I have had three Rickenbacker’s in my career, and they mostly felt unreliable to me because their bridge is almost impossible to intonate. To play it fretless it has to be well in tune, and it was hard to tune it properly. John Lennon played a Rickenbacker guitar and Chris Squire the bass player for Yes played one for his entire career. Paul McCartney played one for a while too. I only played the Rickenbacker for about half a tour. I did play it on The Midnight Special in 1973. We opened with “Jesus is Just Alright with Me.” The pictures here show me playing a 4001 model. I played this Mapleglo model to record “Natural Thing” on The Captain and Me.  

The first Rickenbacker I ever played was on loan from a friend and I played it with one of my first bands, The Greenwich Meantimes. It was jet black without the white pickguard and had the checkerboard binding with the neck through design. That neck made it resonate so well! I had really gotten used to playing it when the friend took it back and sold it. I’ve never seen its like again. It spoiled me forever! Truth be told that friend was Bob Harvey. Bob was Jefferson Airplane's very first bassist. Unfortunately, no one got a photo of me playing Bob’s bass.