Any word on these?
Printable View
Any word on these?
I find it hard to believe that anyone could build anything that even vaguely resembles a Rickenbacker in any way shape or form...
Rickenbacker defends it's designs more than any other company on the planet...
(Yeah, that company...) ;)
December 26, 2016
Expected Ship date March 2017
May 17, 2017
We are expecting the shipment in to our USA warehouse early next week and will start shipping right away.
Electric “Ricky” Mandolin Tribute
As a long time Rickenbacker fanatic, a couple of years ago I heard (from a Rickenbacker local dealer who spoke with Rickenbacker representatives at a trade show) that Rickenbacker president John Hall spends LOTS of time each day searching the internet for instruments that possibly violate the Rickenbacker trademarks, and has all sales and advertising of those instruments immediately stopped with threats of legal action.
That being said - those are sweet looking instruments at a good price . . . but you had better get one FAST, because chances are pretty good that they won't be on the market for too long!
My understanding is that only the headstock design is protected i.p. The body is not. Clearly there were enough design changes to pass Legal's smell test.
Well, the issue is not what is legal or not...
The issue instead are the threats of legal action, which can be quite expensive and a hassle to deal with, even when you know the coast is clear...
...and Mr. Hall will flip out when he sees this thing...
Another large company thus comes to mind, and the vitriol in the musical instrument community towards both companies is very similar ...
Spruce is right - we Rickenbacker lovers often find this stuff cool, even if it is cheap junk . . . and at $400, I'll bet more than a few of these things sell, even as just a wall-hanging.
Eastwood is a Canadian company.
US trademarks are regulated by the Lanham Act which is domestic US civil law and only has jurisdiction in the U.S.
If Eastwood tries selling into the US, Rickenbacker can send legal letters, but US lawyers huff-and-puff means nothing outside the US.
Failing that, Rickenbacker can have those goods ceased at the border or point of sale, if they have a USPTO issued trademark for that instrument, but first they'd have to convince get a Federal court to issue an order before law enforcement gets involved.
Let me know when John Hall isn't looking, and I just might sneak over the border to get me one of those little beauties . . .
Cool. But the Rickenbacker-inspired mandolin I want is like the ones Tony Revell made:
Attachment 157371
Apparently Ric's lawyers shut down any further builds in that style back in the '90s, alas.
I was offline for a couple days and only now saw the horrific autocorrect from "headstock" to "breadstick." For some reason I cannot get back in to edit the typo. All I can say is "oy."
I googled "breadstick guitar" trying to figure that one out, thinking it might be like, I don't know, maybe a lipstick pickup. :)
Paul - that 330 copy is VERY cool! Do you know if more than one was made?
It's funny, I once considered converting a 360-12 into a mandolin configuration . . . I may still try it, someday.
I think that there were just the two made by Tony and a colleague--the Fireglo shown above and the one Mike Campbell plays, with the green finish and "Vibrola." The link tells the story: http://www.emando.com/builders_active/Revell.htm
There have been a few other builds in that style, but none so accurate. Dillon makes one, but their website claims they are sold out until 2018.
Attachment 157418
I sort of did that ( not on a Rick..) using a mix of drop-tuning strings that are readily available, and got all the tensions very workable. I was going for mandocello tuning. Fun experiment, great for surf music with the reverb cranked all the way. Or an echoplex would be really cool. Had a hard time making it much good for anything else, though.
I had a Fireglo (red) Ric mandolin just like those. It was well made, cool looking, and quite a conversation piece. But I did not find it particularly useful. Might have just been me, though.
new color will be black