Hi Friends:
I am a relative newcomer to this forum, and I have enjoyed exploring the conversations archived in this forum.
One thing that strikes me as I have read all of your comments is that Rick enthusiasts will go to unbelievable lengths to try to recreate the legendary sounds of Roger McGuinn, Tom Petty, Mike Campbell, George Harrison, Peter Buck and that dude who plays for Radiohead (I'm sure someone out there knows his name). My hat is off to you...I do not have the patience to do these kinds of things like building my own compressor. Impressive.
One thing that we may be overlooking, though, is the multitude of other cool sounds hidden inside those great 330 and 360 six and twelve string guitars. I am certain that some of you have stumbled across guitar/effects/amp settings that sound unlike anything we have heard before. I'd love to hear about them and try them myself. Maybe you could record them and rip them to mp3 files. Is there a place in this forum that users could upload such files?
The "rap" that the 330/360s get is that they are one trick ponies. In fact, Guitarist magazine, an excellent UK publication, featured the 330/6 a couple of months ago in their "Classic Kits" section. The authors stated that, while this is a truly classic guitar, it is only capable of one kind of sound. I disagree. Let's share with the world, well at least with each other, the cool sounds that we call our own! Of course, we can use the classic McGuinn/Petty/Buck setups as starting places, but let's spread the field a bit. Fogive me if this is a topic that is covered elsewhere in this forum...I have not stumbled across such a thread yet.
I invite you to listen to my new song that features my Ric 360/12 sharing rhythm duties with a Martin D-18. It is available two places:
http://www.mp3.com/jeffreybauer
-or-
http://www.coe.unco.edu/jeffbauer/mp3.html
Thanks is advance, and I hope you are not getting too offended by me shamelessly promoting my song, but my music is available totally free of charge.
--jeff
Rickenbacker 330/360 Sounds
Moderators: rickenbrother, ajish4
I am very interested in learning some new styles of playing, including the blues and some newer, heavier rock. I'll always play the classics (CCR, Beatles, etc...) and my fav REM. My Rick 335 is a great guitar, but I would like something newer and with high gains. I have decided that the best all around great guitar that will give me the best versatility and sound will be a 360. No Fenders or Gibsons for me, although they have some GREAT models! If I could afford one of everything, then I probably would get a nice Tele or Gibson 335. The only question left for a new 360 is ..... "when?"!!
Jeff; I checked out "You Could Be Good For Me"... Great guitar sounds! Nice hook in the song, too (I'm still hearing it in my head...) Some nice lead tones on the solo - is that the Les Paul we see in the picture? Definitely some classic Rick jangle out of the 360/12! Good job, and good luck with your music!
Gene
Gene
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corey
Rkbsound - My experience with the 360 is that it is indeed a very versitile guitar. I think people just get hung up on the fact that Lennon or McGuinn used Rics, so it's just a "retro" instrument. These people are also idiots.
I can play along to pretty much anything I listen to nicely on my Ric. I find that trying out different string brands and guages really allows you to exolore different tones and attacks. Some Fender 250's, a DD-3 Boss Delay pedal and a textured pick are all I need to jam with Edge on "The Joshua Tree" for example.
Just don't be afraid to try new things. I'm self taught, so I have the luxury of not having all the music "rules" tattooed on my brain. I record a lot of electronic based tunes where I use my Ric in lots of great ways - for soundscapes, percussion or delayed harmonics.
Throw the rule book out the window and just listen to your ears and you should discover a whole world of new tones and styles for you to explore.
I can play along to pretty much anything I listen to nicely on my Ric. I find that trying out different string brands and guages really allows you to exolore different tones and attacks. Some Fender 250's, a DD-3 Boss Delay pedal and a textured pick are all I need to jam with Edge on "The Joshua Tree" for example.
Just don't be afraid to try new things. I'm self taught, so I have the luxury of not having all the music "rules" tattooed on my brain. I record a lot of electronic based tunes where I use my Ric in lots of great ways - for soundscapes, percussion or delayed harmonics.
Throw the rule book out the window and just listen to your ears and you should discover a whole world of new tones and styles for you to explore.
Corey makes some great points! So many people ("them", as well as "us") pigeonhole Ricks into narrow sonic categories, and that's simply not the case.
A while back I did some meticulous bridge setup work on our "gently pre-owned" 325v59 (as I talked about in another thread, there was a stiff copper wire UNDER the bridge plate - why anyone put it there, we have no idea! - but the plate was not flush with the body; hence, bad action and dismal sustain...) Anyway, after proper setup (and a new set of D'Addario 12's) the 325 is a JOY to play, with a whole new-found palette of sounds! The "neck + mid" setting has quite a bit of that Strat-like "2 & 4" phasoid sound (yet still distinctly Rick in nature). And what ring and sustain! I spent over an hour running it through a POD, trying out all 36 pre-sets; I was amazed at the versatility of sound the Rick was capable of. Even the more "modern" overdriven sounds were extremely impressive coming out of that little black beauty!
And I just recently had my old Fender Super-Reverb re-tubed and tweaked (it now sounds as good or better than it did back in '68)... When I plugged the 325 straight into it, switched to the bridge pickup, and cranked the reverb: Surf City, here we come!
I believe we all tend to think of the quintessential Rick sound as originating in the 60's with Lennon, Harrison, and McGuinn, but remember that prior to that, in the 50's, Ricks were real popular with Country pickers, early pop/rockers like Rick Nelson, and even jazz players like Toots Thielmans who were looking for an alternative to the traditional (think: Gibson) jazz guitar sound.
And so my friends, in closing, let me remind you of the words of esteemed philosopher Søren Kierkagaard who said:
"When you label me, you negate me!"
A while back I did some meticulous bridge setup work on our "gently pre-owned" 325v59 (as I talked about in another thread, there was a stiff copper wire UNDER the bridge plate - why anyone put it there, we have no idea! - but the plate was not flush with the body; hence, bad action and dismal sustain...) Anyway, after proper setup (and a new set of D'Addario 12's) the 325 is a JOY to play, with a whole new-found palette of sounds! The "neck + mid" setting has quite a bit of that Strat-like "2 & 4" phasoid sound (yet still distinctly Rick in nature). And what ring and sustain! I spent over an hour running it through a POD, trying out all 36 pre-sets; I was amazed at the versatility of sound the Rick was capable of. Even the more "modern" overdriven sounds were extremely impressive coming out of that little black beauty!
And I just recently had my old Fender Super-Reverb re-tubed and tweaked (it now sounds as good or better than it did back in '68)... When I plugged the 325 straight into it, switched to the bridge pickup, and cranked the reverb: Surf City, here we come!
I believe we all tend to think of the quintessential Rick sound as originating in the 60's with Lennon, Harrison, and McGuinn, but remember that prior to that, in the 50's, Ricks were real popular with Country pickers, early pop/rockers like Rick Nelson, and even jazz players like Toots Thielmans who were looking for an alternative to the traditional (think: Gibson) jazz guitar sound.
And so my friends, in closing, let me remind you of the words of esteemed philosopher Søren Kierkagaard who said:
"When you label me, you negate me!"
-
profjeff
Hello Gene:
Thanks for listening. The lead on "You Could be Good for Me" is indeed a Les Paul, but not the classic shown on my photo. It is an LP Classic with a pair of Gibson 57 Classic Humbuckers.
I actually recorded a take with a Ric 12 string lead. I had just watched Roger McGuinn's instructional video and I was really motivated to try a 12 string lead. I may clean it up and post it as an alternative take.
I have photos of my guitars at:
http://www.coe.unco.edu/JeffBauer/ric/guitars.html
Check out the cool animated Beatles gif that I found on some dude's ebay posting!
One final thought...I have been running all of my Ricks through an Ernie Ball volume pedal, a Danelectro Cool Cat Chorus pedal, an Ibanez TS-9 tube screamer, a Sabine compressor (highly recommended) and--here's the secret weapon--a Trace Eliott 7 band active acoustic guitar EQ. This is a legacy item that I found on closeout at Woodsong's Guitar Shoppe in Boulder. It has two bypassable pre-shape settings that work great with the 12 string. It runs on an 18 volt DC power supply. It really helps tame the sometimes testy 12 string when I play in different venues.
I think that just about any good active EQ, maybe even an passive EQ, would work. Anyone else wanna share their setups?
--jeff
Thanks for listening. The lead on "You Could be Good for Me" is indeed a Les Paul, but not the classic shown on my photo. It is an LP Classic with a pair of Gibson 57 Classic Humbuckers.
I actually recorded a take with a Ric 12 string lead. I had just watched Roger McGuinn's instructional video and I was really motivated to try a 12 string lead. I may clean it up and post it as an alternative take.
I have photos of my guitars at:
http://www.coe.unco.edu/JeffBauer/ric/guitars.html
Check out the cool animated Beatles gif that I found on some dude's ebay posting!
One final thought...I have been running all of my Ricks through an Ernie Ball volume pedal, a Danelectro Cool Cat Chorus pedal, an Ibanez TS-9 tube screamer, a Sabine compressor (highly recommended) and--here's the secret weapon--a Trace Eliott 7 band active acoustic guitar EQ. This is a legacy item that I found on closeout at Woodsong's Guitar Shoppe in Boulder. It has two bypassable pre-shape settings that work great with the 12 string. It runs on an 18 volt DC power supply. It really helps tame the sometimes testy 12 string when I play in different venues.
I think that just about any good active EQ, maybe even an passive EQ, would work. Anyone else wanna share their setups?
--jeff
-
profjeff
Hi Jeff,
I use a Mac, too (great minds think alike -?), and I'm also using Explorer; but I must be missing something...
"Download image to disk" simply gives me a still image; looks like one of the frames of the animation, but that's all - just one still. (I experimented by trying to grab one of your Beatle gifs). Tiny picture (of George), yet it takes up 60k... I don't get it (I say that a lot). Anyway, if you have any suggestions, feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] - since we're sort of off-topic here...
Unless, of course... did I mention to you how great my 325v59 is playing and sounding? Seriously...
Thanks! Gene
I use a Mac, too (great minds think alike -?), and I'm also using Explorer; but I must be missing something...
"Download image to disk" simply gives me a still image; looks like one of the frames of the animation, but that's all - just one still. (I experimented by trying to grab one of your Beatle gifs). Tiny picture (of George), yet it takes up 60k... I don't get it (I say that a lot). Anyway, if you have any suggestions, feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] - since we're sort of off-topic here...
Unless, of course... did I mention to you how great my 325v59 is playing and sounding? Seriously...
Thanks! Gene
-
profjeff
Hi Friends:
I uploaded some mp3 files of my favorite Rick sounds. There are four very short clips (about 500KB each) featuring my 360/6 through my Vox AC-15 TBX.
Here are the settings for the first two mp3s: The Rick is going straight into the front end of the amp (Input 1). The Input Volume is set to 2 O’clock (there are no numbers on the AC-15 knobs or faceplate:-(); The Treble is at 12:00; Bass is turned all the way up; Blend (reverb) is at 10:00; Master Volume is straight up 12:00.
The selector switch on the Rick is set to the middle position (both pickups on). The neck pickup volume is up all the way; its tone control is up to about 3/4. Bridge pickup volume backed off just slightly, as is its tone control.
For the last two mp3s, the guitar is set the same, but the Input Volume on the Vox is backed off to 12:00 and the Master Volume is at 1:00. The tremolo speed is 10:00 and the depth is 2:00.
I use D’Adarrio Strings, hybrid .009-.046.
My Vox has Tesla (Groove Tubes) EL 84s and Tesla 12AX7s.
It also has a Celestion Alnico Blue 12“ speaker.
Other than the strings and the amp valves, everything is stock.
I really like this sound. I hope the mp3s and my guitar playing do it justice. I am a big fan of the Rick High Gain Pickups. They are very punchy and they overdrive amps with a creamy texture that really brings out the best of the semi-hollow 360. I've played with toaster tops and they sound great too, but I prefer the high gains. I think that some folks may be too quick to switch them for toasters before they have explored their rather broad tonal palette.
Here are the links to the sound files:
http://home.attbi.com/~drjeffreyb/rick1.mp3
http://home.attbi.com/~drjeffreyb/rick2.mp3
http://home.attbi.com/~drjeffreyb/rick3.mp3
http://home.attbi.com/~drjeffreyb/rick4.mp3 (fingerstyle!)
There is a photo of my 360/6 and my AC-15 TBX at:
http://www.coe.unco.edu/JeffBauer/ric/guitars.html
--jeff
I uploaded some mp3 files of my favorite Rick sounds. There are four very short clips (about 500KB each) featuring my 360/6 through my Vox AC-15 TBX.
Here are the settings for the first two mp3s: The Rick is going straight into the front end of the amp (Input 1). The Input Volume is set to 2 O’clock (there are no numbers on the AC-15 knobs or faceplate:-(); The Treble is at 12:00; Bass is turned all the way up; Blend (reverb) is at 10:00; Master Volume is straight up 12:00.
The selector switch on the Rick is set to the middle position (both pickups on). The neck pickup volume is up all the way; its tone control is up to about 3/4. Bridge pickup volume backed off just slightly, as is its tone control.
For the last two mp3s, the guitar is set the same, but the Input Volume on the Vox is backed off to 12:00 and the Master Volume is at 1:00. The tremolo speed is 10:00 and the depth is 2:00.
I use D’Adarrio Strings, hybrid .009-.046.
My Vox has Tesla (Groove Tubes) EL 84s and Tesla 12AX7s.
It also has a Celestion Alnico Blue 12“ speaker.
Other than the strings and the amp valves, everything is stock.
I really like this sound. I hope the mp3s and my guitar playing do it justice. I am a big fan of the Rick High Gain Pickups. They are very punchy and they overdrive amps with a creamy texture that really brings out the best of the semi-hollow 360. I've played with toaster tops and they sound great too, but I prefer the high gains. I think that some folks may be too quick to switch them for toasters before they have explored their rather broad tonal palette.
Here are the links to the sound files:
http://home.attbi.com/~drjeffreyb/rick1.mp3
http://home.attbi.com/~drjeffreyb/rick2.mp3
http://home.attbi.com/~drjeffreyb/rick3.mp3
http://home.attbi.com/~drjeffreyb/rick4.mp3 (fingerstyle!)
There is a photo of my 360/6 and my AC-15 TBX at:
http://www.coe.unco.edu/JeffBauer/ric/guitars.html
--jeff
-
profjeff
-
russmanuel
- Veteran RRF member
- Posts: 32
- Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2001 8:02 pm
-
profjeff
Thanks for listening, Russ:
The bridge pickup volume was turned up nearly all the way, as was the bridge tone control. I just backed both off about 1/20th of a turn.
The fifth knob was set smack dab in the middle position.
I recorded the clips with an AKG C5300 mic placed about an inch from the grill cloth just above the center of the speaker. I routed the mic cable directly to my Digi 001 interface, and recorded the clip in mono using ProTools 5.1 LE. I added very slight compression using the Digirack RTAS plugin...not enough to alter the sound too much, just to temper the dynamic range for mp3 processing. Finally, I used ProTools' mp3 processor to make the file compatible for the web and uploaded it from my Mac to ATTBI's website. The mp3 format is not perfect, but it's pretty efficient considering that the orignal files were ten times as large. Mp3 does tend to accentuate the bass a bit, but overall, I am pleased with the results. There are a couple of pops on the last two clips that I can't explain. They seemed to appear after I uploaded the files. I will see if I can correct this.
This setup is pretty basic...the 360/6 going directly into the AC-15. I'm looking forward to reading about some other Rick Forum readers' setups! It would be great to hear them, too.
--jeff
The bridge pickup volume was turned up nearly all the way, as was the bridge tone control. I just backed both off about 1/20th of a turn.
The fifth knob was set smack dab in the middle position.
I recorded the clips with an AKG C5300 mic placed about an inch from the grill cloth just above the center of the speaker. I routed the mic cable directly to my Digi 001 interface, and recorded the clip in mono using ProTools 5.1 LE. I added very slight compression using the Digirack RTAS plugin...not enough to alter the sound too much, just to temper the dynamic range for mp3 processing. Finally, I used ProTools' mp3 processor to make the file compatible for the web and uploaded it from my Mac to ATTBI's website. The mp3 format is not perfect, but it's pretty efficient considering that the orignal files were ten times as large. Mp3 does tend to accentuate the bass a bit, but overall, I am pleased with the results. There are a couple of pops on the last two clips that I can't explain. They seemed to appear after I uploaded the files. I will see if I can correct this.
This setup is pretty basic...the 360/6 going directly into the AC-15. I'm looking forward to reading about some other Rick Forum readers' setups! It would be great to hear them, too.
--jeff