Gem Archer still hangs on to his
love of Rickenbakers. "I still play them and I've just bought
another" he says. "The ultimate one for me is the 1997 Pete Townsend
model. I use Rics a lot in the studio, but playing live, their
tuning was always a bit unstable. Then I heard of a guy called
Philippe Dubreuille who is based in London. We got chatting and I
discovered that he's made guitars for loads people. I borrowed a
great Rickenbaker 330 from Paul Weller and asked Philippe to build
me a copy.
" I had it made with a thinner body
construction, no f-hole and different wiring in order to get a
higher output. Philippe has since built a
guitar for Andy Bell. It's a bastardised version of a
Zemaitis. You say to Philippe, You reckon we can do this? and he
says, No problem, no problem, and three weeks later the guitar is
ready to collect. The finish is fireglow red. Philippe uses old
style lacquers, so they don't look like brand-new guitars."
