Please allow me to introduce myself ...

Greetings all,

I am new here and thought I would introduce myself to the forum.

Here's my story, sad, but true ....

In 1987, my best mate and I went to get new guitars. We were the house band at a local club, and we were raking in the dough, so ... time to upgrade the equipment. A friend of ours had just opened a little music store and we went in to check out the inventory, with the intent of getting new strats. We instead discovered a new brand ... Westone!

My friend wound up with a Corsair II with the walnut finish, and I picked up a Pantera x275 in sunburst. I loved the fast action and the tone. About two weeks later, I got a call from the music store. It was basically "If you like the Pantera you got, you will love this new Pantera! Come check it out."

The next afternoon, I was the proud owner of an x350MA. It was buttery smooth, and had tone for days. I actually sold my 1977 strat (mistake, I know) thinking I would never want anything but the x350MA. I had the x275 refinished by a local luthier (shout out to Honest Ron!) so it would match the 350MA, and life was good.

Flash forward about 6 years. I was dating a girl who I did not know at the time was into coke, a pastime that she shared with her younger brother. One night in late August (1993), I came home from my gig at a piano bar and found my front door kicked in. All of my precious instruments were gone. My 1981 Rickenbacker MapleGlo 320, my 1970 Hofner 500/1, my Alverez 12 string, and both Panteras, my Roland W30s and MKS20. Also gone were my first pressing Parlophone Beatles LPs, My TASCAM 688 PortaStudio, My TV and VCR. I found out several years later that it was the brother who burgled my place.

I filled out the police report, and checked all the local pawn shops hoping that they would turn up, but no joy. They were gone.

I replaced the Ric with a 1993 MapleGlo 320 with black hardware, but wasn't thrilled with it like I was the 1981 model. I actually sold it a few years later when I started working as a DJ in local clubs and wasn't playing any more. I replaced the Beatle bass with a 1965 500/2 (Club) bass that I have to this day. I eventually found a nice sunburst x275, a Corsair II, two more x275s in red, a plum colored Spectrum III, and a baby blue Corsair once owned by Trevor Rabin. I also picked up a prototype model of what was to become the Spectrum that is actually pretty awesome. But no x350MA.

Flash forward again to 2010. One of my hobbies was to search the web every few weeks for a replacement for my original Ric 320. One night in August, I chanced upon a 1981 model in MapleGlo at a music store in New York. I wanted it! About the same time, another friend sent me some old pictures he had dug up of me in 1982 playing my original Ric. My eyes grew wide in amazement as I started comparing it to the one in New York. It was MY long lost 320. I contacted them and the serial number matched. They were very nice and sold it to me for what they had in it, not nearly what it was worth.

I don't have any hopes of something like that happening wit the x350MA, but I would dearly love to find one. I started searching in earnest about a month ago and just happened upon this site last week. I will post pix later of my current herd.

... and that's the was it is.

A.J.

Welcone to the forum A.J. and ......great story!

To me, the most amazing thing is that I got MY original Rickenbacker back after a 17 year absence. Plus, it was in almost the same condition as when it was stolen.

I have since undertaken the task of modding it to look like John Lennon's Hamburg 325 with gold pickguard, gold truss rod cover, Grover Sta-Tite tuners, and Burns knobs. I plan on ordering three toaster pickups in the next week or so. I went with a trapeze tailpiece though, instead of a Bigsby,

Welcome mailman.
What a loss, I was cryin' as I read the story. But happy to hear you found your old Ricky! It's an amazing thing when it happens, and believe it or not it has also happened before and we've heard the occasional story both here and on our sister site, The Guitar Gallery.
A bugger you had to pay twice for it though.

Wait, so are you really my mailman? And the Tick?! Oh YEAH!

What a story! The losses, especially of the 350... so sad...

Do you know how rare those things really are? If not, do yourself a favor by not eduacating yourself on the subject. Would only infuriate you.

And you got your original Ric back?! Praise God!

Oh, and welcome.