NDG - Rickenbacker 650C

[rickenbackerkid]

Recently my covers band has been playing the last set in a Eb or D tuning, to give our singer a little more headroom while shouting his way through AC/DC, Guns and Roses and Bon Jovi. I've been switching from my usual Rickenbacker 360 to a Strat tuned down for the last set, and it has sucked.

While it's obviously possible to get a big, chunky distorted rock tone from a Strat, I have not yet figured out quite how. My Strat is lovely when I'm playing clean stuff but I can't get comfortable with the sound dirty, so last weekend, after getting quite annoyed with the Strat, I vaguely thought I'd have a quick look around for something that would lend itself to playing rock. This was only intended to be a light tire kicking but things escalated.

tempImage63Dhen.gif (2.6 MiB) Viewed 2867 times

This a Rickenbacker 650C, not a common guitar and in some ways a weird one. Rickenbacker is well known for making very niche, vintage-y guitars, on a small scale, and lots of people hate the tiny frets, glossy neck finish, pencil thin necks and weird electrics, so in the 90's, they tried to deliver exactly what people wanted and they released the 650 and 380. These had normal maple fretboards, humbuckers, standard Les Paul type controls, jumbo frets and a whole new neck shape, wide across the fretboard and pretty fat.

Having made what people asked for it seems that not a lot of people really wanted a modern Ric anyway and so they were discontinued.

This one was in stock at Conways' Emporium of Bad Financial Choices and he was happy to sell it with a 30 day right of return, so I jumped on it.

I'm dead chuffed with it, although the neck shape is unusual and will take a bit of getting used too. The sound is great - neck humbucker is very LP-ish and bridge is very harmonically rich, maybe Les Paul meets a little bit of Rickenbacker/Gretsch chime.
Hardware and build quality is outstanding as expected from a Rickenbacker.

It had its first outing last night and performed magnificently in a particularly feral private function.

CB20E5D8-89B4-4A32-AB11-3ECFEAA4CDDE.JPG (1.09 MiB) Viewed 2867 times

[jeremyb]

That is fucking cool!!

[GrantB]

This one was in stock at Conways' Emporium of Bad Financial Choices and he was happy to sell it with a 30 day right of return, so I jumped on it.

Accurate

[sizzlingbadger]

I had one of those for a while, it had a small repair in the truss rod cavity from new. It was a cool guitar, something different.

[bender]

Rad! Nice one

[GrantB]

Reminds me, I have some black nuts if anyone needs replacement for their Ricky’s.

Great looking guitar. Is the neck slightly d shape with a flatter back?

[The Scarecrow]

Recently my covers band has been playing the last set in a Eb or D tuning, to give our singer a little more headroom while shouting his way through AC/DC, Guns and Roses and Bon Jovi. I've been switching from my usual Rickenbacker 360 to a Strat tuned down for the last set, and it has sucked.

While it's obviously possible to get a big, chunky distorted rock tone from a Strat, I have not yet figured out quite how. My Strat is lovely when I'm playing clean stuff but I can't get comfortable with the sound dirty, so last weekend, after getting quite annoyed with the Strat, I vaguely thought I'd have a quick look around for something that would lend itself to playing rock. This was only intended to be a light tire kicking but things escalated.

tempImage63Dhen.gif

This a Rickenbacker 650C, not a common guitar and in some ways a weird one. Rickenbacker is well known for making very niche, vintage-y guitars, on a small scale, and lots of people hate the tiny frets, glossy neck finish, pencil thin necks and weird electrics, so in the 90's, they tried to deliver exactly what people wanted and they released the 650 and 380. These had normal maple fretboards, humbuckers, standard Les Paul type controls, jumbo frets and a whole new neck shape, wide across the fretboard and pretty fat.

Having made what people asked for it seems that not a lot of people really wanted a modern Ric anyway and so they were discontinued.

This one was in stock at Conways' Emporium of Bad Financial Choices and he was happy to sell it with a 30 day right of return, so I jumped on it.

I'm dead chuffed with it, although the neck shape is unusual and will take a bit of getting used too. The sound is great - neck humbucker is very LP-ish and bridge is very harmonically rich, maybe Les Paul meets a little bit of Rickenbacker/Gretsch chime.
Hardware and build quality is outstanding as expected from a Rickenbacker.

It had its first outing last night and performed magnificently in a particularly feral private function.

CB20E5D8-89B4-4A32-AB11-3ECFEAA4CDDE.JPG

Man, I have not seen one of these in years... singer for an old band I played in about 20 years ago had one and he played it for about 2 songs in total in our sets. Used it a couple of times as a backup and was pleasantly surprised at the tone. The neck profile is definitely a bit unique, but I'd concur with your comments on LP with a chimey type of sound.

[kdawg2a]

I know Rickenbacker have made an abomination or two during their history but I'd wager, for the most part, their stuff has been consistently great this wee jem included.

[rickenbackerkid]

Reminds me, I have some black nuts if anyone needs replacement for their Ricky’s.

Great looking guitar. Is the neck slightly d shape with a flatter back?

Yep, that is how I’d describe it. Wide d shape with a flat back. Quite unusual but comfortable!