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Playing a Rickenbacker made me hate Rickenbacker

#203
Antisyzygy said:
I don't think it's that ridiculous. Plenty of Squier models around the 200 mark have decent QC. One that comes to mind is the Bronco. I've tried a few and didn't see anything wrong with them other than the crappy pickguard and pickup, but that's not part of QC.

Squiers are just made of cheap stuff and tend to be poorly set up when you try them off the wall. If I ran a guitar shop I'd probably spend more time on the setup for the models that make me more money.
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Here is the statement I was responding to: "In my opinion if Squire can make a flawless guitar for $200 Rick should be able to for $2000."

'Decent' quality control does not equal 'flawless.' I never said Squiers aren't good, but calling them 'flawless' is just ridiculous.
 
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#205
lfmn16 said:
Here is the statement I was responding to: "In my opinion if Squire can make a flawless guitar for $200 Rick should be able to for $2000."

'Decent' quality control does not equal 'flawless.' I never said Squiers aren't good, but calling them 'flawless' is just ridiculous.
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The squires are 9 times out of ten, a standard bolt on neck, one solid color, 1 ply pickguard screwed into place. A lot of it is machined. There's just less to screw up.

Rick is more complex, and there's more that can go wrong. In my opinion, the dealers should be the ones to not put a bad ric on their walls. I know mine does that!

Oh, yes, I have both, by the way.

b8 this bad got soooo many pages, though!
 
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#209
I'm sure everyone has a side of QC when it comes to picking up a guitar/bass. But if you're only problem is RIC QC, & it doesnt affect tone or playability, i do not see the point. I've played a few genuine RICs & a few copies. Most of the copies i've played felt nice, but didn't have the RIC tone (copies are just that, copies in looks, not necessarily tone). I like the look of ric & respect the tone it's known for (Rush, YES, Deep purple) It's covered a spectrum of various styles (Progressive, punk, classic rock). But a few things threw me off ever wanting a genuine RIC bass: 2-Weight; to me it felt very light, possibly due to the fact that i play heavy precision basses & the likes. I prefer having something dig in my shoulders after a while rather than feather caressing it. 1-Tone; as i've said, i respect it for what it's been capable of doing in the last 4 decades, but for the tone i was looking for & what i wanted, it sounded very thin to my ears. I've messed around with amp settings, i've tried various amps & various ways on the bass controls itself to somehow get close to what i was hearing in my head, but no dice. With that in mind, i'd never own a genuine rickenbacker. & this is my personal opinion on why i'd never own one. BUT, I do own a ric copy bass that gives me all i want in tone & weight & for much less than the real deal.

Granted, my copy will never truly be a RIC bass other than looks (if you don't notice the bridge or bridge pickup being close to the bridge). But i love my copy, & it's enough RIC for me any day, everyday.
 
#211
SanDiegoHarry said:
LOL

I guess you never owned a '70s US car!

I continue to contend that just about EVERYTHING is built better *today* than ever. Cars, amps, basses. Modern production / engineering and new tech = better.
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Hmm, I don't know. My beef with so much of what is produced today comes down to the microchips and other things that run them. Cars with endless problems because of microchips failing, sensors failing, voltage drops causing errors in the systems......drives me crazy. Sorry, but my 1970 LeMans was rock solid 90% of the time, and I could do the basic maintenance in an hour or so on a weekend.

Then there is the dishwasher my mom bought a couple of years ago. This replace the one that came with her new condo......in 1979. So, dishwasher #1 lasted 35 years. Shortly after the warranty period, her new one started flaking out. Repairman ($78 just to show up) said "it's the motherboard, which will cost $300 to buy and replace". Well, it's a $500 machine, and it's just a bit over two years old. He showed her how to "trick" the brains of it by hitting a combination of buttons at start up. That worked for almost a year, and then even that didn't work anymore. She said "the hell with it" and bought a new machine.

My refrigerator, $2000, had to have the ice maker replaced twice in the first year. This replaced a 12 year old unit that was in the house when we bought it.

If I sat and thought about it some more, I'm sure I can think of a number of other things (VCRS, DVD players, alarm clocks, stereos, coffee makers) I have bought over the past ten years or so that have had issues rather early on, due in most part to computer controls flaking out.

I'm no Luddite, but I long for the days when a coffee maker just made coffee, a toaster oven just made toast, and a washing machine just washed clothes. They don't need more technology than the space shuttle to do their job effectively. I just want stuff to work, work reliably and predictably, and for a long time. I hate the disposable nature of products these days - cheaper to replace than to repair. Drives me nuts.

/rant
 
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#212
I think it's reasonable to expect a brand new $1,500-$2,000 bass to be pretty much flawless. I also think most manufacturer's put out duds and I take it with a grain of salt. If I were to buy a Ric, and I'd love one, thanks to TB I'd be very conscious of the potential issues.
 
#213
SanDiegoHarry said:
True story: In 1987, I was looking to buy a new car. I had a few bucks, I wanted something sporty and I really wanted to buy American, but my buddy had a new RX7 that I really dug. Determined to at least give the US makers a fair try, I went to a Chevy dealer in El Cajon and checked out a new IROC Z-28. (Yeah, I was 26 years old!). I walked around the car, noticed all the body panels not quite fitting together, the doors that didn't quite close perfectly, the long trail of *glue* on the door frame from the door-seal foam... and a salesman approached. I asked him to explain all these obvious defects and he said "Look, the Japanese have us on fit and finish - but that's all they have. This car has more horsepower!".

I bought the RX7 and have not test driven a Chevy since.

Sometimes, fit and finish *matters*. The good folks at Ric might want to consider this when they let a bass ship out - that one bass could turn a guy away from them *forever* if it isn't *right*.
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Too bad Chevy hasn't gotten any better. I checked out an HHR a few years back, what a POS. Everything inside felt cheap and loose. I was afraid of breaking knobs and stuff off just checking it out.

My dad had a some Chevy sport utility thin, another crapper. Again, everything on the side felt cheap, aside from the leather seats. And the dash controls had endless problems that the dealer could never fix. He drove around for years w/o a working dash. No gas gauge, no speedometer, etc. Amazing POS, Chevy.
 
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#219
lfmn16 said:
Here is the statement I was responding to: "In my opinion if Squire can make a flawless guitar for $200 Rick should be able to for $2000."

'Decent' quality control does not equal 'flawless.' I never said Squiers aren't good, but calling them 'flawless' is just ridiculous.
Click to expand...
I picked up a Squier Jazz 2 years ago that was flawless (apart from the label) until I got my hands on it.:D Maybe I'm not being critical enough.
Tell me what I should be looking for.:)
 

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