| Author |
Topic: Rickenbacker Electro vs. Frypan |
Steve Marinak
From:
Man O War Cay, Abaco, Bahamas
|
Posted 17 Mar 2015 8:02 am |
|
This may be a newbie question, so forgive me if so.
The tone of the early Frypan guitars sounds fantastic.
Do the guitar shaped Rick Electro's have the same or similar tone? Is the neck scale the same? Pickup the same? There's lots of Electro's for sale out there it seems, but Frypan's are few and far between. Thanks.
_________________
Steve Marinak |
|
|
 |
Noah Miller
From:
Rocky Hill, CT
|
Posted 17 Mar 2015 8:41 am
|
|
I believe there were some small changes made to the horseshoe magnets in the first couple of years, but they were unchanged between 1935 when the Bakelite and sheet-metal steels were introduced and ca. 1946 when they went to the 1.25" magnets. In other words, all the pre-War guitar-shaped steels have the same pickups.
The Bakelite, sheet-metal and aluminum (Frying Pan) steels have different sounds by virtue of their body materials. They're not miles apart, but to my ears the Bakelite ones sound brighter and more focused while the aluminum and steel instruments have a slightly airier tone, a bit like a hollowbody Spanish guitar. The sheet metal models are cheaper today because they are more abundant, but they still have superb tones. |
|
|
|
Jerome Hawkes
From:
Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA
|
Posted 17 Mar 2015 11:25 am
|
|
to me there is a quite noticeable difference between a frypan and a B-6. nothing sounds like either one. the frypan is desired simply because that is 'the' sound...amazing tone and fun to play.
i have little experience with the other metal bodied instruments but i dont think they sound like either a frypan or a bakelite. i played a silver hawaiian at a jam and it was a really sweet sound, but i dont think it would make me go buy one...
there are certainly a lot of metal bodies around, at decent prices, but honestly, i have never seen them favored that much by seasoned players....i couldnt say why though.
_________________
'65 Sho-Bud D-10 Permanent • '54 Fender Dual-8 • Clinesmith T-8 • '38 Ric Bakelite • '92 Emmons D-10 Legrande II |
|
|
|
Steve Marinak
From:
Man O War Cay, Abaco, Bahamas
|
Posted 17 Mar 2015 12:53 pm
|
|
HiJacking my own thread..or adding to it. The later FryPan's, the Jerry Byrd ones...I have read those do not have the same tone as the early Rickenbacker frypans. Is that the consensus here as well?
_________________
Steve Marinak |
|
|
|
Steven Cummings
From:
Texas
|
Posted 17 Mar 2015 2:51 pm
|
|
Never having owned a prewar frypan I cannot speak to that. I can say that I know of a post war frypan that I think has exceptional tone. Then again, that's just me 
_________________
Lookin' on the sunny side.... |
|
|
|
David Ball
From:
North Carolina High Country
|
Posted 17 Mar 2015 3:48 pm
|
|
I've had quite a few Ricks over the years--fry pans, bakelites, steel bodied, wood bodied. But the one I've kept is a model 59 student guitar that beats them all. This one has the newspaper stuffed inside, and it's probably the ugliest Rick I've ever owned. It's been played a lot and it shows! But I think that's because it sounds so danged good that its owners have played the heck out of it. (Did you ever notice how the old instruments that sound the best seem to have been the ones that show the scars of lots of play time?)
There's definitely some variation in the pickups. Maybe the windings, maybe the state of the magnets. I don't know, but I do know that this particular model 59 easily beat my bakelites and fry pans, at least to my ear. I've had other model 59s that weren't nearly as good. I think that the newspaper stuffing has something to do with it.
Dave |
|
|
|
