Rickenbacker Pulls Out Of GC & MF

I haven't been to a GC in years...and I rarely go into my local music store (Alto Music) which is pretty large with as good a selection as any GC.

The internet is where I shop for audio gear...if I don't like it (rarely)...I use the return/refund options. :)
 
I don't ever remember seeing a Ric at a GC. GC/MF have had financial issues for years.

I have bought a couple of items mail order during the lockdown - a TC Helicon Play Acoustic (from Sweetwater) and SDOTD from MF
 
I would prefer to be able to walk into a store and try things out vs shipping things around. I've gone so far as to wait to buy something from Sweetwater until I was in the area and I could actually pick it up and try it. With the collection of sales tax on internet purchases, its not even a financial detriment. I've also had things shipped from both MF and Sweetwater. It depends on what the item is. A microphone is better tested at home in your environment, but I can pick up a guitar and pretty much tell within a minute or two if I like the way it plays. I bought my Zoom R24 from the local GC, at the same price as ordering from MF.

Given the same guitar and similar pricing, I would probably buy from my local guitar shop, run by a fellow with whom I went to high school.

As for GC/MF, yes they have been in dire straits for quite a while, but when vendors start cutting you off and you start missing payments on your debt, there's probably not a long time before you end up down the same path as Sears, Kmart Toys r Us, and JCPenney.
 
I would prefer to be able to walk into a store and try things out vs shipping things around. I've gone so far as to wait to buy something from Sweetwater until I was in the area and I could actually pick it up and try it.

Yeah...there's a lot of people that feel that way, especially about guitars. I've done that too...spent hours in the store trying out several, finally picking one.
I'm not sure that it made all that much difference...because when I look back, all the guitars that I ever bought "in person" in a store, I no longer have, except one.
Meanwhile all the guitars I've bought online, I still have, and the only ones I've sold off was when I needed to thin out the heard.
In the last 2-3 years...I bought 6 Fender Tele's online...love every one of them....and that's really my point, that of the guitars I bought online, there was never any that I had to return as soon as I got them because there was something wrong or I hated the way they played.
Actually...there was one...an Epi bass I bought from MF, because when it arrived it had a finish crack (it was shipped during the dead of winter)...and I returned it and they swapped it.

The way I look at it...each guitar comes with it's personality, and you accept it for that...for it's individual feel, sound, etc.
If you have a very specific things in mind up front, and you're looking for a guitar that fits all those things perfectly, then you probably need to shop in person...but I think that sometimes when you are in a store, you end up buying from what they have in stock. So you're limited in some ways. Shopping online allows me to wait until I find exactly what I want, and often if it's not at one retailer, I can find it at another.

I went almost 100% online shopping long before the virus came along. I'm sure for some people out there, the need for online shopping due to the virus, might be uncomfortable...but even before the virus, I realized that killing a couple of hours to drive somewhere was more uncomfortable...when I can just buy it online and have it delivered... :D
I've bought like 90% of my audio/music gear online over the last 20+ years.

What's kinda funny...these last several months, after they started taxing on internet purchasers no matter what state you bought it from...I turned to some local Craigslist purchasing for a bunch of stuff...and so I've had to go meet-n-greet and pickup the items...even during the lockdowns...but these were all larger items that would be too difficult to ship anyway, so much easier to go local and get them with my SUV...but technically, you could still call it an online buy.
 
For sure trying out a guitar is needed - do what I have done - order from GC online, delivered to the store for pickup (New Hampshire for me - no sales tax). Open it up right there, play it for a few minutes, don't like it, then return right then. Otherwise take it home, they have an easy return policy if you end up not liking it after a day or two.
 
Only once have I played a Ric. In 1977 a friend had just bought a used electric 12-string just to fiddle with now and then, he wasn't a serious musician. He let me use it in a jam session and I believe I bonded with that guitar. When I slung it over my shoulder and wrapped my fingers around the neck it was like a part of my body. It played like butter with incredible action and sounds. It was unlike any guitar before or since.

He would not sell it to me.
 
I've played a couple of Rics, 6 and 12 strings, but they weren't my favorites in terms of feel. But I love the way they sound.

I did get to play a nice Ric bass, and it was awesome! If I was buying a nice high end bass, it would be a tough choice between a good P Bass and 4001. I would probably do what I have done with guitars... get one of each.
 
In 1994 I was offered a Ric stereo bass for peanuts ($200). He let me take it home for a couple of days to check it out. There was no output volume from either jack. I didn't want to mess with it myself and thought having a dealer repair it would cost too much, so I refused the deal. I believe that was a bad move.. :facepalm:
 
In 1994 I was offered a Ric stereo bass for peanuts ($200). He let me take it home for a couple of days to check it out. There was no output volume from either jack. I didn't want to mess with it myself and thought having a dealer repair it would cost too much, so I refused the deal. I believe that was a bad move.. :facepalm:

I should say so! :laughings: So the price of Ric's became inflated when California made it illegal to use the finish material that Rick uses. They were grandfathered so as to allow a specific amount of spraying which limits the number of instruments they can produce. The reason i bring this up when i know most of us already were a aware is because i remember GC with many Rick models hanging on the walls for months priced from well under 1K USD to just over , and none of them were selling. I played most of them and the fact is, the quality was not worth the price they were asking at the time, by which i mean it was very inconsistent.

I liked the basses but they all needed a great deal of setup compared to a P, P/J or J bass or even one of the higher end Japanese models. The six strings i found were for the most part worse than the basses and the twelves the most in need of a going over. It didn't help that my fat fingers have difficulty fingering the guitars, though not the bass.

I also am kicking myself for not buying a brand new bass for less than 800 USD but who could have guessed what was to come?
 
I suspect GC has had to ask for extremely long payment options, probably something like net 90, maybe even 180 or some time frame that smaller places simply cannot tolerate, and long enough that anyone wonders if they'd ever see a dime. But, in big business finance, for the likes of Fender, et al, even a net sale gets booked and can be shown on the quarterly, so they play the game and keep their fingers crossed behind their backs.

I swung by a local GC the other day to pick up an order (6 guitar picks :) - accidentally defaulted to store pickup because I did that with a used guitar back in February) - anyway, the store manager said they were busier than they'd evern been since they'd opened a couple years ago (new location). Maybe the pandemic will save them, but they're obviously in no position to get squeezed any more than those other big names that have fallen already.
 
I just listened to Mary Chapin Carpenter and Lucinda Williams' various performances of Passionate Kisses about 15 times straight. One of those, Mary was jangling on her Rickenbacker and sounded great.

Just thought I'd throw that in here.. because..
 
I don't ever remember seeing a Ric at a GC. GC/MF have had financial issues for years.

I have bought a TC Helicon Play Acoustic (from Sweetwater)

How ya liking that thing? I am using a voicelive 2 and friggin love and hate it. So the cool is via midi by playing different notes on my keyboard I can change what notes are played in the harmony from a major to a minor etc...Using with just headphones no external audio it's amazing what I can pull off As soon as I go live audio I can't use it as it picks the piano and the vocal and sounds like muddy dog crap compared to when listened just through headphones....so clean n bitchin....I just watched a video with the bald headed guy playing an acoustic nice n low...I could hear a little of the crossover still sounded nice but not as nice as with headphones...
 
How ya liking that thing? I am using a voicelive 2 and friggin love and hate it. So the cool is via midi by playing different notes on my keyboard I can change what notes are played in the harmony from a major to a minor etc...Using with just headphones no external audio it's amazing what I can pull off As soon as I go live audio I can't use it as it picks the piano and the vocal and sounds like muddy dog crap compared to when listened just through headphones....so clean n bitchin....I just watched a video with the bald headed guy playing an acoustic nice n low...I could hear a little of the crossover still sounded nice but not as nice as with headphones...

I like the reverb, and the acoustic modeling works well with my Taylor, smooths out the plugged-in sound. The harmonizing works on some songs, but not others - the song needs to really stay in one key (even though it relies on the guitar's notes to find the harmony) or else you can get some weird-sounding harmonies. The doubler is good, haven't used the delay at all. I got this because of the amount of zoom open mics I was doing - I found my plugged-in guitar and Shure SM58 mic sound was very dry. If I ever do any small solo shows again, I would use it plugged directly into the SDOTD Gemini 'stick' PA I just got, skipping my big mixer.
 
I would use it plugged directly into the SDOTD Gemini 'stick' PA I just got, skipping my big mixer.
Not meaning to hijack the thread with gear talk but...

How ya liking the Gemini stick? I somehow finagled a Turbosound ip 1000 / 2000 frankenstein off of e-bay... I first bought the ip 1000 sub with (2) 8" for @ $180 from sweetwaters ebay guy......Then contacted Music Tribe and ordered the top single speaker for the ip1000 for $264 ...But they sent me the 2 speakers for the ip2000.... I said what the heck I'll give it a try and lordy it worked! I called them and told them what they had done and at first the guy told me they wouldn't fit the plug...error...Then he checked with God or somebody that knew better and came back and said yeah I guess they'll work fine go ahead and keep em ...$440 I have a frankenstein ip1500 The 1000 and the 2000 are both 1000 watts... same amp...just a bigger woofer and two sticks instead one in the 2000...Really loud and clean.... For a guitar player this will work good for a keyboard player like my self I'm needing that stereo spread to really enjoy the MODX piano sounds..they are designed to be heard in stereo and don't sound near as good in mono...I hear that a piano sample designed for mono will probably sound much better...but I've yet to try....
 
Not meaning to hijack the thread with gear talk but...

How ya liking the Gemini stick? I somehow finagled a Turbosound ip 1000 / 2000 frankenstein off of e-bay... I first bought the ip 1000 sub with (2) 8" for @ $180 from sweetwaters ebay guy......Then contacted Music Tribe and ordered the top single speaker for the ip1000 for $264 ...But they sent me the 2 speakers for the ip2000.... I said what the heck I'll give it a try and lordy it worked! I called them and told them what they had done and at first the guy told me they wouldn't fit the plug...error...Then he checked with God or somebody that knew better and came back and said yeah I guess they'll work fine go ahead and keep em ...$440 I have a frankenstein ip1500 The 1000 and the 2000 are both 1000 watts... same amp...just a bigger woofer and two sticks instead one in the 2000...Really loud and clean.... For a guitar player this will work good for a keyboard player like my self I'm needing that stereo spread to really enjoy the MODX piano sounds..they are designed to be heard in stereo and don't sound near as good in mono...I hear that a piano sample designed for mono will probably sound much better...but I've yet to try....

I haven't gigged with it, so can't report on that. The controls, of course, suck, with no EQ, only some preconfigured DSP, and the 'reverb' is just a slap-back delay. But for $300, I think it will suit any small low volume requests I get - backyard parties or farmer markets, where they always want the volume low.
 
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