Changed my 360 wiring layout to Les Paul/SG style.

[goldTopDeluxe]

I did it. I took out the original harness from my mid 90s 360 with hi gains and completely replaced it with a non stereo wiring ala Les Paul or SG.
I cannot tell you how much better the guitar is. It will never go back to the original Rickenbacker wiring.

Some preamble first about why i did this.

I got this guitar used and the previous owner had disconnected the 5th knob. I searched high and low for several years to find the right 360 and patiently passed on MANY before I found this one. I chose this particular guitar because it resonated well and sounded good acoustically, and it played well. The acoustic tone, the neck profile and action in particular set this apart from all the others I passed up.

First thing I did when I got it was to quickly wire it back to original spec with the 5th knob. But it became immediately apparent that the 5th knob TOOK AWAY from the tone. So I disconnected it and kept it that way for a good two years. The last 6 months, I've had it wired back in just to try it again, but my experience removing that 5th knob always had me thinking - I wonder what this would sound like with less complicated wiring? Say - like a Les Paul?


For the next couple of years I struggled with this guitar. It plays beautifully. The 360 is a really comfortable guitar and the necks on Rickenbackers I think are very much underrated. The radius is perfect. I love the bound frets. The fret size just right. The lacquered fretboard I do not mind and they are beautiful, well crafted guitars. But sadly, I found myself playing the 360 unplugged more than anything because I really struggled with the sound plugged in.

Its hard to say why - but the best way I could describe it is that I find the signature Rickenbacker chime, just does not sit that well in any mix. Its a lovely sound, but its limited, sonically and practically. And this 'limitation' in tone, really stopped it from being an expressive instrument. It just didn't lend itself well to say - bending a note and adding some vibrato to the end of it. yeah you can do it. But the Tele, or Strat or Les Paul just did it so much better. Its like the fundamental of a note was there, but all other magic or complexity around it was lacking. I think this is why you occasionally hear people say that Rickenbackers are great for rhythm playing, but not for solos.

The several occasions when I would try and use my 360 for rehearsals - the others in the band without fail, would tell me to go back to my Fender or my Les Paul. "It just doesn't sound as good" is what they would politely say.

The other struggle with this guitar was the electronics were always failing me. The signal would cut out intermittently. At one period, I had no neck pickup signal. Then at some point, the bridge pickup play up. VERY ANNOYING when in the middle of something. So I was constantly having to open it up, fiddle with the positioning of the pots, fault find, re solder, or clean the output jacks with a cleaner. Was a real pain in the ***. I attribute this to the complicated and very crowded wiring. My Rickenbacker 12 string will occasionally get tempermental as well. I have MANY guitars, and its only the Rickenbackers that consistently have problems with the electronics. My Gretsch, Gibsons and Fenders - I NEVER need to touch the electronics and some of them are over 58 years old! They just work. No reliability issues. So when I recently had trouble again, having to do an entire rehearsal with just the neck pickup on the 360 - that was it, I decided to replace the harness.


So I have completely rebuilt it - but this time using the same wiring layout as a Les Paul/SG. Two volume, two tone, 50s wiring with some .047 caps

I went for 500k pots all round. I didn't want ANY hampered tone. I always suspected this guitar had more potential lurking beneath and I wanted to unleash a more pure tone.

The result completely exceeded my expectations. I would say the guitar has changed significantly.

What I've gained:
The pickups are more full. Its like their sonic spectrum has increased. There is more high end, and more of a sting on the note attack. The bass is no longer awkwardly thudy and pokey. Its just smooth low end and with the right amount of bite to stay articulate - you dont feel like it needs to be dialled out or messed with.
Previously, I think the bass frequencies were too overbearing , and I was always trying to squeeze out more high end.
Most significantly, there is an increase in mids, very characteristic of a good PAF type humbucker. If you're playing with some gain, as you turn up the volume, the notes mesh and compress in a very smooth and musical way.

Through my 5E3 with an alnico blue, it just sounds glorious. I haven't tried it through my Vox yet, but I'm excited to.


What I lost:
The signature Rickenbacker chime. There is no 'instant' Rickenbacker tone anymore. Having said that, I can approximate it by doing the following:
If i turn down both volume and tone to around 75% - then its there. Not exactly the same, but pretty damn close. I can do this on either pickup or in combination.
Which says something in itself - I think part of what makes the signature Rickenbacker tone is actually the constipated sounding, overly complicated stock circuit.

What I have lost though, I'll happily give up for what I have gained in spades.


I should note, this is the only guitar I have with non alnico pickups. I have Strats, Teles, Humbuckers and Filtertrons, P90s - all alnico. The Rickenbacker definitely stood out as the black sheep amongst them tonally. Incidentally, I also only use alnico speakers. Not a fan of ceramic speakers. I always attributed some of my struggle to the high gains being ceramic. But after this wiring change - I'm convinced it does not matter. These highs gains have a BEAUTIFUL full smooth, full tone. Wired up more simply, they actually are closer to the alnico sound than I had expected.


Some unexpected advantages:

The guitar cleans up REALLY well now with just the volume controls. The previous wiring was not bad in this respect, but its even better now. The volume and tone pots exhibit a more smooth taper and I can really dial in exactly what I want.

It works great with my Analogman Sun Face. I usually reserve my Strat or Tele for the Sunface, which does not seem to like Humbuckers.
The Rickenbacker works beautifully with it.

My favourite bonus advantage which came completely by surprise - is a tone I can now easily get with the 360 which I had only previously heard from good Les Pauls with PAF type pickups. With a Crowther Hotcake in front and just a bit of dirt, I could get a beautiful clarinet, flutey type of sound. The note attack kind of barks and chirps. Les Paul fans will know what I'm talking about. Its not as complex or hollow sounding as an LP with humbuckers, but definitely THAT reedy tone. I'm a fan of smooth germanium dirty tones (think fuzz face with a strat, or rangemaster with an LP, or old MXR distortion + ) - and my Rickenbacker can now achieve this with a simple overdrive. I was not expecting this - BUT I LOVE IT.


To be clear, I'm not a hater of the 5th knob or the stock wiring. I have a Ricky 620/12 which is stock, with stock wiring and I plan to keep it that way. I have no plans of changing the wiring of the 12 string.

I've also kept the 360's original harness intact, with both stereo jacks attached to a spare pickguard.

Overall, I'm more than pleased with this change. The guitar really SINGS now. It has its own personality and has transformed into a very musical, expressive instrument.
Time will tell about its reliability (and my soldering skills).
I'm really excited to try the guitar with my Vox and some other pedals with it. And I'm even more excited to bring it to rehearsal to see what the band says.

So in case anybody is curious about doing the same, hopefully sharing my experience above helps.

[aceonbass]

Although different than Rickenbacker style wiring, the Gibson style by itself does not change the tone of the instrument. The main reason for the added brightness in your guitars tone is because you went from pots that likely measured around 250k to pots that measured 500k.

[iiipopes]

Although different than Rickenbacker style wiring, the Gibson style by itself does not change the tone of the instrument. The main reason for the added brightness in your guitars tone is because you went from pots that likely measured around 250k to pots that measured 500k.

+1

[wim]

Although different than Rickenbacker style wiring, the Gibson style by itself does not change the tone of the instrument. The main reason for the added brightness in your guitars tone is because you went from pots that likely measured around 250k to pots that measured 500k.

Eliminating the blend pot helped too.

[Tommy]

Interesting read.
But this is rather odd:

What I lost:
The signature Rickenbacker chime. There is no 'instant' Rickenbacker tone anymore.

So what's the point of buying a Rickenbacker if you don't have the Rickenbacker chime/tone?

You say you liked everything about the guitar but the tone. Well, isn't that the most important aspect of a guitar? You bought a Ric, but don't want the Ric tone. That's like ordering veal parmigiana, but you don't want the veal. You should have just ordered the chicken parm. You should have just bought a Gibson or another Fender or Gretsch.

[4000]

Interesting, thanks for sharing these experiences. Do you happen to have any pre- & post- soundclips perhaps ?

Thanks!

[Sugarcane]

Speaking of which... The op said a previous owner had left the 5th knob out of the circuit. It seems to be a pretty common mod.

Why do people disconnect the blender (5th) knob? What’s the point on doing that, and not simply leaving it alone on 0 position?