RICKENBACKER'S GUITARS AND BASSES HAVE RECENTLY MADE A MAJOR COME-BACK IN THE U.K. VIA A NEW DISTRIBUTOR. GARY COOPER LOOKS AT TWO OF THE MODELS ON OFFER, THE 620 GUITAR AND 4003 BASS.

The Rickenbacker 620

Maximum Retail Price £450 including VAT

Depending on your point of view Rickenbacker guitars are either positively riveting in their looks, or just plain old-fashioned weird. The 620 sports that unique Rickenbacker design headstock and the rosewood fingerboard carries those equally distinctive triangular position markers. Virtually everything about this guitar is different from most others - the metal tailpiece formed as the Rickenbacker 'R', the shape, that fabulous body-colouring (ours was a red 'FG' Fire-glo sample, the most famous Rickenbacker shade of them all). Rickenbacker's finishing techniques must be as individualistic as their other skills — the colouring on the maple body of this guitar was quite markedly different from the sort of colours and lacquering which we're used to on other makes. The overall effect is to impart a translucent quality to the shading which, personally, I find particularly refreshing after countless 'colour clone' guitars.

The maple body (just 1¼" thick) has the maple neck running right through it. I couldn't swear (it was hard to tell beneath the finishing) but I'm inclined to think that the neck was a one-piece type.

Rickenbacker fingerboards are a law unto themselves. The rosewood they use has a lighter shade than virtually anybody else's and, moreover, they come varnished - something which takes considerable getting used to. The 620 has a white plastic bound neck, and is fretted with a gauge of fretwire which is more Fender-thin than Gibson-fat. In fact the combination of the frets, the varnished fingerboard and the camber of the neck (quite a pronounced curve) combines to make for a distinct contradiction in results. The thin frets don't inspire vast sustain, and the varnished fingerboard (although so finished theoretically to make the guitar speedier to play) actually slowed me down compared with conventional finishes.

For all that, the Rickenbacker's neck is wonderfully slim across. I measured it at 1 9/16" at the nut (but that's only a guide as I wasn't attempting to be ultra-precise) and only (equally approximately) 1 7/8" at the 12th fret. The neck is slim in depth too, making it particularly easy to grip and handle - very relaxing.

Access to the 21st (top) fret is a doddle, owing to the remarkable cutaways and, unless you found real difficulty in handling the slightly unusual fretting, the varnishing of the fretboard and the slim neck, the Rickenbacker would be a great guitar to play on long sets.

Weight of the 620 is negligible and the balance of this guitar is fine - all in all it's a really light, comfortable instrument to play.

On the hardware side, the 620 is a very mixed bag. Rickenbacker have certain very fixed ideas about guitar design which, even though some of their own endorsees (like Geddy Lee) disapprove of them, they refuse to change. An example, in his case, is the bridge design. The strings fasten onto a heavily chromed tailpiece and then run up over what look like alloy saddles. These are covered with a chromed bar which, for no reason I can detect whatsoever, rides over the saddles and just goes to make string damping more difficult than it need be. The saddles each adjust separately for string length (intonation) but height is via twin screws each side of the bridge. This is a very old fashioned design, allowing for only limited string vibration transmission through to the body via the twin height adjusting screws - apart from that there is no proper contact between the saddle bases and the body wood. This, although it inevitably robs the Rickenbacker of sustain, may actually have advantages in making the guitar sound vastly different from most identikit instruments.

"MAKING THE GUITAR SOUND VASTLY DIFFERENT FROM MOST IDENTIKIT INSTRUMENTS..."

The rest of the hardware is fairly conventional. A plastic nut carries the strings, which then terminate in sealed-back Grover machine heads (with a nice, if somewhat lightweight, feel to them). The 620 carries two pickups which are, I would presume, single coil types. These are connected to two volumes and two tones, plus a fifth knob (a small one at the back) which adjusts the overall tonal balance still further. A final point is that the white plastic pickguard is adjustable for height to suit individual tastes and styles.

Sound from the Rickenbacker 620 is every bit as unique as its looks. This most definitely isn't a suitable guitar for the sustain/distortion-mad heavy metal lead guitarist. The sharp, ultra-clean sound the instrument makes is ideal for melodic cleanliness, a function absolutely perfect for those traditional Rickenbacker jangling chords, each of which rings out clean and true and pure. If you try to wind-up the 620 to overdrive your amp it somehow sounds totally wrong — like entering a Rolls Royce in a Grand Prix Formula 1 race. This is not the guitar for the headbanger, nor the soloist who wants to wail dem old blues. If you want to play Blues on the 620, try country Blues with clean pull-offs and razor-like minors; licks which don't hang forever but which jangle, snap, ring and hit the ears with a crystal integrity unlike any other guitar made today.

The Rickenbacker 620 is an individualist in an age of clones. There's nothing else like it and that means you could hate it or love it — the choice is as straight as that. There's some of the Telecaster's qualities about its sound, but not at all in its feel. You really must try one if you're looking for a different sound and a different feel. The Rickenbacker 620 is a truly specialist guitar and deserves its place for that alone.

Rickenbacker 4003 Bass

Maximum Retail Price £550 including VAT

At first sight it would be too easy simply to assume that the Rickenbacker 4003 was, in fact, the archetypal Rickenbacker 4001 stereo bass - possibly one of the most distinctive sounding basses ever created. In fact, although the 4001 and 4003 are essentially similar, there are supposed to be differences between them, although the Rickenbacker catalogue simply says that the 4003 is, basically, a 4001 but designed for players who want to use roundwound strings. Apart from (possibly) fitting tougher frets I can't see the need for such a change and Rickenbacker don't actually specify what changes have been made to this instrument so your guess is as good as mine!

There is no need to describe the 4003 - every bass player worthy of the name will recognise the futuristic looks of this instrument, which somehow contrives to appear as fresh as the day it came off the drawing board all those years ago.

The 4001 was the first really successful straight-through necked bass and the 4003 maintains that tradition. The maple neck runs right through the ultra-slim maple body and this (measuring just 1¼" thick) is one of the most comfortable, finest balanced basses ever made.

"(IT) SOMEHOW CONTRIVES TO APPEAR AS FRESH AS THE DAY IT CAME OFF THE DRAWING BOARD..."

The laminated maple neck has the reputation of being the slimmest ever, but I was rather surprised to find (several years having elapsed since I last played a 4001/3) how narrow the neck was - but not, surprisingly, all that slim in depth.

I suppose this shows how standards change over the years. I fully expected to pull the Rickenbacker from its case and close my hands round a mere wafer of maple. In fact the depth of the Ricky's neck was rather average — for all that, though, the width is astonishingly slim and it is that which makes this bass one of the world's fastest and easiest to play.

Scale on the 4003 is 33½" and the bass sports 20 frets on its rosewood fingerboard. Again, as with the 460 guitar, this is varnished but, somehow, it feels a lot less odd on a bass than it does on a guitar.

Nonetheless, there are features about the 4003 that perpetuate characteristics of the 4001 which generation after generation have tended to put up with, rather than admire. Most of these are, by modern design standards, positive anachronisms and show some very odd thinking on Rickenbacker's part. The first is the hideous great chrome bar which covers the treble pickup. I can offer no logical explanation as to what on earth it's supposed to be doing there. It may be convenient to rest a lazy paw on top of when you're playing, but, especially these days, what bassist dare have a lazy right hand?

Further Rickenbacker still fit a completely redundant screw-up damper which is supposed to enable you to pre-set the amount of string damping you want. Any player who needs a mechanical damper should give up right now and retire - and this hideous device just gets in the way for any player who naturally clamps the correct way - with the fleshy part of the right hand.

The twin pickups are wired to a selector switch and two tones plus two volumes. Grover machines are fitted onto the laminated maple headstock and they seem to work very well.

So, if the 4003 has so many oddities, what can there be to recommend it? Let me put it this way. Of all the basses I've ever played nothing sounds like a Rickenbacker 4001 or 4003. Neither does any other bass feel as right to hold, look as flash or play as neatly. But it's the sound this bass makes which justifies almost anything which the makers have done to it in other areas. Until you've plugged a bass in this range into a decent amp, set the tones up and begun to play, you haven't lived. Just listen to records by those players who've used the Ricky well - Chris Squire, Geddy Lee, Paul McCartney. Set at its bassiest the Ricky still cuts through a band's sound better than most of the actives I've played, with a unique sound which is so pure and so harmonically rich that it sends a chill down the spine. Flip over the pickup selector and you've got a sharp cutting edge that will drive a band on to heights of melodic creativity that hardly any other basses can even approach - let alone equal.

The 4003 delivers a richness and depth with a sharp, crystal purity so distinctive that you'd have to be deaf not to recognise a Ricky bass from its very first note.

Like many a player before me I'd put up with the oddities and absurdities of a Rickenbacker 4001 or 4003 just for that whisper of a neck and that devastating sound. This bass isn't for the thumper, it isn't for the all depth and no feel boys' — it isn't even for the adventurous slapper and puller — it's for the melodic bassist who needs to be heard and who contributes as much melody to his band as any guitarist. For that role I've never encountered anything to touch this instrument. If that sounds like what you aspire to then you'd better start saving — you just aren't going to settle for anything less!