The Rickenbacker thread

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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jeff m.
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Re: The Rickenbacker thread

Post by jeff m. » Sun Apr 28, 2019 5:49 am

+1, fuzzjunkie..great story.

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Re: The Rickenbacker thread

Post by fuzzjunkie » Sun Apr 28, 2019 7:28 am

jeff m. wrote:
Sun Apr 28, 2019 5:49 am
+1, fuzzjunkie..great story.
”Tehz” Damn amazing stories!
Thanks guys, I had to break out the 360v64 and play it a bit after writing about the old ‘85 360, still makes me sad to think about.

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Re: The Rickenbacker thread

Post by cestlamort » Sun Apr 28, 2019 8:24 am

Larry Mal wrote:
Sat Apr 27, 2019 7:23 pm
Immediately upon getting a Ric I measured the nut, and found mine to have the same nut width as my AVRI Fenders. The neck stayed pretty narrow as it traveled to the body, still, it was nothing like what I had heard. I found a Ric to be a joy to play.

I couldn't get the R tailpiece off there fast enough.
The necks don’t really get wider, which some people read as “narrow nut” (Although some12 strings can feel tiny). I like the smaller frets.

The R tailpiece isn’t great. Trick: You can tape the strings in with painters tape (especially on 12 strings) when restringing. I also keep some dental floss around to pull the ball end back into the slot if it unseats while stringing (my 330 has a couple of crappy string slots).

I also don’t think they’re especially expensive (330, 360s are usually on par with American offsets used, even cheaper), it’s just that there are no entry level models.

I’d be curious about how the toasters sound. The current ones supposedly are closer to the vintage ones; the ones in my 370 are basically (exactly?) hi gains with different covers.

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Re: The Rickenbacker thread

Post by marqueemoon » Sun Apr 28, 2019 8:49 am

Beautiful guitars, but the neck not getting appreciably wider thing is a dealbreaker for me. I’ve played a few with chunkier necks that I could probably get used to, but yeah.

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Re: The Rickenbacker thread

Post by Bert Camenbert » Sun Apr 28, 2019 8:49 am

About the R tailpiece: I use a capo to keep the strings in place while I wind them up: put the ball-end in the slot, then hold the string in place with a capo placed on the fifth fret, then wind the string. Remove capo, start again. I do something similar when I'm changing strings on bigsby equipped guitars.

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Re: The Rickenbacker thread

Post by i love sharin foo » Sun Apr 28, 2019 8:55 am

cestlamort wrote:
Sun Apr 28, 2019 8:24 am

The R tailpiece isn’t great. Trick: You can tape the strings in with painters tape (especially on 12 strings) when restringing. I also keep some dental floss around to pull the ball end back into the slot if it unseats while stringing (my 330 has a couple of crappy string slots).

I also don’t think they’re especially expensive (330, 360s are usually on par with American offsets used, even cheaper), it’s just that there are no entry level models.

I’d be curious about how the toasters sound. The current ones supposedly are closer to the vintage ones; the ones in my 370 are basically (exactly?) hi gains with different covers.
Those are good tips! Thanks!

I definitely want to get a pair of those Creamery toasters for my 330. I think the '63s are more what I am after. The prices aren't bad at all and are cheaper than new Rick ones. I believe that will be the first thing I change.
The whispers cut like hard rain, Like sugar in a hurricane

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Re: The Rickenbacker thread

Post by Grey » Sun Apr 28, 2019 9:04 am

I just put the string in the slot, pull it, and hold it with the thumb of my opposite hand while fishing it through the tuner with the other. I never got the gripe about restringing it, or Bigsbys for that matter. I've had both and it takes maybe an extra 30 seconds in total, big deal.

The thing that irritated me about the 'R' was that the string spacing doesn't match the bridge. It's just one of those things that's always annoyed me, and they never changed it. The trapeze lines up perfectly.

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Re: The Rickenbacker thread

Post by Larry Mal » Sun Apr 28, 2019 9:27 am

I ended up just hauling the R tailpiece off there and bought a trapeze tailpiece from Winfield Vintage here.

Between that, the Mastery bridge that locks to the body, and locking tuners, I had a guitar that was as easy to change strings with as can possibly be.

How I brought myself to trade that I don't know, but I really prefer the L-00 so I guess I made the right call.
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Re: The Rickenbacker thread

Post by jakeisjake » Sun Apr 28, 2019 9:41 am

I love the look of the R tailpiece...but I had a Winfield and it definitely was easier.
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Re: The Rickenbacker thread

Post by Fiddy » Sun Apr 28, 2019 11:07 am

I owned a Jetglo 620, bought it new from Long and McQuade. Geeat guitar satupidily sold or traded it, i dont even remember.. :fp:

Strings I change, one by one. No issues at all there, tho I have taken off the bridge too. It does get a little tricky..

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Re: The Rickenbacker thread

Post by nanamour » Sun Apr 28, 2019 11:28 am

Here's my old Jetglo 660, sort of a spruced-up 620 with vintagey appointments (no 'R' tailpiece to wrestle with!) and a wider neck. As others have said, the Mastery fitted to it really brought a lot of life out of the guitar. Utterly fantastic instrument, and the only one I've ever regretted letting go of.

As Zhivago said, those toasters really nail that sound, but I found that with a bit of pickup height experimentation I could coax a decent variety of tones, even get some tele-esque sounds, out of it.

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Last seen hacked apart and auctioned off piecemeal on a certain eBay guitar parts chop shop :'(

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Re: The Rickenbacker thread

Post by kapepper » Sun Apr 28, 2019 12:37 pm

Had this one for a while
From 1965

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But never bonded with the guitar so it left the house within a year...I liked the looks but it didn’t work out between us :unsure:

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Re: The Rickenbacker thread

Post by fuzzjunkie » Sun Apr 28, 2019 1:11 pm

Good day, sunshine!

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Re: The Rickenbacker thread

Post by i love sharin foo » Sun Apr 28, 2019 1:47 pm

Beautiful!!
The whispers cut like hard rain, Like sugar in a hurricane

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Re: The Rickenbacker thread

Post by Bert Camenbert » Sun Apr 28, 2019 2:11 pm

i can't change the R tailpiece on my 360: my wife's name starts with an R, she would complain.

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