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The "Ric Sound"?

#165
unclejane said:
finally, they're still US-made and to my knowledge Rickenbacker still hasn't gotten on the foreign-labor exploitation bandwagon. I try to boycott those efforts and try to only buy US made gear now wherever possible, so the Rick is definitely a good bass to buy if you share that particular ethic.
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I visited the factory last summer, walked through the whole production process - one big warehouse about a small city block in size, lots of small rooms, bunch of normal-looking people of all ages and ethnicities doing the work. Eye candy as far as you could see lying around everywhere. I wouldn't call it a mom and pop operation, but it definitely has a family feel to it.

I love Bruce Foxton of the Jam's sound and the early Geddy splat, for lack of a better term.
 
#171
Whaa. HAHAHA! Almost posted a warning about the briefs and man-boobs on the Ric, but thought it was pretty funny considering they're playing their ASSES off! Doesn't take away from the awesomeness.

Another rehearsal tune with the caveat that there will be man-boobs and fruit-o-the-looms:

 
#172
superdick2112 said:
Robert, how did you manage a tour? :eek:

Ric stopped giving general public tours years ago. I have wanted to visit the factory for some time now, but the "no public tours" policy has kept me from even calling about doing so. :(
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An old buddy of mine runs their warehouse - drove two hours from where we were visiting family for a 15 minute tour. I didn't get to see their museum, since some bigwig was coming in. I had hoped to see the "frying pan". There were so many guitars lying around in various states - so many gorgeous glossy finishes everywhere, it was leaking seeing gold lying about. Apparently nobody gets a free guitar from Rickenbacker except maybe their oldest faithful stars. They had a rack of guitars ready to be finished for them at short notice. The coolest thing was watching the bass bodies get carved by the machine. I could have done that for hours. And I wanted to stuff my pockets full of the pickups that were on a table being worked on by a single worker, but they don't allow samples - can you believe it? I live near the Anheuser Busch brewery in St. Louis and they always allow samples. It was a very brief tour, but quite unforgettable.
 

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