It's pointless to go round and round with this debate any farther. I'll just say that in my experience, playing nothing but Rickenbacker and Fender guitars for the last 25 years, Their durability and ease of maintainance are so close as to be a nonissue.

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Jangle, Chime & Twang.

How many of each have you broken and/or repaired?

I agree that in normal circumstances their durability and ease of maintenance is very close. But in *extreme* circumstances, Fenders are stronger and (depending on what exactly you mean, ie to repair or replace major parts) *can* be easier to repair.

It doesn't make them better as musical instruments, neither does Gibson's ridiculously weak headstock stop them being classics either, but it's still a fact.

Like I said, if you don't believe me, ask any other repairer. It's easy to assume things from owning even many of them and not (or very rarely) having anything break, it's quite different to know how many get broken - and why - when you see damaged instruments regularly.

Thank you BA, 100% correct,

The OP asked if Rickenbackers could "handle the bumps like most other guitars do". I took this to mean normal durability under normal circumstances. I'm not talking about extremes.

Besides, your argument as a repairer is a logical fallacy, all the guitars sent to you to be fixed are broken.

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Jangle, Chime & Twang.

MoDrover, welcome to the forum. To ask what we think about Ric guitars will usually bring on the kind of response your just got. We own them, we love them and we recognize the instruments characteristics. What I would suggest to you is to find some, and play as many as you can until you find the "one". You will know it when you find it. Pay what you have to when you find it. You will regret it later if you don't. Congrats with your cancer, my wife also fights cancer, so I understand. Go find your axe Bro, and then post us some pics. Mark

Gentlemen! Time!

Now, let's look at this from the start: A Rickenbacker 300 series guitar is a semihollow body guitar, one of the finest series of guitars ever made. It's made to play and look great. Like any semihollow guitar, it will have structural differences. If you want to treat it with respect as a good, durable, sounds great, give-to-your-grandchildren guitar, it will last as long or longer as any other guitar.

I've used my 320JG and 360-12WB FG chkbd everywhere from Friday night through Sunday morning, purchasing the 320 new in the early '80's and the 12-string a few years later, but made about the same year as the 320. They do what they were designed to do, hold up well, and survive the inevitable dings well. But I also take care of them, not subjecting them to unreasonable risks, as any instrument. Durability is as much a function of responsible treatment of a musical instrument, no different than with concert band brass or woodwind instruments, or orchestral instruments.

Take, for example, a Stradivarious violin: their respective owners play them. Vigorously. But they also take very good care of them otherwise. Likewise with a fine guitar.

Now, if instead you want to treat it like a baseball bat or a tennis racquet, or subject it to pyrotechnics, get something with a bolt-on neck instead and be done with it.

With respect, your answer that "RICs are at least as robust as a Fender" was flat-out wrong, and you didn't qualify the circumstances. If you'd also said that both are strong enough not to worry about in normal use, I would have agreed. But 'normal use' is not what breaks guitars.

No, it's the experience that matters. You may have owned Rickenbackers and Fenders for twenty-five years and never broken one - in fact, that would be the norm, but it tells you next to nothing. What does tell you something is precisely to see the broken ones, the relative numbers of each, and the reasons for them breaking.

I've been repairing instruments professionally for about the same time - actually 23 years. I don't know how many I've worked on (I've never kept records), but it's at least five thousand guitars and basses, probably more. I've worked on every major brand and many of the less common ones. Certainly I have not seen many broken Rickenbackers - but they're not common instruments, and of the ones I've worked on for other than simple set-up type work, a reasonable proportion have had wood breaks. This is probably less than half a dozen instruments in total - but that's as many or more as the number of Fenders I've seen with wood breaks, and given that Fenders are so many times more common (the fifty to one hundred figure is no exaggeration), it's quite clear from that that Ricks are more breakable. There are also many more examples we've seen posted here - neck splits are the most common, and not all are the result of improper adjustment on pre-1985 models (and even if they were, that's an indication of at least a form of weakness, since Fenders don't do this).

I've personally owned over a dozen Gibsons in that time too, and never broken one. So what? It's the dozens I've had to repair professionally that tells me they're fragile, not my personal use experience.

I don't mean any offense by this, but (again) if you think I'm wrong, ask any other repairer.

I still stand by the simple statement that RICs are at least as robust as Fenders. I've owned and played a lot of guitars. I know a lot of people that have owned and played a lot of guitars. I am friends with several guitar repairmen. I can only tell you what I have seen. The most common repair, as you have said, Gibson headstocks. I can't speak to what weather you have in Scotland but in Southwestern Ohio, we have hot humid Summers and cold dry Winters. That means, even with solid body electric guitars, there are cracks and splits. I have seen several Fender bodies split right at the seam. While still faily rare, it does happen and would not meet my definition of robust. I've only come across one 360 with a cracked top, which was more cosmetic that structural.

As far as I can tell, it's six of one or half dozen of the other. It has been my experience that most damage guitars suffer has more to do with the user than the make or model of the guitar itself.

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Jangle, Chime & Twang.

Ha, we DO agree on that! :-)

In Scotland, we have moderately cold damp winters and moderately warm damp summers, by the way (and kind-of-in-between damp springs and falls, too). Not a lot of humidity or even temperature variation, which is at least a blessing. The vast majority of broken guitars I see are 'user error', in one way or another.

I will just give you a couple of examples of Telecasters that I've seen survive extreme abuse though, which might amuse you... one was run over by the band's van while in a soft case, and just suffered a crushed control plate and bridge, and the other was thrown at its owner by his girlfriend from a fourth or fifth-floor (I forget which) apartment - very luckily it missed since it would probably have killed him otherwise - and hit the ground headstock first, folding the machinehead keys over against the side of the head. Both were otherwise undamaged apart from the finish (fairly major on the second one). Do not try either of these with your Rickenbacker! ;-)

Ok, where did the "What guitar should I buy thread?" go to?

To TRY and get back on topic, I'd say go for the 330/340...you won't look back.