Rickenbacker 481 Slanted Frets

well, as you know, this is the guitar that has slanted frets. they are slanted away fro the body for the higher strings. 2 humbuckers, coil tap. 2 octaves. I give it a high mark for the frets, since it is quite unique

alot of people complain about the pickups. I have no problem with them, I love it. almost like a les paul, dark.. like neil young electric stuff, or strokes. great for rock... I have some nice guitars, a Vox 12 string teardrop, guild hollow body, martin, dobro, mustang.. I find myself playing this most of the time

its all good, low action, no issues with finish, especially for a 32 year old guitar..

old guitar in great shape, I think it was in a closet for 10 years. I gig with it. Strap buttons are quite small..

Never tried

Love it, looks great, plays great, will go up in price, sounds great. was kindof expensive, but worth it. I bought it in the US, but here in Europe it sells for 2400-3000$!

I own a 481(azure blue) I purchased new in '77.It has been my primary stage guitar for 20 years.The original pickups sounded like mud, so I had a luthier install a Seymore Duncan super distortion in the bridge position and a single wound JB in the neck position.Now it has an incredible range of blusey to jangly tones.The factory coil tap gives even more versatility.24 Slanted frets (gimick) rosewood fingerboard, Schaller tuners, light body, great looking, very unique.

Great bright and jangly sound (with the new pickups)Good rock rhythm sound,mediocre sustain.Great 50's 60's tones.

The action on all Rics are super,the 481 is no exception.The fretwirw wears quickly, but can b dressed easily enough.The singlewound I installed, required a copper lined pickup cavity to compensate for dimmer switch noise in the clubs.

Road warrior to the extreme. Never had a glitch, never cut strings, totally reliable.

Rickenbacker is Rickenbacker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This guitar has been superceeded by the new Ric 650C. Modern Humbuckers,wider neck,super sustain,light weight,make this modern Ric my new primary guitar.Finally Ric makes a guitar that looks cool an you can play lead on it.I also play a Godin A6 and a Brian Moore I91.I do mostly orchestra pitwork these days and I need the synth ability.But for stuff like "Tommy" or "Footloose", the Ric is still king...

My 1977 slanted-fret 481 is by far the coolest looking guitar I've ever owned. The Jetsons look and slanted frets give it a very cool vibe and a unique presence. It's a solid body with bolt-on neck in "jet-glo" which basically is black. It came with two heavy, cast, chrome-plated Rickenbacker humbucking pickups that are shaped like no other pickup in the world making replacement difficult (more on that later). The body is solid maple in the "crested wave" shape, similar to the model 4001 bass. Neck is rosewood (I think, although it's very light in color), but it's completely finished in a hard laquer so it plays more like a Fender maple neck. Frets are thin, and the fretboard is completely flat with triangle fret markers. The neck bolts to the body at an angle, not flat like Fender guitars. Adjustable bridge (kind of like a tune-a-matic) and very cool "R" tailpiece. Controls are basically the same as a Les Paul -- vol and tone knobs for each pickup and a 3-way selector switch. There's also a phase reversal switch for the neck pickup. All of these are mounted on a white plastic pickguard that covers about 40% of the front of the guitar. Front of the body is bound in cream, as is the neck. Back of the body has some contouring to make it more comfortable to play. The weight of the neck and body are fairly evenly distibuted making it comfortable to hold with a strap. I'm rating this a "7" because it doesn't have "tons of features," but the ones it does have, like high-quality sealed Grover tuners, are nice.

Unfortunately the sound on this guitar when I purchased it could only be described as shite. While the body and neck are nice and resonant when played without an amp, when plugged in the feeble, muffled, muddy tone from these beautiful looking but ineffective humbuckers is a dismal disappointment. But I bought it anyway -- the whole slanted fret thing was too cool to pass up. I then hunted down a couple of Ric single coil pickups and built a new pickguard . . . and voila now have guitar that sounds as cool as it looks: very bright, jangly, spanky, attack and good sustain. I have the old pickups and pickguard so if some collector wants it to hang on his wall (after he pries the guitar from my cold, dead hands) he can have them . . . but I don't think I'll ever use them again. I'm having a local machine shop build some mounting rings for the pickups and then it will be cosmetically whole again as well as a great player. So, I'd rate the original sound a zero but the sound with the new pickups gets an 10.

I'm of two minds on this. The action is great, fit and finish on the neck and body are flawless, wood is fine (as far as I can tell under Rickenbacker's impermeable shell of laquer). The original pickguard, on the other hand, was surprisingly shoddy work. The contours didn't match the contours on the body, and the edges were rough and had bumps instead of a nice smooth curve. Also, the pickguard was white while the binding and truss-rod covers were more of a cream (yes, they are all original). So, when I replaced the pickups and built a new pickguard I did it in cream, and altered the curves slightly to match the edge of the guitar. Looks much better. Not sure why Rickenbacker didn't pay the same level of attention to detail on the whole guitar -- kind of quirky.

Well, it was built in 1977 and is still going strong -- although due to the crappy sound I suspect it didn't get a lot of use over the years. It's very solidly made and I'd definitely be comfortable playing it live although I haven't yet (just a matter of time)

Can't say on this

I've been playing for over 20 years in a number of bands. I mainly play an old SG with P-90s or my Ibanez semi-hollow, but will be using this Rick more now that I've got the tone fixed. If it were stolen or lost I wouldn't rush right out and buy another but would consider it if I saw it again -- the non-traditional look, solid feel, playability, and (now) bright tone are nice to have. Nobody else out there plays anything like this so it definitely will stand out.

I am reviewing my 1976 model 481 guitar. I first fell in love with the Rickenbacker bass shape watching Chris Squire of Yes and Michael Rutherford of Genesis. While cutting class in high school, I went in to LaHabra music to check out some guitars. I picked up a Rickenbacker catalog and noticed the 481 model right away. It was5 years later that I found a used 481 at another local shop for $350. I bought it with the original case and took it home without even plugging it into an amp to try it out. It has two huge Rickenbacker logo humbuckers. They have cast chrome, not stamped covers which are quite heavy. The 'rose wood' fret board is about as flat across the top as a classical nylon stringed guitar, though not as wide. I say 'rose wood' in italics because as with many Rick guitars, the fretboard does not look like regular rose wood. Compared to Gibson or Fender guitars, Rickenbacker rose wood fret boards are very light in color, more along the color of pao ferro wood. Also, the fretboard is very thick, about 3/8". The triangle position markers are pearloid and fit perfectly, no gaps or wood fill at all. It looks as if the pearloid markers were poured into the marker cavities and then hardened. Like most Rickenbackers, the entier neck is finished, including the fretboard, in gloss lacquer or polyurethane. Of course the frets are slanted, but I'm not so sure that it actually facilitates easier playability, as stated in the Rickenbacker catalogs of the period. The 1 and 1/4 inch thick maple body is bound in white on top and shows a slight crack between the binding and the body. There are slight body contours on the back. Mine is finished in 'AutumnGlo' which is kind of like a vintage light brown violin burst. Under the white plexiglass pickguard, the word 'Autumn' is handwritten in grease pencil underneath the finish coats. The pickups are riveted in place with some strange type of Rickenbacker proprietary rivet, making height adjustment impossible. The neck is bolted on ala Fender. I have made it a point to buy neck-through Rick guitars since buying this 481. It has the classic 'R' tailpiece. The bridge saddles are made from either aluminum or pot metal and they have disintegrated under the palm of my right hand. I don't think the acid in my palm is more acidic than average, I just think that the bridge saddles would be better made of brass. I did switch the saddles to brass, compliments of a local machine shop, and it has improved the tone and durability immensly. The nut is made from black plexiglass.
No rating for features, because you can decide for yourself from what I have typed.

I play everything from rock to reggae to surf to ska to country. The downfall of this guitar for me are the pickups. The large adjustable pole pieces are phillips head screws. They are relatively low in output, although I'm not sure of the exact rating. I have played this guitar through a lot of amps, Marshal, Fender, Vox, and Ampeg. Compared to Fender type single coil pickups, Gibson style humbuckers, and even more traditional style Rickenbacker pickups, these 481 humbuckers are dull and flat sounding. Kind of like the flat frequency response from EMG 'select' pickups. It's probably the only Rickenbacker I would ever give a 1 rating in the sound category. But I have silvertones and danelectros which sound more pleasing. I think these pickups were a huge reason Rickenbacker never sold a lot of these guitars

The 481 has the typically great Rickenbacker finish and fit. The frets are vintage sized, not the medium-jumbos most rock guitars now have. There is no wood filler anywhere on this guitar.

I have gigged only minimally with this 481. I prefer my G&L Strats, Teles, or my Rick 650A. The 481 is a bit of a 'white elephant' guitar. More of a collector than an everyday player. The sound is unremarkable, so I don't use it for recording. But it does look very cool, at least to me.

Here's where it gets weird. I have had a love hate realtionship with RIC. I have been to their small factory in Santa Ana California a few times. I have seen the necks laying out to dry in the sun on the asphalt behind the building. With no signage on the exterior of the building, there is only a small sticker on the front tinted windor door, belying the world famous Rickenbacker company housed within. Once inside the tiny, we're talkin' SMALL, reception area, a receptionist watchdog files her nails behind a sliding glass window. I had come to get a new output jackplate stamped for my 481, because the original had gotten rusted. I had called ahead and got through to the person in charge of guitar wiring, and he had told me to come down and he would take care of me. I told the receptionist who I was there to see. At that moment, Cindy Hall, one of the family owners came by and asked why I wanted to see him. I told her I had called ahead for a new jackplate. Ms. Hall said that it would be impossible and that RIC does not replace rusted jackplates. She was less than polite. She said that RIC only does business with dealers, not consumers. I told her that their wiring person had said he would do it for me and that I had come from Washington state just to get this taken care of. She said it was out of the question. Just at that moment, the wiring person I had spoken to was walking by on his way to lunch. He asked what the trouble was. I told him, while Ms Hall was still watching, and he said he would personally stamp me a new jack before heading out to lunch. Ms. Hall was visibly pissed to put it mildly and stormed off. I realize that the guitar serial number is on the jackplate, and I did trade in the rusty one for the new one, but why did Ms. Hall have to get so bitchy? This is the world famous Rickenbacker guitar company. I have since heard many stories from guitar shop owners and employees who say that RIC is a royal pain in the ass to work with. Currently, I have no plans for buying any new Rickenbacker guitars.
Rated a 3 for the helpfulness of an employee willing to go the extra mile, even against the owner of RIC.

I have been playing guitar, self untaught for around 32 years. I have seen and learnt a lot about guitars, but I'm not a professional. If this guitar were stolen I would collect the insurance money and take a trip to Hawai'i. It's not worth having as a player compared to the other guitars I own. Maybe it will become a much sought after collector's item, like a cabbage patch doll.
Basically the pickups suck, and since the pickups are not a standard humbucker size, and they are riveted in place, and any other pickup would look totally lame on this guitar, you may surmize that it is best used as a wall decoration.

I have a 1976 walnut finish Rickenbacker 481 with slanted frets. It was made in the USA. It has a bolt on neck. Everything seems to be original on the guitar. The body is in great condition for being this old. I've always wanted to have one of these guitars and finally I do. It comes with 2 humbuckers. There is a toggle switch and a phase reversal switch which switches from active to passive. I'm thinkin' that this only works for the neck pickup. The frets are kinda worn, but I think if I give this guitar a chance, I could get used to it. I got it with a hardshell case, but I don't know or think it's the original case.

This is gonna be a total rocknroll guitar. It's got the total Lemmy look, but it's a guitar. I haven't played it through any cool amps, but I'm sure it'll sound good. I've only played it thru this tiny practice amp.

The only thing I don't like about this guitar is the worn frets! Other than that, it's a killer guitar!!!

The action on the guitar is fine!

I think this guitar will be a good live guitar.

The hardware seems to be the original hardware from 1976 and it's still going for 2004, so I think it'll last until I die.

The finish seems to be good as well.

This is no longer in the catalog and I've had to do my own research on it.

I've been playin' over 17 years now!

I also own a Gibson Les Paul Custom Black Beauty 1954 reissue and a Goya Martin Acoustic.

I wished I had asked about the frets, but I really wanted this guitar and had to expect the worse with something this old!

If it were stolen, I wouldn't get this again. That's just the life story of the guitar and another guitar chapter in my book!

I like the fact that it's a Ric and that it looks like the Ric 4001 bass!

I hate the worn frets! They aren't that bad, but very old!

I wish it had single coil pickups! I think that would be cool!

This is a solid body guitar ad it was built in 1976 in California (I guess). It has 24 frets which are slented: it means that every fret is inclined of a little degree, supposing that this will help the hand positioning; for me I must say I don't find many differences from playing a normal guitar. But theese features are really interesting for the guitar design, since the 2 pickups, the bridge, the neck bridge are inclined, so the guitar looks strange.
The body is similar to the body of 4001 Rickenbacker bass guitar and there are 4 volume and tone controls (tone and volume for each pickup).
The guitar has got two pickups, which are Rickenbacker humbucking.
There is a switch with three positions to choose the bridge or the neck pickup, or the two togheter. There is also a control for selecting active or passive pickups.
The finish is black and the pickguard is white. Rickenbacker finish is really strong and not thin... it's difficult to scratch.
The bridge is typical Rickenbacker, chrome with the big R.
The tuners lock quite well and are Grover.

I play rock and roll, blues with my band in Italy and the guitar is great for that type of sound. Is not the typical and well known Rickenbacker sound. it has harmony but it's more rock and roll oriented. This guitar plays exceptionally well with slide and the sound is deep but harmonically high... the note does not just stays there, but fly a little around. It's quite a mix between a Link Wray sound and something more psychedelic.
I play with an Ampeg seventies amp and I don't use any particular distortion, just the saturatione of the valves, the sound is clean but strong, acid when needed... though for the most acid and surf reverberated things I prefer to use my Fender Mustang.
The sound is really great, both using slide and playing rock ore more psychedelic things, but for me there is one thing wich is a quite poor (I play in a band with no bass)... and is that the low strings aren't very strong... (not like I'm used with my Fender Mustang that I own since 1989).

The action is medium.
The pickups are ok but are impossible to move!... it's possible just to regulate the string/pickups distance acting on the bridge.
The finish is great and I'm really impressed by the care that Rickenbacker craftsmen must have used building this guitars.

I use this guitar playing live and it'ok. It's really strong and isn't heavy... the sound is rich so I can play theese guitar on many songs. Virtually I can do all the live set if I don't want to cahnge instrument.