The Last Bass Outpost
Gear Discussion Forums => Rickenbacker Basses => Topic started by: drbassman on May 09, 2008, 07:26:43 PM
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I had to chuckle to myself when I saw a Ric forum pop up. I used to have several Rics a few years ago and was a member of the Ric forum. I left because a particular guitar CEO didn't like my ideas on customer service. I may have been kicked off, I can't remember. As long as we have free speech, that remains civil, this is a great idea!
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John Hall was a member at the Pit and he's certainly welcome here. He has no problem with differing opinions.
Ricks generate some strong feelings and certain company policies do too. But I'm confident we can discuss them here with civility.
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A lot of people bash John Hall for his diligent pursuit of knock offs.
I saw more power to him. He has every right to protect his design, within the law. They hold their instruments to high standards and never played with the asian entry level game, probably one of the only major US makers not to. i respect them for he way they have carried on as a company.
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In my experience, John Hall will sometimes go to great lengths to help a Ric owner. When I needed help repairing the truss rods in my '73 4001, he went as far as finding who in Israel (where I live) can manufacture metric truss rod nuts for me, and sent me the details. Not many CEO's will do this.
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He's answered several emails from me in the past. I doubt many other CEOs would have taken the time.
OTOH, when you're as personally involved as he chooses to be, then sometimes the criticism gets personal, and that's unfortunate. In the case of RIC, sometimes people get carried away and act as if it's their company.
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A lot of people bash John Hall for his diligent pursuit of knock offs.
The last year a lot of Ric-a-likes came on the market. I believe the patent on the design ios no longer valid.
But John's doing a lot of good things indeed!
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The last year a lot of Ric-a-likes came on the market. I believe the patent on the design ios no longer valid.
I want to talk about basses, not legal matters. But just to set the record straight, this has nothing to do with patents. It's about RIC's registered trademarks, which are current. They may or may not be easy to enforce in some countries even though there are international trademark treaties.
Everyone's entitled to his own opinions on company policies, trademark laws, etc. But let's keep focused on the basses, the players and the music.
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I got the message!
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Oops, weak moment for me. Sorry, didn't mean to stir the pot. I like my blue Ric a lot. The slimmer neck profile and 2-position tone are nice improvements over the prior 4005s.
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It's all cool! 8)
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In my experience, John Hall will sometimes go to great lengths to help a Ric owner. When I needed help repairing the truss rods in my '73 4001, he went as far as finding who in Israel (where I live) can manufacture metric truss rod nuts for me, and sent me the details. Not many CEO's will do this.
I had a similar experience. He himself got in touch with the distributor in Italy and they sent the truss rods directly to me.
Uwe