1993 plus and some questions.

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Amber
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1993 plus and some questions.

Post by Amber »

Hi, I'm a week into ownership of a 1993plus. I've dreamt of owning a Ric 12 for almost 30 years, The Smiths and REM being huge influences on me. I was so dissapointed a couple of years ago when I tried a 360/12 and couldn't get over the narrow neck. However, the salesman handed me a 1993plus which was so much easier to play.....but, the price was eye-watering.
Fast forward until a few months ago and I convinced myself that I'd be able to overcome the narrow neck on the 360/12. I even put my 330/6 up for trade.
Then, I spotted a 1993plus at pretty much half the price of any other. I made enquiries and the guitar arrived within the week. For me, opening the case was akin to finding the Holy Grail!
I haven't had much chance to play it though. Not at home at least. So I've brought it on a family vacation! There are a few questions I'd like to pick your brains at though.......
I feel I'm having to modify my finger placement on the neck....mainly E and A strings in order to properly fret their octave strings and not dampen any adjacent string. The saddles don't look to be cut and I've moved some strings on the saddles to aid my playing. Can I assume this is a perfectly acceptable approach to customising the guitar to my style of play.
I use 10s on my 330/12 and 11s on my Jaguar and Jazzmaster. I'm thinking of dropping to 9s in this guitar, at least initially, again, because of my lack of practice on a 12 string guitar (over a year). Can I assume dropping to 9s won't cause any issue?
Finally, 3 pickups. I'm still not sure about how these pickups and their switch is configured. I watched vids on you-tube before actually reading the Ric manual and I think the you tube vids have it wrong. Tapping the Toasters hasn't really revealed which pup is on. Switch down is bridge only. Switch middle is all 3 pickups on?Switch up could be neck and middle on with 5th knob bringing middle pup on and off? Can anyone confirm please?
Anyway, loving this guitar. It's been a long time coming but I'm hoping your advice can get me to have it quickly where I want it to be for me.
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jps
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Re: 1993 plus and some questions.

Post by jps »

Yes, you can play with the spacing of the strings at the nut, but if the issue is your fretting hand that won't do much of anything for that, really. You might want to have a new nut made with slots cut to where you want the string spacing to be up there for fretting.

The pickups are set so that with the switch set to the up position both the neck and middle pickups are on at the same time; those two pickups are always tied together and has nothing to do with the 5th knob, other that for volume adjustment in unison, relative to the bridge pickup, the same as with the volume control. The 5th knob is essentially just a second neck/middle pickup volume control, except that the 3rd lug on the pot is not grounded so it does not fully cut off the signal of those pickups.

May people do rewire the 5th knob to become a volume control for the middle pickup; there are threads on the RRF with details on how to do so, so, do a search for that.
Amber
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Re: 1993 plus and some questions.

Post by Amber »

Thanks for the advice jps, it's appreciated. I think I'm ok with nut string placement. It's the saddle placement that I've been fiddling with.
The 2 pick up arrangement of the 330 (Hi-gain) works fine in bridge only, neck only (I love that with fuzz), and both neck and bridge together. All 3 positions sound fine.
Perhaps I was wanting more than 3 positions on a switch with a 3 pickup guitar. Not to worry. It's very early days. I've yet to play the guitar in a 'comfortable' situation.
Rick36561
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Re: 1993 plus and some questions.

Post by Rick36561 »

Here`s some information on the 660/1993 guitars. I talked to Winfield Vintage Parts and found out then noticed that the Bridge and Tailpiece are made for the Standard line of Rickenbacker guitars. Upon Closer examination,I found that the Bridge is too narrow as is the Tail piece. You will notice that the bridge saddles are grooved to the very limit of the bridge span and the angle of the High and Low E strings come in at an angle for the stock tailpiece. I purchased the Wider Trapeze Tailpiece and The Tune O Matic 12 saddle bridge made Specifically for the 660/1993 Plus. I will have my 1993 Plus restrung soon with the new Bridge and Tailpiece. Big Oversight on Rickenbacker`s Part.
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jdogric12
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Re: 1993 plus and some questions.

Post by jdogric12 »

Rick36561 wrote:Here`s some information on the 660/1993 guitars. I talked to Winfield Vintage Parts and found out then noticed that the Bridge and Tailpiece are made for the Standard line of Rickenbacker guitars. Upon Closer examination,I found that the Bridge is too narrow as is the Tail piece. You will notice that the bridge saddles are grooved to the very limit of the bridge span and the angle of the High and Low E strings come in at an angle for the stock tailpiece. I purchased the Wider Trapeze Tailpiece and The Tune O Matic 12 saddle bridge made Specifically for the 660/1993 Plus. I will have my 1993 Plus restrung soon with the new Bridge and Tailpiece. Big Oversight on Rickenbacker`s Part.
Is what you described actually a problem? Do the outer strings not sound? I know someone who owns a 1993+ and he loves it. And this is a guy who usually loves the vintage ones, not new ones. Grooving the saddles near the edge makes me think the company was able to make it work without tooling up new hardware, which would have driven the cost, and price to the customer, way up.
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scotty
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Re: 1993 plus and some questions.

Post by scotty »

To the OP.
I know exactly what your saying and I got a new nut cut for the same reason. I got my tech to tighten up the string spacing a tad also, bringing in the strings from the fretboard edge also.Primarily my new 1993 needed a new nut cut and I'm delighted with it now.
As far as strings sitting close to the edge of the saddles this doesn't affect the guitar in ho.
It's the same old story just because the guitar is new doesn't mean it doesn't need a good set up from someone who knows what they are doing.
I like my 1993 very much.Hope you get it sorted soon.
Amber
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Re: 1993 plus and some questions.

Post by Amber »

scotty wrote:To the OP.
I know exactly what your saying and I got a new nut cut for the same reason. I got my tech to tighten up the string spacing a tad also, bringing in the strings from the fretboard edge also.Primarily my new 1993 needed a new nut cut and I'm delighted with it now.
As far as strings sitting close to the edge of the saddles this doesn't affect the guitar in ho.
It's the same old story just because the guitar is new doesn't mean it doesn't need a good set up from someone who knows what they are doing.
I like my 1993 very much.Hope you get it sorted soon.
Thanks for the insight. It's appreciated.
I'm going to restring this guitar tonight. I'm dropping right down to 8-40s and I'll see if I need to adjust the truss rods from there. Action is way to high at the moment.
On the plus side, I've tried steel finger and thumb pics for the first time and I've surprised myself at how easily and painlessly they've worked out (a plastic thumb-pick was painful and I just couldn't co-ordinate it)
Amber
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Re: 1993 plus and some questions.

Post by Amber »

Restrung with 8-40s. When un-stringing, the high octave G snapped at the ball end. When re-stringing, the new high octave G snapped, but, that was after loosening both G's to untwist some annoying buzz coming from strings between bridge and trapeze.
I'm wondering if the trapeze is not so kind to strings. I should investigate that G slot.
I've ordered a 5 pack of .008s
Restringing was relatively painless. I went for:
Remove 12th.
Remove 11th.
Replace 11th.
Replace 12th. and so on for 12-7th strings...(although I could have went from 12+11 replacement to 1+2 replacement then 10+9th to 3rd+ 4th and so on.)
It became quite therapeutic and now looking at the winder buttons, it's all become so much more understandable.

It's so much more playable....albeit it's an 11 stringer at present. :?
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jps
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Re: 1993 plus and some questions.

Post by jps »

Amber wrote:...When un-stringing, the high octave G snapped at the ball end. When re-stringing, the new high octave G snapped ..... I'm wondering if the trapeze is not so kind to strings. I should investigate that G slot.
I've ordered a 5 pack of .008s...
I believe that is just how .008s are. Good thing you orders a few extras.
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jdogric12
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Re: 1993 plus and some questions.

Post by jdogric12 »

8's are insanely light!
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collin
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Re: 1993 plus and some questions.

Post by collin »

jdogric12 wrote:8's are insanely light!

That's a GOOD thing!

People are catching-on to ditch the piano cables on their 12-strings. Way easier on the neck and your fingers, with little downside to the tone. Worth changing a few strings every once in awhile..
Rick36561
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Re: 1993 plus and some questions.

Post by Rick36561 »

The Problem on the 1993/660 series is that the further up the neck you go, the strings are still spaced too tightly for the wider neck. I put the Winfield Tune -O- Matic 12 saddle bridge and the wider trapeze. The Difference is Obvious. The strings actually follow the neck width all the way to the bridge now. Before with the stock bridge the strings were still spaced like a standard neck Rick. This new bridge spaces out the strings on the whole fretboard. Now I have a much better playing 1993.
Clifton
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Re: 1993 plus and some questions.

Post by Clifton »

The small "fifth" knob is a pickup blender, not a volume knob. You can get a lot of different, subtle sounds experimenting with it and the various pickup selections.
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jdogric12
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Re: 1993 plus and some questions.

Post by jdogric12 »

Amber wrote:Restrung with 8-40s. When un-stringing, the high octave G snapped at the ball end. When re-stringing, the new high octave G snapped, but, that was after loosening both G's to untwist some annoying buzz coming from strings between bridge and trapeze.
I'm wondering if the trapeze is not so kind to strings. I should investigate that G slot.
I've ordered a 5 pack of .008s
Restringing was relatively painless. I went for:
Remove 12th.
Remove 11th.
Replace 11th.
Replace 12th. and so on for 12-7th strings...(although I could have went from 12+11 replacement to 1+2 replacement then 10+9th to 3rd+ 4th and so on.)
It became quite therapeutic and now looking at the winder buttons, it's all become so much more understandable.

It's so much more playable....albeit it's an 11 stringer at present. :?

Oh, I guess I didn't catch this before... don't think of the pairs together... the slot problem actually crosses courses.

So I take 12 off and put it right back on. Just like 1, 6, and 7, it's independent.

10 (not 12) gets in the way of 11, so I remove 10, remove 11, replace 11, replace 10. Et cetera.
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jps
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Re: 1993 plus and some questions.

Post by jps »

Clifton wrote:The small "fifth" knob is a pickup blender, not a volume knob...
The fifth knob is very much just a volume knob (more accurately, an attenuator). It is in line with the neck pickup volume control and acts just like one, except that it does not totally cut off the signal as the third lug is not grounded. All it does is lower, or raise (depending on where it was set to) the neck pickup's output relative to the bridge pickup.
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