Rickenbacker's reputational wounds have all been self-inflicted, mainly due to John Hall being a World Class Jerk who treated his customers with contempt. Now that he's gone, his son Ben seems to be at least attempting to repair some of the damage. They have been in the fortunate position of selling every bass they make, regardless of intermittently atrocious QC and CS, but nothing lasts forever. In an era when it's perfectly possible to buy a decent bass for under $300, an $1800 bass with peeling paint get's hard to justify buying. They seem to have solved all of the most egregious QC issues, but they still have NO regional authorized service centers, so any QC problems require you to ship the bass, on your dime, one-way to CA for ANY warranty repairs. There's no way to polish that turd, but if you buy one through Sweetwater or a reputable dealer like Wildwood, they try to weed out any lemons before they ship them out, and will honor returns on a botched bass. I don't have to like the company to like their products, I have an iPhone, for instance, but some of the most strident criticism is either unencumbered by actually playing a Ric, or just second-hand hyperbole. They are anachronistic, quirky, and somewhat un-ergonomic bases from the era of chrome hood ornaments that happen to look and sound fantastic. As such, they are definitely not for everyone, but they are also not the train-wreck some people ascribe to them. The fact that it's nearly impossible to "test drive" one in a local store makes buying one a crapshoot for most people, but I think it's more or less mandatory with Rics. They either work for you or they don't.
