It’s not a real Rickenbacker, but an incredible simulation!
All of the major American guitar manufacturers have, by now, come out with an imported line of their most popular “Made in the USA” models. All but one that is – Rickenbacker. Not only has Rickenbacker not come out with budget friendly versions of their iconic guitars, but they have also refused to alter the original design of their guitars – especially those very slim necks.
A great many players, myself included, consider their necks to be too thin for comfortable playing, and numerous influential guitarists have voiced these concerns, yet they refuse to budge. And they’re expensive too – really expensive. But they are also quite attractive with a tone all their own, and they can’t make them fast enough. I’ve heard that delivery on new orders can take several years and still the orders keep coming.
Over the years, several overseas manufacturers have come out with lower priced Rickenbacker knockoffs in limited runs to fill the void left by the originators, and one of the latest manufacturers to produce a Rickenbacker-like design is IYV, from Vietnam! I’ve only recently encountered guitars from Vietnam, but it turns out, they’ve been making guitars for over forty years, and that experience is evident in this beautiful example of the state of their art.
It’s called the IYV IRK-300, but what it looks like to me is a copy of a Rickenbacker 620 model – sort of. Like the Rickenbacker, it has a beautiful “fireglow” finish, cat’s eye sound hole, that bizzarro Rickenbacker bridge, and pickups that at look like, and kind of sound like the old toaster pickups. Unlike the 620, the body is hollow, and the neck is a little beefy but very comfortable. If fact, the neck may be the best thing about it. It’s got a standard 42mm width, a 12 inch radius, and feels to me like a vintage Gibson acoustic. It’s a lot of fun to play.
The original toasters were single coils, and those in the IRK-300 are humbuckers (mini humbuckers?), but they sound very good and they do jangle. I play at bedroom volumes and mostly on the neck pickup, but I find the sound is very well balanced. No one string sings out above the others. The dime size pots and the pickup selector are the usual import variety, but they work very well and they are shielded.
As I think you can already tell, I like this guitar a lot. However, I do have objections to the tuners and the bridge. I can do with import tuners. They’re “serviceable,” and I’m never in a performance situation where re-tuning would be awkward. But these tuners don’t seem to be up to the usual import standard; their tension is too inconsistent even for me, so they will be replaced.
And I have two problems with the bridge which will soon bring about its replacement. The first is that the bridge’s string spacing does not align with the guitar’s neck. The designers probably didn’t realize that Rickenbacker necks, like classical guitar necks, don’t gradually widen as you progress down the neck as nearly all other guitars do. But the IRK-300’s neck does widen and so, the string/neck alignment is a little off, so I will have to I will have to adapt a new bridge for this guitar, but I’m quite willing to do that – I like this guitar that much.
The IYV IRK-300 is sold through Amazon for an astonishing $168.00! But they’re not always available. It seems they’re made and shipped in limited batches, so if you want one, and you see one, you might want to grab it fast, for they sell out very quickly.
The Super Specs
Body = Basswood with maple top
Neck = Maple
Fretboard = jatoba (Brazilian Cherrywood)
Scale Length = 24 3/4 inches
Fretboard Radius = 12 inches
Frets # 24
Nut Width = 41mm
E to e string spacing = 35mm
Weight = 6pounds 4ounces
Pickups = humbuckers
Pickup Resistance = Neck 6.48k – Middle 3.43k – Bridge 7.33k
Tuners = standard (no-name) import
Bridge = import copy of the standard Rickenbacker bridge
Bonus Tracks
This guitar has become so popular that several YouTube guitar channels have put out videos on it. Here is what I think might be one of the better ones. The IYV IRK-300 Rick ‘O’ copy
Back to the Super Specs page or the Cpop Guitar Shop