John Hall?

[Ricky 4000]

I'm gonna go right out and say the Fender Performer was the Austin Allegro.

Quote

There is a rumour that the design of the Performer body and headstock was inspired by the scraps left over from the manufacture of Japanese Stratocasters

😄

 

Did you know they also made a guitar called the "Fender Swinger"!? 😬

[skankdelvar]

30 minutes ago, Ricky 4000 said:

Did you know they also made a guitar called the "Fender Swinger"!?

Also marketed as the Arrow and the Musiclander and using spare parts and hacked- up Bass V bodies. I'd have one of these quirky little mofo's in a shot.

 

Then there was the Maverick which was basically derived from the Electric XII. CBS must have had a thing for band-sawing perfectly good guitar bodies. The bastards.

Of course, Bass V's and Electric XII's go for mad money these days.

 

[Skinnyman]

2 minutes ago, skankdelvar said:

Also marketed as the Arrow and the Musiclander and using spare parts and hacked- up Bass V bodies. I'd have one of these quirky little mofo's in a shot.

 

Then there was the Maverick which was basically derived from the Electric XII. CBS must have had a thing for band-sawing perfectly good guitar bodies. The bastards.

Of course, Bass V's and Electric XII's go for mad money these days.

 

I’m not sure about the drooping sock headstock on the Maverick either. Actually, I am sure - I think it’s horrible....

[skankdelvar]

Just now, Skinnyman said:

I’m not sure about the drooping sock headstock on the Maverick either. Actually, I am sure - I think it’s horrible....

Ex-cuse me. That's the original Electric Xii headstock. It's known by many as a Smurf Hat headstock but 'droopy' sock works just as well.

I love Electric Xiis 

[Ricky 4000]

56 minutes ago, Skinnyman said:

I’m not sure about the drooping sock headstock on the Maverick either. Actually, I am sure - I think it’s horrible....

And would definitely fall over if you stood it against your amp.

John Hall never made such a daft looking instrument.

 

Edited May 10, 2019 by Ricky 4000

[kodiakblair]

14 hours ago, Skinnyman said:

But I've read enough to build a picture and the impression that I get is of a man who has inherited a small (about 200 employees) family business .

Just like Donald Trump's modest loan from his dad.  The Hall family are wealthy,owning a number of shopping malls takes you a few notches above being rich. There's also the oil interests.

He keeps RIC going as a vanity project because he can afford to .It's a safe way to play at being in the "music business".

 

 

 

[drTStingray]

There's a lot of theories here - is it remotely possible he runs it at all and in the way he does because he's passionate about Rickenbacker? 

[drTStingray]

4 hours ago, skankdelvar said:

Also marketed as the Arrow and the Musiclander and using spare parts and hacked- up Bass V bodies. I'd have one of these quirky little mofo's in a shot.

Blimey - looks a tight fit with the case - Fender 'precision engineering' I guess 😏😀👍

[Muzz]

8 hours ago, Ricky 4000 said:

To be completely fair - I believe it's "chequerboard binding". Chequering is something different.

Let's give the man a break; he was writing some 60 years before the event...

It's possible he was thinking 'chequered' with respect to QC...

[Muzz]

6 hours ago, skankdelvar said:

Also marketed as the Arrow and the Musiclander and using spare parts and hacked- up Bass V bodies. I'd have one of these quirky little mofo's in a shot.

There would possibly be an unseemly scuffle should one appear for anything less than Well Upholstered Collector Money...I've never seen one of those before, and I love it...

[NikNik]

8 hours ago, drTStingray said:

I do hope the handful of vitriol spurting contributors to this thread aren't smokers - there surely is an immediate and severe self-combustion threat...😧😧😂😂😂

You actually believe in human spontaneous combustion? Tell me more.....

[NikNik]

2 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

Just like Donald Trump's modest loan from his dad.  The Hall family are wealthy,owning a number of shopping malls takes you a few notches above being rich. There's also the oil interests.

He keeps RIC going as a vanity project because he can afford to .It's a safe way to play at being in the "music business".

 

 

 

The family owns a bank as well. Guitars are Wee John's hobby.

[prowla]

So, in summary, JH is a bit of a Rottweiler as far as defending his product, but probably not best suited to a role in Customer Services. 

[prowla]

3 hours ago, drTStingray said:

There's a lot of theories here - is it remotely possible he runs it at all and in the way he does because he's passionate about Rickenbacker? 

He was a kid at the table when his mum drew the Rickenbacker logo on a napkin. 

[Skinnyman]

4 minutes ago, prowla said:

So, in summary, JH is a bit of a Rottweiler as far as defending his product, but probably not best suited to a role in Customer Services. 

I hate it when people summarise my ramblings into one pithy sentence.

But basically, yes - well put 😀

[Teebs]

1 hour ago, Skinnyman said:

I hate it when people summarise my ramblings into one pithy sentence.

But basically, yes - well put 😀

So, in summary:

[Bassassin]

13 hours ago, Muzz said:

'Though I'd happily torch Shrewsbury to get my hands on a minty Mapleglo 4001 with chequered binding'

It might quell the author's conscience a little to remember that purchasing a vintage 4001 such as this is a Hall-guilt free undertaking.

Back when checkerboard 4001s (with crushed pearl FWIs & gap tooth bridge, of course!) were being made, little Johnny Hall would've still been in the back yard with his GI Joes, & half a gallon of gas siphoned out of Papa F.C's Studebaker, playing My Lai.

[NikNik]

1 hour ago, Bassassin said:

It might quell the author's conscience a little to remember that purchasing a vintage 4001 such as this is a Hall-guilt free undertaking.

Back when checkerboard 4001s (with crushed pearl FWIs & gap tooth bridge, of course!) were being made, little Johnny Hall would've still been in the back yard with his GI Joes, & half a gallon of gas siphoned out of Papa F.C's Studebaker, playing My Lai.

I'd settle for the bass you have described. Some of those '60s examples are droolworthy.

 

BTW, Bassassin, check out the sold Ibby 2388BDX on Edinburgh GuitarGuitar.

 

Oh, yeh. I can see JH doing My Lai with Action Man.

Edited May 10, 2019 by NikNik
Additions

[Billy Apple]

3 hours ago, prowla said:

So, in summary, JH is a bit of a Rottweiler as far as defending his product, but probably not best suited to a role in Customer Services. 

My summary is he’s a man who is involved with sexy basses and the music industry, but the women and drugs seem to have passed him by.

[BigRedX]

13 hours ago, skankdelvar said:

Until such time as recent changes may take effect Gibson have been more like British Leyland in its day. Living off old triumphs*, madly unpopular new designs, lamentable QC and a workforce terrified and resentful of a mad boss.

*Badum-tish

Hasn't the mad boss gone?

Or has he been replaced with a new mad boss?

[skankdelvar]

Just now, BigRedX said:

Hasn't the mad boss gone?

Or has he been replaced with a new mad boss?

Hank's finishing up his time in a back office behind the photocopier room, staring at his executive desk toy (one of those dipping bird things) and thumbing through the sits vac pages, his lips moving as he reads the words.

The new management are a squad of neo-millennial hedge fund wonks headed up by the bloke who used to run a jeans company, possibly Levis. The musical instrument world holds its breath.

[skankdelvar]

7 hours ago, drTStingray said:

There's a lot of theories here - is it remotely possible he runs it at all and in the way he does because he's passionate about Rickenbacker? 

Chris Martin IV is passionate about Martin guitars and everyone agrees he's the nicest man in the biz.

[Billy Apple]

53 minutes ago, skankdelvar said:

Chris Martin IV is passionate about Martin guitars and everyone agrees he's the nicest man in the biz.

Yeah, but Ed Sheeran plays them

[skankdelvar]

2 minutes ago, Billy Apple said:

Yeah, but Ed Sheeran plays them

Good point well made.

Then, so do Del McCoury, Tommy Emmanuel, Martin Carthy, also Elvis, George Jones and Hank Williams, Dylan, Neil Young, Willie Nelson and Kurt Cobain, Lennon and McCartney, the combined mightiness of these artists (and hundreds of other luminaries) sufficing to erase the little puke from collective memory 

[NikNik]

1 hour ago, Billy Apple said:

My summary is he’s a man who is involved with sexy basses and the music industry, but the women and drugs seem to have passed him by.

Indeed. I mean, if you were a woman  would you tap this??