Guitar Hero

You’d never now John Hall is the caretaker of a rock ‘n’ roll legend.

The executive is down to earth and quick with a story, be it about the changing Orange County landscape or the time he met the Beatles.

Hall is chief executive of Santa Ana’s Rickenbacker International Corp., a family-run guitar maker made famous by the Fab Four and the Who.

He’s hosted Tom Petty and other Rickenbacker devotees at the company’s no-frills headquarters and factory, which sits in the shadow of South Coast Plaza.

Back when his dad ran the company, a 15-year-old Hall met the Beatles in 1965.

“I presented Paul McCartney with a bass that day,” he said. “But we didn’t know he was left handed, so he got the wrong one.”

That same day, the Beatles and musicians from the Byrds,whose version of “Mr. Tambourine Man” features the trademark Rickenbacker sound,dropped acid for the first time, Hall said.

John Lennon, who almost singlehandedly was responsible for making Rickenbacker the guitar of choice for many 1960s rockers, got in a fight with actor Peter Fonda, Hall recounted.

Lennon became smitten with Rickenbacker guitars after he saw Belgian jazz musician Toots Thielemans use one. He liked one particular model because it was smaller than most other guitars, Hall said.

The Rickenbacker sound has become immortalized on early recordings by the Beatles and the Who and more recently by Petty and U2.

“We’re known for our high clarity sound,” Hall said. “Some call it a jangle.”

Today, Rickenbacker is small compared to the two biggies that dominate guitars, Scottsdale-based Fender Musical Instruments Corp., which got its start in Fullerton, and Nashville’s Gibson Guitar Corp.

Privately held Rickenbacker does an estimated $10 million in yearly sales and makes about 10,000 guitars a year,a fraction of what Fender and Gibson do.

That’s partly by design. Rickenbacker gets a little bigger every year, according to Hall. But he said he’s not willing to sacrifice the quality of the guitars, which are made with a painstaking attention to detail in Santa Ana.

“We need the work here,” Hall said with a sense of pride. “There’s no reason to ship it elsewhere.”

Can Afford to Make Here

Rickenbacker could save as much as a third of its production costs by going somewhere like Post Falls, Idaho. But Hall, a longtime OC resident, said he simply likes being in California.

With Rickenbacker guitars selling for an average of $2,500 apiece, the company can afford to produce here, despite higher labor and pollution regulation costs.

Hall likens his guitars to luxury vehicles.

“There are people out there taking the time to make Rolls-Royces,” he said. “What we have is steady production of solid quality and sound.”

There’s a two-year backlog in orders for Rickenbacker guitars, Hall said.

He’s raised prices each of the past few years to slow some of the demand.

The first price hike of 10% didn’t work, Hall said. He hopes a 20% increase will this year.

A shortage of Rickenbacker guitars has raised demand among some who want the guitars for their scarcity.

“Some say we’re manipulating this, but we’re not,” Hall said. “If I could double production, I would double revenue.”

Hall has been looking at ways to expand production but said he’s challenged with preserving quality.

More than 2,500 different parts are used to make Rickenbacker’s 25 models, according to Hall.

About 80 workers, many of them musicians, make the guitars in about 37,000 square feet of factory space.

Guitar Collection

On the outside, Rickenbacker’s building is a typical box,no different than any other in the area. The inside provides an exclusive glimpse into rock history that’s rarely seen by the public.

Next to Hall’s office overlooking his factory floor is a room stacked from floor to ceiling with dozens of vintage Rickenbackers from his private collection.

The room also doubles as a practice studio for his band Hautewerk. Hall plays bass, a Rickenbacker of course.

On display are models the company has made throughout its 75 years in business, including guitars and basses the Beatles used.

The Who’s Pete Townshend, who was known to smash Rickenbackers in his early days, has his own model hanging on the wall. So does Roger McGuinn of the Byrds.

Rickenbacker fell out of favor in the stadium rock era in the early 1970s, when Gibson’s Les Paul guitar dominated.

Then the brand started making a comeback later that decade.

British mod revival band the Jam used Rickenbackers. In 1981, Rick James banged out bass notes for his hit “Super Freak” on a Rickenbacker.

The comeback bloomed in the 1980s and 1990s with bands such as R.E.M., the Smiths, U2 and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.

“Most of them have visited here,” Hall said.

The history of the electric guitar runs deep in OC.

In a glass case in Hall’s private collection is what’s billed as the first electric guitar, invented by musician George Beauchamp.

The banjo-like instrument known as the “frying pan” might fetch about $2 million these days, according to Hall.

In 1931 Beauchamp partnered with Swiss immigrant and engineer Adolph Rickenbacker to make the electric guitar in Los Angles. By the time he received a patent for the instrument in 1937, several other companies were making electric guitars.

Rickenbacker’s company provided metal fittings for instruments, including aluminum for small Dobro guitars, which look like ordinary acoustic guitars with resonator plates on their fronts.

In 1964, the company traded its Los Angeles factory for a larger one in Santa Ana, which was surrounded mostly by farm fields at the time.

Hall’s father, Francis C. Hall, eventually bought Rickenbacker after getting his feet wet in the business with Fullerton’s Fender.

In the early 1940s, Leo Fender, a radio repairman, was working on improving the design of guitars to make them easier to hold, tune and play.

Fender owed money to Hall’s father, who at the time ran one of Southern California’s largest electronics distribution companies.

When Hall’s father visited Fender to see about the debt, he discovered the guitars and got the idea that he could sell them.

In 1946 Hall financed Fender’s operation making guitars and sold them through his distribution network.

By the 1950s business was strong. But Hall said his dad became dissatisfied with the relationship and in 1953 went after the chance to buy Rickenbacker.

Leo Fender eventually sold his company to CBS Corp. for $13 million in 1965. The company now is privately owned and does an estimated $400 million in sales each year. Nearly all of its manufacturing is done outside the country, with some production in Corona.

Leo Fender also started G & L; Musical Instruments in Fullerton, part of Huntington Beach’s BBE Sound Inc.

Rickenbacker’s competition is high-end guitars from Fender and Gibson, which has estimated yearly sales of about $225 million.

Buyout Offers

Hall said he regularly gets buyout offers for Rickenbacker but prefers to keep the company in the family.

Wife Cindalee is president. Son Ben is a factory manager. Daughter Sarah an order processor. He said he sees them taking over the business.

A big barrier to Rickenbacker expanding is finding enough skilled workers, Hall said.

Experience in guitar making is few and far between among applicants, he said.

“We struggled to find a head of purchasing for a long time,” Hall said.

Environmental restrictions are another issue. The company has made progress cutting down on pollution by using special paints that can be dried with ultraviolet light.

Like many local manufacturers, Rickenbacker increasingly relies on automation to cut down on labor costs.

Making a guitar begins by cutting and shaping blocks of blond eastern rock maple wood.

Machines that cut the wood into the shape of guitars are faster and more accurate than humans, according to Hall.

Lasers, which Hall acquired a month ago, are expected to be the future of his automation.

So far, they’re being used to cut grooves into the fingerboards on the guitar necks. They’ll be used in other jobs once Hall figures out how, he said.

“It’s already paying its way,” Hall said.

Much of the work, including sanding and painting, still has to be done by hand because it’s too complicated for machines, he said.

That’s what gives Rickenbacker guitars their character, according to Hall.

“People ask me what kind of paint we use,” he said. “I tell them it’s not the paint. It’s how it’s applied.”