Rickenbacker brings back the 480! (sort of)

[Ceylon]

As a super-expensive, not vintage correct anniversary edition.

Still cool to see it get some love. I mean, it's a fantastic design and I think as a lower-priced model I think the market would look pretty favourably on these today.

[SignoftheDragon]

Oh, wow- these look great!

'bout crapped myself when I saw the price though. Jeez.

[Tehz_]

What a rollercoaster of a post this is, I went from genuine elation to anger within seconds. On a good day, you could own two vintage 480's for $5000

[BoringPostcards]

Price is insane, but these are likely much better than the originals.
These are neckthrough and have better bridges.
The originals were bolt on.
5K is insane though. Rickenbacker makes no sense.

[MrFingers]

They are collectors items. Since Rickenbacker steered away from the "Iron Fist" approach of John Hall, and is now actually listening to guitar players, it can very well be they are gauging the market a bit. The 4005 was a "we'll never build that again, it's as ugly as a tunaboat"-instrument, about the 480 they weren't too proud either (bolt-on, rather crudely made). And yet, here they are. If these limited edition collector items will sell, it's not too far fetched to think that Rickenbacker will further develop those models into a regular production run.

[Embenny]

I've spent a couple years casually eyeing Chinese knockoff 480/481s, but a reasonably-priced Rickenbacker reissue could earn them my money. I'm not interested in modern guitars priced as collector pieces.

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

The 480 and 481 always caught my eye. A good friend has a black 480. I thought I would love it more than I did when I played it... but I kinda still want to do a mashup between that Ric Body and my short lived flame the HSIN-MI/Spectrum III what so ever - with an offset vibrato and some crazy switches like on a Hagström III/F300. Might still happen one day! ;-)

[Snake Hips]

Rickenbacker is a weird brand. I constantly feel like they just make bad decisions. I will explain. They produce low numbers, so much so that depending on where you live you will never play a new Rick, you might be lucky that you find a used. What does this mean, the brand recognition will never be there basically any up-and-coming band will probably not play Rickenbackers. Rarely you see current bands play these. Tame Impala, Death from Above, and Against Me. Very few. Then they do minor changes to the models and it's sort eh don't want. 480 is a cool guitar, but this version, not so cool. The all-black 330 kind of Eh. Personally, I think their blue color is bad. Eventually, the number of players is going to cap and the brand will end up losing money and potentially go out of business or up for purchase. No data to back this up I would guess the primary demographic is probably near around 57+. So over the next 20 years, that large generation is probably going to stop buying gear. Does that mean an influx of used... maybe. Used sales do not make Rickenbacker corp money.

[tammyw]

I guess these have been around a little while, never paid any attention, but then one dropped into my lap. Sounds absolutely fantastic! Not sure if it's typical Ric or not, my only other experience was a 360/12w which didn't work out because I'm not really a 12 string player. Maybe I've been missing out for a long time. Based on sound alone, I'd consider trading half my guitars to keep this one.

At this price level, however, it should be fair to scrutinize the build quality more closely. It has some of the same kinds of little insignificant defects that people criticize Gibson for: a little finish flaw there, a little mistake in the binding, a little depression along a wood seam. It could be overlooked at half the price, but they didn't quite live up to the quality I expected on a guitar in this price range. And there's a couple other things I don't care for on this guitar.

The inlays are some kind of crushed pearl or something or other... like they actually crushed some real pearls and mixed it with epoxy or something. I guess they look okay from a distance, it has a bit of a sparkle. But up close they look rather poorly done, there's quite a bit of inconsistency of larger flakes and smaller shards, so some areas sparkle more than others. And it looks like there's some dirt mixed in, too.

Also, the bridge is sitting on a riser plate about a 3mm thick. Not necessarily a problem, but with the outer saddles as low as they'll go it has a solid 2mm action height. It plays fine, I know that's not very high, but I would have lowered it a touch it was possible.

Finally, the case didn't seem to fit very well, like they didn't measure it correctly. And actually it was a little wonky overall. I guess you have to blame the case maker for that one, but I wouldn't want to be sending out a guitar in this price range in a case like that.

Anyway, it's still a really neat guitar. I'm sure you'll never see one pop up for half price, but if you did I'd jump on it.

[fuzzjunkie]

I guess these have been around a little while, never paid any attention, but then one dropped into my lap. Sounds absolutely fantastic! Not sure if it's typical Ric or not, my only other experience was a 360/12w which didn't work out because I'm not really a 12 string player. Maybe I've been missing out for a long time. Based on sound alone, I'd consider trading half my guitars to keep this one.

At this price level, however, it should be fair to scrutinize the build quality more closely. It has some of the same kinds of little insignificant defects that people criticize Gibson for: a little finish flaw there, a little mistake in the binding, a little depression along a wood seam. It could be overlooked at half the price, but they didn't quite live up to the quality I expected on a guitar in this price range. And there's a couple other things I don't care for on this guitar.

The inlays are some kind of crushed pearl or something or other... like they actually crushed some real pearls and mixed it with epoxy or something. I guess they look okay from a distance, it has a bit of a sparkle. But up close they look rather poorly done, there's quite a bit of inconsistency of larger flakes and smaller shards, so some areas sparkle more than others. And it looks like there's some dirt mixed in, too.

Also, the bridge is sitting on a riser plate about a 3mm thick. Not necessarily a problem, but with the outer saddles as low as they'll go it has a solid 2mm action height. It plays fine, I know that's not very high, but I would have lowered it a touch it was possible.

Finally, the case didn't seem to fit very well, like they didn't measure it correctly. And actually it was a little wonky overall. I guess you have to blame the case maker for that one, but I wouldn't want to be sending out a guitar in this price range in a case like that.

Anyway, it's still a really neat guitar. I'm sure you'll never see one pop up for half price, but if you did I'd jump on it.

I can’t comment on the rest, but the crushed Pearl inlays, Rickenbacker has done it that way since at least the ‘70s and probably before that. It’s not a true inlay and It is a resin, not an epoxy. My understanding is that it’s mixed in place on the neck. They pour resin into the inlay route and then sprinkle Pearl dust and swirl it around. It yellows with age and the sparkle fades a bit. The resin must turn a little opaque as it yellows. I have a ‘73 4001 since 1985 and the inlays look completely different after aging from a decade to almost 50 years.

[noisepunk]

i've always wanted to like these and it's relatives, but the body just doesn't work with a guitar length neck, in my opinion– it looks cartoonishly big or something.

works even less with a hardtail like this.

[tammyw]

I never knew about that, thanks! Maybe the inlays have a wabi-sabi kind of charm, idk.

The body proportions don't look bad to me. It's actually around the same size as a Jazzmaster, maybe a quarter inch longer between the strap buttons, although the upper horn appears to jut out a lot more. If you try to line them up, it's like the Ric neck is rotated clockwise a couple minutes, and it's scooped out a bunch to get the neck joint down past the 21st fret. And I guess the whole waist is a bit weird, but whatever.

Also, this must be among the thinnest guitars I've ever seen. The body is a little less than 1 3/8" thick. Makes it pretty light, too.

[tammyw]

I meant to post this before, but here's a picture of it laying on top of a Jazzmaster for reference. I'm going to find a way to keep this one, the neck-through and the top-loader and the jangle is all too good.

[fuzzjunkie]

I meant to post this before, but here's a picture of it laying on top of a Jazzmaster for reference. I'm going to find a way to keep this one, the neck-through and the top-loader and the jangle is all too good.

Looks nice. I didn’t know it had checkerboard binding, but I have to say that I love metallic and sparkle candy apple greens and always wanted a JM or Jaguar done up like that. It’s a shame we can only see the edges.