OK, my friend Jay who has been playing alot longer than moi, coined the title for my review. And these seem to be high maintenence as suggested by some on here. I have had about five of these in the last ten years,and have experienced problems expressed by others. First off, when the neck finally settles about six months to a year after purchase, the fret tang protrude from the sides of the neck, and require filing. The second concern is the reliability of the pickups, I had one that lost about 75 percent of its volumme in the neck pickup, RIC covered it under the warranty, since I did bother to send in the warranty card, I suggest you do the same, just the pickup is around a hundred. I think one was sent in for a new switch to if I recall. The tuners seem to slip as well when bending sometimes. Now the good stuff....lol...very high quality woods and craftmanship. Great sound with dead quiet mini humbuckers. Built like a tank, and the neck is somewhat bigger than your average bear...overall, buy one if you can find it!!!

I bought this 650D new just shy of a year ago now and have had multiple problems with the instrument. I love how the guitar plays, looks, feels and sounds but there isn't the quality that you get with a Fender or a Gibson. Within the first six months of owning the guitar the bridge pickup broke. Rickenbacker customer service was prompt and easy to work with, I just paid shipping one way and they covered the rest. The newest problem how ever is soft spots in the frets, I started developing fret buzz on a few notes and realized they are wearing out, I probably have less than 40 hours on the instrument and have had to raise the action to overcome the buzz. I've had a 27 yr old Gibson for 15 yrs that has hundreds of hours on it and just recently had the frets ground for the first time. I would think twice before buying another Rick even though they do sound and play great, I see this guitar as being high maintenance.

Ive been playing for 40 years, a lot of lead work...my main axe was a es 335 1970, until I picked this baby up. Wow it kicks big time, plays wonderfull, the neck is not thick ( I HAVE REALLY SMALL FINGERS ). I have the gold hardware on it, I get alot of comments on it. I play it as my main guitar...I would like a bigsby on it...still working on that. Worth every penney and more !!!

I play everything from Moody Blues to 38 Special. A tailpiece works okay with the 12-strings, but for lead the 650 series bridge is perfect. The 650 shape is comfortable too with a fretboard wide enough for normal people. I changed my humbuckers to gold toasters for nailing 60's rock which has always caused a stir at gigs. Even today the 650 is uncommon. I will be purchasing another 650 and keeping the stock humbuckers in for harder rock. If you've never played a 650, make it a priorty to do so. The neck-thru-body comfort zone is tops.

I've been playing for 44 years now and have owned dozens of guitars. This guitar is exactly what it claims to be, humbucking pickups with single coil sound. It does an excellent job of straddling the tonal range between a Les Paul and a Tele. Which means if you are a working musician, you just need this one axe to cover just about all musical styles except maybe thrash or metal. The tele sound is meatier and the Les Paul sound from this guitar is brighter and more articulate. What more can you ask, guys? There's a reason this guitar is perpetually in short supply, it's that good. An optional tremelo would be nice, Rickenbacker people??