New member - First Ric
Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2018 1:27 pm
Hi all. Just wanted to introduce myself. I just bought my first Ric last week - a beautiful ruby red 330/6 from 2014. Been trying to get up to speed on all the idiosyncrasies of Rics and set-up options, etc.
Only problem I'm having is that while the action is pretty nice and low, when I capo it there's major fret buzz. From what I've read so far on this forum and elsewhere, Ric necks are supposed to be flat, so while normally this might require a truss rod adjustment to provide a little more neck relief, on Rics you're supposed to leave the neck flat and just raise the bridge? Is that true?
Seems odd to me. Don't all guitars need a little neck relief so there's room for the strings to vibrate? i.e., the neck shouldn't be perfectly flat. What's different about Rics that they wouldn't need a little relief?
Anyway, other than that, I'm really enjoying this guitar. It has hi-gains, of course, which I like. I love the sound of vintage toasters, too - Tom Petty / Mike Campbell, George Harrison, Pete Townshend - but I also love the sound Paul Weller, Johnny Marr and Peter Buck get from their hi-gain equipped 330s/360s. I tend to go for a more overdriven sound rather than a clean sound, so the hi-gains perform marvelously in that regard.
I had to raise the bridge pup a bit to balance it out a bit with the neck pup. The neck pup won't go any lower.
I put a set of D'addario 10s on it (there were 9s on it) and I may eventually go for 11s, maybe try the Ric strings, compressed or whatever. May try flatwounds at some point. Hey, experimenting and finding your own preferences is part of the fun, right?
Happy to be here in Ric-land.
Cheers
-j
Only problem I'm having is that while the action is pretty nice and low, when I capo it there's major fret buzz. From what I've read so far on this forum and elsewhere, Ric necks are supposed to be flat, so while normally this might require a truss rod adjustment to provide a little more neck relief, on Rics you're supposed to leave the neck flat and just raise the bridge? Is that true?
Seems odd to me. Don't all guitars need a little neck relief so there's room for the strings to vibrate? i.e., the neck shouldn't be perfectly flat. What's different about Rics that they wouldn't need a little relief?
Anyway, other than that, I'm really enjoying this guitar. It has hi-gains, of course, which I like. I love the sound of vintage toasters, too - Tom Petty / Mike Campbell, George Harrison, Pete Townshend - but I also love the sound Paul Weller, Johnny Marr and Peter Buck get from their hi-gain equipped 330s/360s. I tend to go for a more overdriven sound rather than a clean sound, so the hi-gains perform marvelously in that regard.
I had to raise the bridge pup a bit to balance it out a bit with the neck pup. The neck pup won't go any lower.
I put a set of D'addario 10s on it (there were 9s on it) and I may eventually go for 11s, maybe try the Ric strings, compressed or whatever. May try flatwounds at some point. Hey, experimenting and finding your own preferences is part of the fun, right?
Happy to be here in Ric-land.
Cheers
-j