The sticker price was $3295 (Aussie), which was more than my budget would allow, so when the salesman asked if he could be of help I said that I was interested in the 340 and asked what his best price would be. The salesman then said that before going any further he wanted to make me aware of the history of the guitar. He said that recently they had another model in the shop as well, a “Liverpool”, and there was a guy who couldn’t choose which out of the two guitars to buy. He eventually settled on the 340, but two weeks later he changed his mind and brought it back to exchange it for the Liverpool. So the salesman told me that it couldn’t strictly be called a new guitar and it would be priced accordingly for me. I had already decided that the maximum I’d pay was about $2880, which is the price I could place one on order for from another shop, and I was hoping to haggle him down to $2600, which is the price I could order a brand new hi-gained 340 for from the other shop (hoping that the salesman here didn’t know his Rics well enough to realize it had vintage pickups). The full retail price for a 340VP here in Australia is $3649 by the way. When the salesman went away to do his sums I thoroughly checked over the guitar and couldn’t find any sign of it’s two-week use. When he came back he said I could have it for $2295, so needless to say I didn’t let it slip by! The only sign I discovered later of its previous “ownership” was that it appears the first guy has souvenired the Rick-o-cloth. Oh well.
I had it freighted home straight away, but then there was a slow week’s wait until I was freighted home and could try it out. I’ve only had a couple of days to play around with it, but I’ll give my initial impressions. This is my first experience with toasters, and to compare it to my 360 I would say that the 340 easily wins the competition when it comes to getting a great sound on my amp’s clean channel (that’s not saying the 360 doesn’t also sound great when playing clean though). The three toasters pumping away in unison sound so sweet. When I get a twelve-string it’s definitely going to be toaster-equipped (a 660 will be the way to go, I think). When it comes to my amp’s overdrive channel the 340 is good enough, but I prefer the extra bite of the hi-gains. So the 360 wins that competition. In other words, I made a great choice to buy the 340 because the two guitars really do compliment each other so well with their differences.
Here’s a couple of family portraits…
