Rickenbacker 610

I believe this is a 1988(87?) 610 Jetglow. Same specs as other have mentioned previously. Great hardware and finish.

I play lead/rhythm guitar in a couple of blues/rock bands and this is my main guitar. I have a Gibson SG Angus Young Signature model that I have only for backup, but I rarely have to use it.

My setup is a Fab Distortion > DIY Boost Pedal(amz mini boost) > DIY Fuzz Face > Fender Blues Junior. I use the middle position selection and use the blend to change the tone.

Oh mY mY. I love this guitar. The blend pot really makes this a very versatile guitar and I can get alot of nice variations with the blend. I don't go after signature guitar sounds so all I can add is that I love the way this guitar sounds both distorted and clean.

It is so easy to play and I only need to tune it ONCE before we play. I bought this used in 2006 and the intonation is spot on, the neck is straight and the finish is perfect.

It looks great and I haven't seen anyone else playing one in my town in a long time.

The only downside is the R bridge...total PIA, but it's quite fancy-looking and I'm willing to sacrifice fashion over form when it only costs me a few more minutes to restring. If I need the action adjusted, I'll take it to a tech and pay to have this done correctly the first time instead of me f*cking it up.

I play with it live and it's durable and depedable. I use a backup in case I break a string. If I have fresh strings, I don't even take my backup.

TOTALLY DEPENDABLE.

I have no idea.

To me, this is a 10 guitar. I've read alot of opinions about Rics being fragile, not staying in tune, and being somewhat a one trick ponie as far as sound goes, but I totally disagree after owning this. I used to play an SG and a cloned Flying V religiously, but once I picked this guitar up, I haven't played those guitars out since. This guitar is light, comfortable, very playable, and stays in tune so much better than the high priced gibson sg I own.

It's just a very nice little guitar all around.

This will go to my kids when I'm finished playing. If it were stolen i'd sell the SG and buy a 620.

USA Made Rick 610. Essentially a 620 with dot fret markers, no binding, no ric-o-sound (no loss there) 1980's?Early 90's?

Solid Neck thru body construction.
2 Ric Hi-Gain pickups
Jetglo (aka black)
"Cresting wave" body
Eisenhower administration bridge
Schaller tuners
Rosewood Fretboard 21 Fret GIBSON SCALE!!NOT FENDER!!!

I play rock, punk, pop, indie, surf, whatever tickles my fancy. I use a Fender "evil" Twin amp.

What the hell is "the rickenbacker sound" anyway? I often wonder if people have a clue what they are talking about. There are TWO well known rickenbacker sounds that come to my mind. #1 Is the chimey, jangle-y Byrds sound (or think of the guitar in the Beatles' Nowhere Man). #2 Ric sound is the bright but raspy sound of the Jam (or, think of the solo in Taxman). Hi-Gains do the latter, "toasters" do the former. There might be some overlap but my point is that you WILL NOT sound like the Byrds with this guitar.

Whew! With that out of the way I can say there is a good deal of variety you can get out of this guitar and these pickups. The Hi-gains are rather hot for single coils and distort rather easily. The neck pup by itself is a bit muddy compared to the 57/62 on my strat neck but it's still OK. Both pickups in tandem give a nice, full, clean sound with a little bit of Jangle. The Bridge pup sounds the way I wish my Tele and Strat bridges did. Beefy yet still decidedly single coil. Still not humbucker territory (could use a boost for rock solo type stuff) but it does get a few harmonics with amp on overdrive. Great distorted sound when pushing a semi-clean channel (or and old tube amp).

I bought this guitar used on ebay and it could have used a pro setup. The intonation was f*ed. Changing it is an absolute bitch because the "R" tailpiece blocks your access to the allen bolts on the bridge that adjust the individual string "seats". Only solution is to sacrifice an allen key by cutting or bending to fit. Or, you can take off all the strings and guess the intonation but getting the bridge and Tailpiece to stay in place while putting on the first few strings is another headache.
I still haven't set the action right because I don't have a small enough wrench for the double truss rods.

The fingerboard has a gloss which is nice because it makes it feel like maple when doing bends (which I prefer). Unfortunately, the gloss is cracked at a few upper fret ends and actually covered some of the frets when I got the guitar. I don't know if that was from a repair or what but I razored it off.

The strap buttons are tiny. Get a tight strap. The schaller tuners are top notch. The bridge looks cool and once set up is stable but it's still crap. It's 2003, get with the program. The "R" tailpiece is molded and polished only on the front side. The back, where the strings sit looks like a highschool metalshop project and the ball ends of the strings rest in grooves that barely hold them. Bullet end strings might not fit at all.

All that aside, it's a solid guitar and would take a drop way better than a gibson. I'd play with a backup though, because if you break a string it's gonna take 5 minutes to replace it.

I really like this guitar but I might not have it forever. It sounds dynamite and is decently versatile. The neck is great I my hand never cramps on it (a rarity). My main gripe is really just a matter of preference. I like Fender scale better. I have big hands and fenders are what I've alway played. I thought that the 620/10 was fender scale when I bought it because it was 21 fret. Well, the 12th fret on the 610 is at almost the same spot as the 11th on a strat. This along with small frets and my clumsy fingers makes it a little more difficult for me to solo on. If you like gibson scale, this gripe turns into a plus.

What will make it hard to sell is the great sound and the fact that it looks awesome. I dislike alot of non-standard shapes out there but this shape is something you rarely (or maybe never) see yet looks classic. When looking down at the headstock while playing, I feel like a total f*ing rockstar...

US made, of course - Nov '96. Purchased in '97 - new. 21 fret maple thru body neck (why pay $3000 for a custom guitar?)Controls are 2v, 2T, PU sw, the mixer knob - the key to the Ricky's REAL versatility. 2 vintage reissue PU's (custom ordered) these are the mid '90's heavies @ 9.5-10k. Mine is FG with plain-jane wood on the wings but nice tiger-stripe flame up the neck and on the head-wings. The regular wave-cresting-thin-as-an-SG body style (the details are the same as the 620 on the Rick website). Included SKB-type Rick hard case. Somebody custom-ordered it, then didn't like it and took back his deposit.

I play most styles from surf/spy lounge to Merseybeat and blues to Classic/southern rock to alternative and punk/ska. This one will do everything. Of course the amp choices are different for each type - Since I don't have an AC30 now, I use a stereo rig with a Fender SFDR and HR deluxe for the old stuff, a Fender Blues DeVille + 4x10 extension (4 Alnico, 4 ceramics) for blues/classic material and a Dual Showman head with 4x12 Celestion G12L-70's for the heavier stuff. I use old Korg G3's for tone and modeling when needed - they're a little noisy, but the parameter/algorithm stuff is too involved for my musical tastes.
This guitar goes on every gig, period. It can be a Jazzmaster, LP spl, Tele, any kind of jazzbox, and can duplicate almost any single coil sound (except thin gutbucket out of phase tone). The heavy-wound vintage pickups are more versatile than the hi-gains with no loss of punch or volume - just less of the ferric-magnet bite. I'd say they're closest to the original Gibson/Epiphone mini-humbuckers in the tone dept.

All near perfect. I raised the action exactly 1 turn on each end and have played D'A 10-46's @ 1 set a week for 5 yrs. I lowered the neck pu slightly to even the volume to make the 5th knob most effective. PRS should turn out a $700 guitar this good.

5 yrs @ 5 nites a week. No problems = 0, nada, bupkus, zilch. Works first time every time. If I had to choose only one guitar to play every possible gig with, this would be the one. Nobody make a bolt-on to compare with it.

I have several Ricks and have had only one contact with their support:
I have a 360-12 that had a minor cosmetic flaw that appeared after abot 3 mos (a fingerboard inlay had a tiny crack from slight uneven gluing, perhaps. Ric was 'no questions asked - send it back'. That's the good news. The estimated turn-arond on a cosmetic repair was 12-14 mos to California! I declined the repair offer. So, yes they will honor the 5 yr warranty...but I didn't pay $1k for a year of loneliness!

Have played for about 35 yrs...all styles...had lotsa gear...now keep Ricks and Strats and Fender amps as the main workhorses. If somebody ripped this one, I'd track it down...it is one of the last of its kind (I think the 610 was discontinued in '97 in favor of the 620) and is a unique piece with the VP's and its cool flamey neck-through.

American, 2 sc pickups, 2 volumes, 2 tones, 5th knob, 3 way switch.
In the Fireglo finish.
Made in March 1992.
I got it with a cool case, too.

The sound is amazing! The classic Ric sound. Just perfect.
With the 5th knob, you can go from a very fat 'les paul' sound right through to a thinner 'strat' sound - while still soundling classicly 'Ric'
The high output sc picksups are amazing - i love it.

The action when i got it was very low - but extremly playable.
It was set up just perfectly - i'm not sure if this is how they come, or if the previous owner had changed it...
The wood is beautiful and the Fireglo finigh is very nice.
It only weights about 3 or 4 Kgs!
One thing is that the 3 way switch is starting to develop a bit of noise...

This guitar is tough.
I have had no worries with it at all & i play in a band in night-clubs and pubs every week.
Although - i still bring a backup guitar to a gig, just incase a car runs over my Ric....thats about the only reason i would use the backup though....

Dunno.
Never dealt with Ric.
Although, their website is very good.
:)
www.rickenbacker.com

I have been playing for about 12 or 13 years.
I have 9 guitars - some include Epiphones and Strats and Steingways...etc...
I have a 1979 Fender Twin Reverb Amp, Boss/Jim Dunlop effects.
If it were stolen or lost, i would save up and get another one! They rule!
I was a goal of mine to own a Ric befor i was 30 - and I did it!!!!
Now i just need a Ric 12 string......
;)

American made, solidbody, single coil electric. My only complaint in the features department is the difficulty of changing strings that the unique Rickenbacker R-shaped bridge causes.

I'm a big fan of the Rickenbacker sound and the 610 delivers it perfectly. Really clean and jangly, but with the proper pickup selection, full-bodied and almost humbuckery. I use the Rick with my Vox Pathfinder, a bandmate's Nifty Fifty, a tube MusicMan 410 and it always sounds great.

The only gripe with the setup is that Rickenbackers - at least this one - have a dual truss rod that is hard for a jayvee guit tech like myself to set up perfectly. When my guit guru sets it up though it's genius.

Very solid, I've been playing it fairly seriously for 8 or 9 years and it's only now beginning to look broken in.

Never had to deal with Rickenbacker. Which tells you something in and of itself.

I've been playing for ten years and have had many guitars ? fender mustang, lp jr. copy, kays, silvertones, vega and epiphone, you name it - and this is the only guitar I've had that I would never consider trading in. It's my #1. If it were stolen I'd track down the thief and. . . I play post punk, noisy, hipster country and the Rick fits me perfectly. Absolutely love it. I can't believe I got a first-class American-made guitar for so cheap. It's a beauty.

The guitar is an American-made , with a hard maple body, volume, 3-way selector, 2 passive single-coils (high-gain), sunburst style (fireglo). The model consists in a "cresting wave" style, and included as acessories a case plush-lined and a manual of instructions.

I play Beatles, CCR, Chuck Berry, Classic Rock throw a Fender Deluxe 112 Plus and the sound, I think, it's hard to beat. Sure, that's not a set-up for metal,the single-coils make some noise and don't have the harmonics of a Gibson PAF, but the Rickembacker jangle and brightness is unique. If somebody buy a guitar like that, must to know that she's great, but not for every style.

The action had no problens , and I could play straight from the case. The quality of finish and hardware was alright.

The Rickembacker is a reliable guitar. I got friends, whose own this axe with 30 year old, and more older, sounds more better. The finish is made with the same care and I hink that it will last. The strap buttons are solid, but not locked. I play just for fun, no gigs yet, but I think that I can depend on it and shoud not need a backup

No deals with the company, and my warranty is for just one year (don't forget, I live in Brazil).

I play now for 5 years, and have a Epiphone Les Paul with Gibsons 57 pickups and a Epiphone PR5E Artist. I asked the dealer, if I could play lead on it, and he said "yes" and that's true for the "vintage" Rock. I really love this guitar, she plays well, sounds great and every place where I play, the guitar really appears like a "White Fly" (like we say in Brazil) because it's diferent, nothig like Les Pauls or Stratocasters. I can't say that "I hate" the fact that the output it's not THAT GOOD, because the Rickembacker is not make for that. For that feature I have a Les Paul with humbuckers. If it were stolen, I would buy one new, but the problem is that they don't make this axe anymore ( with no bindings and dots). The clean sound,ringing bightness and focus of the tone are the better features.