I've been looking for JUST THAT ONE since 1964, when I saw George play his in "A Hard Day's Night" - it became my holiest of Holy Grail of cool guitars. Of course, his was a one-of-a-kind pre-production model, and when they finally started producing them the next year, they had changed the body style. I've had two of the "round-edged" RICs - Like Jim/Roger McGuinn's, but two pup models - both fireglow, both 12-strings - but it just wasn't the same. Used 'em in cover bands when we did a few Beatles and Byrds tunes, used 'em on some originals... you know how it goes. More for flash than substance.

Then, about the time I hung up my spurs and got a day job in the mid-eighties, they reissued the "Vintage" body styles. Oh well, I thought, there's another unrealized dream... I was still doing the odd casual, but it was usually a country gig by then - too old and fat to play R'n'R - a couple of years later I got married again, and quit doing even that...

But I was on the MIDI bandwagon pretty much from the start, just doing stuff for myself and a few friends, building backup tracks for covers and original tunes - it's way-easier to deal with than drunken drummers and all that "who-knows-who-shows?" jam session kinda stuff. I really started to spend a lot of time with it in the mid-nineties, made some spiffy sounding tapes that even made my wife get enthusiastic about it. And, when she bought me a lovely ebony (MIK) Epiphone Sheraton for my birthday 1995, bless her heart, I just couldn't tell her how prejudiced I was against "imports," so I play it with a smile (it's actually a very nice guitar).

But then I thought, "Oh boy, now I can buy guitars and stuff again!"

In 1998, I was cruising gbase.com when this RIC 360/12v64 came up, used, for $XXX ( price hidden to protect the innocent).

"Wow!" sez I," That's cheap for one of those..."
But how could I rationalize a purchase like that? Uh... gee, I can't! Oh well, it'll be gone in a day or two...

But, it wasn't. Three months went by and it hung in there, calling my name... I finally e-mailed the dealer and asked how firm the price was. He said it was on consignment and had just talked to the owner who really needed to get some money out of it, and dropped the price another hundred bucks. The rest is history!

I always thought it was a little ironic: I've lived probably a hundred miles or so from the RIC factory all my life, but I bought this axe from a dealer in PA and then had it shipped back here!

The moral? If you really, really want something that seems impossible to obtain, just wait until you're too old and fat, have NO USE for it, and IT will come to YOU! Since I've had it, I've written a couple of tunes on it, and I bang on it now and then for nostalgia's sake... AND, once a year it gets beat on pretty good for a Beatles set at our reunion gig! But mostly, it just sits there while I admire it and drift off, thinking about the sixties... and then the seventies... and then....

About this axe:
The fit and finish are exactly what we've come to expect from Rickenbacker, beautifully done. The neck seems a little more flat-backed and square at the edges (the classic wide U-shape) than I remember on my '70 360s (the "rounded-top" ones had a very shallow "C"). I spent a while futzing with the truss rod and bridge, trying to get the setup a little more comfortable for me, and I wound up going after the nut and cutting new grooves for the strings, bringing the pairs closer together.

The tone is completely like the Rickenbackers I remember from my youth, which is to say, it's a bit dissapointing - warmer than you might expect from these (I believe) single-coil toaster pickups. I think the new pickups are unfortunately overwound, when compared to the original sixties specs. For that (and other reasons), you DON'T just magically sound like George or Jim (Roger) McGuinn, right out of the box. In fact, when I DO use this axe live, I actually crank the bass on the amp all the way OFF, the treble all the way ON, and hit the bright switch - now, that's twangy! I'm sure that setting would vary from amp to amp... I haven't tried it through the Fenders I picked up summer '06 yet.

I found a thread some years ago about the Byrds that explained how they actually got that signature bell-like tone for Jim on the early albums - the guitar was plugged into a compressor and then straight into the board! Yep, you just had to know that no guitar amp and speaker combo coulda give 'em that kinda treble response...! When I record with this beast, that's what I do, too, and like magic, it just shines and chimes so as to make yer little heart break... Ah, Atlantis.

As for George's tone, I'm sure an AC-30 had a lot to do with what you heard recorded. To get that vibe, I crank in some mid, and if I'm really going for the '60s British Invasion vibe, I use an old MXR 6-band EQ set up in an inverted "V" shape. It's an exageration, but it works. Remember "MRB?"

A quick update... I wound up using this axe on a couple of tunes on the CD I did for family and friends, Christmas 2003 - and finally, I KNEW exactly why I always thought I had to have one. Here's an MP3 of "The Rickenbacker Song" from that CD. It's a little over 3MB, so don't click if you're on dial-up... but it's guaranteed to be good for a giggle.