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- Introduction
- Rikkers Guitars & Doublebasses is the company of Ferdinand Rikkers and Jacco Stuitje. Established in 1983 we celebrated our 25th anniversary back in 2008.
There is a lot to say about our company and on this page we want to do so briefly.
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- We are located on the outskirts of the city of Groningen, where we make, repair and sell guitars, bass guitars and double basses. Together we have nearly forty years experience in the construction and repair of electric and acoustic instruments. We have set up thousands of guitars, changed as many pickups, glued headstocks, milled holes, soldered outputs, reshaped necks, sanded bodies and placed trussrods, and repaired an armada of instruments.
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- In 1983 Ferdinand takes the opportunity to buy an old and neglected house in the Folkingestraat in Groningen. In the previous years he had already made a number of instruments in attic of his grandmother and in these early years he developed and honed his skills as luthier. Here the unique Rikkers model was designed while Ferdinand was pouring coffee to customers and friends who sometimes sat in all day in the little shop (equipped with pinball!). After a few years Jacco came by to support Ferdinand in 1992 and quickly the cozy little shop became too small and inaccessible. The new shop at Rijksweg number 13 on the highway two hundred meters from the eastern ring road with private parking and many square meters also a great improvement. Here the work expanded. After making hundreds of basses with its own design Ferdinand and Jacco develop the Waveline guitarmodel. Repairs and customizing all kinds of instruments is daily work but also the work on doublebasses is a lot easier.
Below we introduce ourselves, in no particular order:
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- Jacco Stuitje
- Like Ferdinand Jacco also comes from a musical family. He began playing the guitar on his 15th. He has played in various formations in Groningen but chose not only the instrument making over that of musician, but also that of IT. Trained as a computer scientist he made the switch to the making of guitars in 1992. Like Ferdinand, he learned the trade by doing it. His specialty is the making of electric guitars, winding pickups and electronics.
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- Joost van der Beek
- Joost is studying Guitar at the Conservatory of Groningen and he studies Guitar Making & Repair at Rikkers Guitars.
Joost started playing when he was twelve years old and as a guitarist he knows (almost) everythingl of the instrument. The combination of a very good guitarist and guitar repairman is very rare. Joost plays in many bands, including a Big Band but also the bans
- Ferdinand Rikkers
- Ferdinand comes from a family of musicians. His grandfather was a leader of a Big Band, which played throughout Europe, his father Peter Rikkers played double bass his entire life in a symphonic orchestra, his uncle and cousin are both professional bassplayers. He dis not want to be a performing musician, because his sports (high jump, athletics, boxing) was to dear to him and he engaged in a very different love, the instrument making.
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