Rickenbacker 101

ICBM

thermionic said:

What causes the tuning problems with Ricks more than any other type of guitar then? I bought my first Rickenbacker about 3-4 years ago (a more or less pristine ‘99 330) and not noticed any tuning problems, apart from a Les-Paul style occasional flat G, which I would guess is caused by a less than perfect nut slot.

The bridges can move on the (bad engineering) four-point Allen screw supports, and the 'R' tailpiece can shift slightly on its mounting hook because it's inherently unevenly loaded. Both these things will make it go out of tune.

thermionic said:

Prices are nuts though.

Have you seen the list price of a new 381 now? I checked when I was thinking of selling mine. It's over *seven grand* :O... you can literally buy a brand new car for less than that, just.

UnclePsychosis

@ICBM lol how much? 

I know that Rickenbacker have picked a "sensible" business model where they have deliberately stayed small(ish) so they actually build less guitars than there is demand for but I will be interested to see if they need to change tack over the next few years. You'd have to imagine that a large part of their market is cash-rich older types who grew up on the Beatles, Tom Petty, The Smiths etc. Not sure if the "younger" generation will have the same attachment, certainly not to the tune of paying £7k for one. 

historyisjunk

Regarding playing leads on them, check this out- it's not shredding, but not the usual cover versions.

Personally I really like it & it has the bonus of some live Cats-on Amps footage.

My experience of them has only been with the post 2000 Hi Gains on 330s  & to be honest the thing I found hardest to get was jangle. They seem pretty dark to me, but like them a lot.

Regarding the bridge as you can probably see it has a cover, so you can't damp on top of the saddles. If you take that off as I do, file the corners off the E saddles or pain & bleeding will follow.

Not sure if it's been clarified- there are TWO types of 360  the curved one with binding on the back edge like Peter Buck's black one & what I believe is the 360WB which is like a 330 with binding on both edges like Waz's. IME these are more expensive, very beautiful though. Happy to have this corrected or expanded, by others.

When all the CV stuff is lifted you can borrow my Midnight Blue 330 for a weekend & see how you get on with it (if you're still around central Scotand)

pmg

A few other musings:  

My 330 was my number one guitar for a good 8 years or so -I took a break from it to actually play some other guitars that I own.  A lot of people say the neck makes it difficult to play.  I expect this is because of the lacquered fretboard, which most people wouldn’t be used to coming from fender, gibson, gretsch, etc. but also the narrow neck.  I didn’t find either a problem but horses for courses...i got a lot of nice comments at gigs about the appearance of the guitar (who’d have thought a mapleglo Ric would turn so many heads).  A few comments have been made regarding the body size.  Again I haven’t had any issues with it and found it much more manageable with higher levels of gain compared to a 335.  Oh and they can be a bitch to string with the R tailpiece until you workout the best way to do it

sw67

I had a white 330 under the bed for 28 years. Was a big Jam fan and just had to have one but couldn't get it to work with the amps i was using. Sold it a few years ago when i decided guitars are for playing. Tuning was rock solid but feedback was my biggest issue.

pmg

historyisjunk said:

Regarding playing leads on them, check this out- it's not shredding, but not the usual cover versions.

Personally I really like it & it has the bonus of some live Cats-on Amps footage.

My experience of them has only been with the post 2000 Hi Gains on 330s  & to be honest the thing I found hardest to get was jangle. They seem pretty dark to me, but like them a lot.

Regarding the bridge as you can probably see it has a cover, so you can't damp on top of the saddles. If you take that off as I do, file the corners off the E saddles or pain & bleeding will follow.

Not sure if it's been clarified- there are TWO types of 360  the curved one with binding on the back edge like Peter Buck's black one & what I believe is the 360WB which is like a 330 with binding on both edges like Waz's. IME these are more expensive, very beautiful though. Happy to have this corrected or expanded, by others.

When all the CV stuff is lifted you can borrow my Midnight Blue 330 for a weekend & see how you get on with it (if you're still around central Scotand)

Yeah, take the bridge cover off

ICBM

historyisjunk said:

Not sure if it's been clarified- there are TWO types of 360  the curved one with binding on the back edge like Peter Buck's black one & what I believe is the 360WB which is like a 330 with binding on both edges like Waz's. IME these are more expensive, very beautiful though. Happy to have this corrected or expanded, by others.

Yes, that's correct. The 360WB - which was the first version and was just called the 360 originally - has the 330 body shape, and binding on both edges - but a few don't have a bound soundhole. The 'modern' 360 has the rounded body profile and front edge, and always a bound soundhole.

pmg said:

...i got a lot of nice comments at gigs about the appearance of the guitar (who’d have thought a mapleglo Ric would turn so many heads).

I have literally had a compliment about my guitar every time I've used a Rickenbacker at a gig - always from women, usually young/attractive too. I really don't know why, and it's not me or my playing since it never happens when I use anything else! And only rarely when I use my 4001 (although that does mean that I am then the bass player...).

If that doesn't make you all rush out and buy one, you're even more daft than me for not always using mine .

aroof

Had roughly 10 Rickenbackers over the years but now down to 3.

First was a mildly tatty 620/6 - awesome guitar but I thinkit has a 3/4 body but full scale neck ( I might be wrong ), so when I started gigging in a band I moved it on because it just looked silly on me. Perhaps that sounds a bit vain but I couldn't afford to have guitars that I didn't use those days.
However the sound was not what I would say is the classic Rickenbacker signature - it was in the ballpark but not woody, That's not a criticism at all, just a slight difference. It was a fabulous guitar that I really lament letting go.

I got a mid 80s 360/12 string soon after. Very narrow gaps between strings (the neck is just the same size as a 360/6, but fits double the strings). Amazing sounding guitar. Perhaps I am just a pr victim but I would say this is a unique sound because Rickenbacker 12s have the strings the other way round when they are paired when compared to other 12 strings.

I went through several 330s and 360s and they were all great, with the sparkle and resonance that is not quite the same in a 620. None of them were bad. They all had the high gain pickups and I used a Janglebox compressor into a silverface twin or AC30. This is the sound of early Smiths and REM in a few easy steps. I learnt a lot of those bands back catalogue with this set up and it kept me occupied for months if not years. In my opinion there is a negligible difference between the 330 and 360 aside from the obvious cosmetic ones but of course this is a personal preference.

Now I am down to a 330/6 Montezuma Brown, a 381v69/6 Fireglo and the 360/12 Mapleglo. The 381 is heavy and has toaster pickups as stock. It sounds very woody and the Pickups are more twinkly at low gain high volume than the high gains but not as good as the high gains when cranked, ie when you are trying to play the Jam.

Basically you can't really go wrong with a Rickenbacker in my opinion.

GavRichList

aroof said:

Had roughly 10 Rickenbackers over the years but now down to 3.

First was a mildly tatty 620/6 - awesome guitar but I thinkit has a 3/4 body but full scale neck ( I might be wrong ), so when I started gigging in a band I moved it on because it just looked silly on me. Perhaps that sounds a bit vain but I couldn't afford to have guitars that I didn't use those days.
However the sound was not what I would say is the classic Rickenbacker signature - it was in the ballpark but not woody, That's not a criticism at all, just a slight difference. It was a fabulous guitar that I really lament letting go.

I got a mid 80s 360/12 string soon after. Very narrow gaps between strings (the neck is just the same size as a 360/6, but fits double the strings). Amazing sounding guitar. Perhaps I am just a pr victim but I would say this is a unique sound because Rickenbacker 12s have the strings the other way round when they are paired when compared to other 12 strings.

I went through several 330s and 360s and they were all great, with the sparkle and resonance that is not quite the same in a 620. None of them were bad. They all had the high gain pickups and I used a Janglebox compressor into a silverface twin or AC30. This is the sound of early Smiths and REM in a few easy steps. I learnt a lot of those bands back catalogue with this set up and it kept me occupied for months if not years. In my opinion there is a negligible difference between the 330 and 360 aside from the obvious cosmetic ones but of course this is a personal preference.

Now I am down to a 330/6 Montezuma Brown, a 381v69/6 Fireglo and the 360/12 Mapleglo. The 381 is heavy and has toaster pickups as stock. It sounds very woody and the Pickups are more twinkly at low gain high volume than the high gains but not as good as the high gains when cranked, ie when you are trying to play the Jam.

Basically you can't really go wrong with a Rickenbacker in my opinion.

Would love to see the Montezuma

merciful-evans

Plenty of good advice here. I concur that Rics are fine for soloing.
All the models you cite have the same Hi Gain PUs of course. You do need to play them. Rics are different.

I use a 650D & 650C as I like the wider fingerboards and lower output pickups. 

ICBM

merciful-evans said:

I use a 650D & 650C as I like the wider fingerboards and lower output pickups. 

It's funny that the humbuckers are actually lower output than the High-Gains, isn't it!

I have a pair which were on my 381 for a while - kind of a 'stealth John Kay model' - which I thought sounded really good. The High-Gains went back on when I was thinking of selling it though.

aroof

GavRichList said:

Would love to see the Montezuma

It's not with me right now but I'll post a pic, somewhere, when I can go and see it. I never play it because I bought it late one summer but that Xmas Sound Affects had like 10 381s they were selling, new, for 2.5k£. So I bought one and that's my 6 string Ric now.

thermionic

Ah yes @ICBM, the crap bridge of course. Mine is reasonably well-behaved but I’ll probably Loctite it eventually. I’ve noticed some play in the tailpiece as well. Mastery make a very expensive replacement but I’m not convinced it’s that much of an improvement.

ICBM

aroof said:

... 381s they were selling, new, for 2.5k£. So I bought one and that's my 6 string Ric now.

I was lucky - I bought mine second hand and not in great condition when they were that sort of price new, so I got it for, er... cough... well let's just say quite cheap - a couple of years later they put the new price up to £4.5K, which I thought was ridiculous. Then I checked again recently and I almost fell over.

Wazmeister

GavRichList said:

aroof said:

Had roughly 10 Rickenbackers over the years but now down to 3.

First was a mildly tatty 620/6 - awesome guitar but I thinkit has a 3/4 body but full scale neck ( I might be wrong ), so when I started gigging in a band I moved it on because it just looked silly on me. Perhaps that sounds a bit vain but I couldn't afford to have guitars that I didn't use those days.
However the sound was not what I would say is the classic Rickenbacker signature - it was in the ballpark but not woody, That's not a criticism at all, just a slight difference. It was a fabulous guitar that I really lament letting go.

I got a mid 80s 360/12 string soon after. Very narrow gaps between strings (the neck is just the same size as a 360/6, but fits double the strings). Amazing sounding guitar. Perhaps I am just a pr victim but I would say this is a unique sound because Rickenbacker 12s have the strings the other way round when they are paired when compared to other 12 strings.

I went through several 330s and 360s and they were all great, with the sparkle and resonance that is not quite the same in a 620. None of them were bad. They all had the high gain pickups and I used a Janglebox compressor into a silverface twin or AC30. This is the sound of early Smiths and REM in a few easy steps. I learnt a lot of those bands back catalogue with this set up and it kept me occupied for months if not years. In my opinion there is a negligible difference between the 330 and 360 aside from the obvious cosmetic ones but of course this is a personal preference.

Now I am down to a 330/6 Montezuma Brown, a 381v69/6 Fireglo and the 360/12 Mapleglo. The 381 is heavy and has toaster pickups as stock. It sounds very woody and the Pickups are more twinkly at low gain high volume than the high gains but not as good as the high gains when cranked, ie when you are trying to play the Jam.

Basically you can't really go wrong with a Rickenbacker in my opinion.

Would love to see the Montezuma

I had the first Montezuma 381 (6 string) imported into the UK, and the strange thing is, it was a dog !! 

Would never stay in tune, and eventually went back.

I had a gorgeous 381 12 string in black... would love that now.

mart

Wazmeister said:

...

I had the first Montezuma 381 (6 string) imported into the UK, and the strange thing is, it was a dog !! 

Would never stay in tune ...

Montezuma’s revenge.

Koa

I’ve just removed my Rickenbacker bridge cover.....I can now palm mute but miss the quirky nature of the Rick with cover on. It may go back on.....

ICBM

My problem with the cover was that I'm such a hamfisted thrasher that I would occasionally bash the front corner of it hard enough to knock the whole bridge backwards at an angle, which resulted in instant discordant-gamelan-orchestra-type tuning .

Seziertisch

For those you tire of the engineering wonder that is the Rick bridge, this is also an option https://www.winfieldvintage.com/tuneomatic-bridges

Revolting1

Do any Ric  12 string bridges allow accurate intonation adjustment?