John Hall (Rickenbacker)

John Hall has been CEO of the family-run Rickenbacker guitar company since 1984, right around when R.E.M.'s Peter Buck was inspiring a generation of jangly bands with his Rick riffs. The Beatles had led a Rickenbacker surge 20 years earlier as John Lennon and George Harrison played Ricks in A Hard Day’s Night and prompted the Byrds’ Roger McGuinn to get a 12-string Rickenbacker and basically to invent folk rock. Hall tells a hell of a story about meeting the Beatles and McGuinn, and he reflects on company’s history, which dates back to 1931. He explains why Rickenbacker still makes all of its guitars at one California factory instead of expanding its production; discusses the company’s fierce trademark protection; weighs distinctions among hollow-bodied, solid-bodied, 6-string and 12-string models; addresses whether pricey vintage Ricks are actually better than new ones; and, once and for all, clears up the pronunciation of “Rickenbacker.”