound suits me because its the same guitar as they use.

As I bought the guitar second hand I couldnt say how well it was set up from the factory. I bought it from the guy who was in bis and it spent lots of time in aeroplanes and buses. The finish is OK but there is a few scratches. I have found that the pickups have started to rust slightly but that was fixed with a quick rub with cleaning fluid. It wasnt playing very well when I first got it but the local guitar shop soon fixed that

The guitar was used by the previous guy on a tour to the US and Japan. The guitar has a few marks in the finish but these are purely cosmetic. The hardware is solid and the guitar is generally well put together. One if the strap buttons was loose but I tightened it and its been ok since. I swap guitars during gigs to get different sounds but I would use it without a backup if I had to.

I contacted rickenbacker to see if they could provide me with the tools you get with them new. I got a response within 3 days. The only thing is I have to deal with the supplier as I am a UK customer.

I own a Telecaster and an epiphone les paul. The rick is easily the best for me. I have no regretts buying this guitar. If it was lost I would be heartbroken until I contacted the insurance company and got my cheque for another!!!.