Impressions on discovering a Rickenbacker 381.

scott381 · Post by **scott381** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 6:54 am

Warning! Long post.

I'm an experienced guitarist with many years gigging under my belt with Fenders and Gibsons. Never owned a Rickenbacker. I borrowed a Ric from a buddy for recording and fell in love with the thing. Amazing tone! Feel...finish...the history...all American!….I was hooked.

FYI - I've been a strat guy for over 20 years (the swiss army knife of guitars.) I've played jazz, rock, fusion, surf, funk, punk, prog....everything except rap and country.

Once I started looking at Rics, I discovered my favorite finish was Montezuma's Revenge Brown...er.. AutumnGlo....uh...tobacco sunburst. Whatever. FireGlo was too pink....MapleGlo too plain. Solid colors didn't do it for me. I like to see some wood.

I found a beautiful 381 in MB at PMBlues about a month ago and I was in love. Flamey back...a little flame on top. I bought it. Most money I've ever spent on a guitar. And FYI – PMBlues was great. Shipped when he said he would. Packed really well. Good service.

When UPS delivered the thing and I opened the case for the first time. Do I need to say anything here?

Ok on with the review.

Tone: GREAT! No complaints. Sweet jazz sounds from the neck pickup. Twangy surf and spy tones with the bridge. Funk galore with both pickups. Aggressive crunchy rock with the bridge + overdrive. Just not too much overdrive, the 381 just sounds wrong with too much dirt... I don't play with as much distortion as I used to anyway. I love soloing up the neck with a little OD using the neck pickup. Yes I’m playing lead guitar on a Rickenbacker! The guys in my band love it too. Also noticed I didn’t have to fiddle with amp settings going to the 381 from my Strat. You know how it is: When you get your amp dialled in to sound right with a Fender and then you pick up that humbucker Gibson and you have to readjust your amp’s volume and tone controls……a pain on stage.

Feel: Hangs in just the right place off the strap. Perfect playing position. Not neck heavy. Unlike my Gibson. Nice chunky neck profile. I've got big hands and prefer a fat neck. String spacing? Ok here goes:

I don't have a problem with the string spacing at the head end of the neck. I don't play a lot of cowboy chords. And my Fenders and Gibsons are not that different than the 381 at the nut. I play more jazzy chord voicings with extensions, single note lines (melodies), and a lot of improvising all over the neck.

My problem is the spacing at the bridge. Really tight. Narrower than my Gibson...and way, way narrower than a Fender. I do fingerpick and also play with a plectrum. I wish the Ric had more room at the bridge. I'm working on getting used to it, though I may have to stick to the plectrum.
It’s a shame because Rics sound amazing when fingerpicking.

Electronics:

Ric-O-Sound? Might have been cool and innovative in the late 50's, but these days? I'm not going to carry two amps around just so I can send the neck pickup to one amp and the bridge to another.

Blend knob. You know what I'm going to say don't you? Did some extensive testing of the "little" knob. All it does is add some bridge pickup to the neck. If I have the bridge pickup selected with the switch then the blend knob does nothing. That's why George Harrison was confused. He liked a brighter sound. He would leave the pickup selector switch in down position, and then discover that the blend knob was useless. Me too.

Also....no shielding. I mean zero shielding. The toaster-top pickups sound great, but they are single coils. On stage the thing buzzes like a hornet’s nest.

My solution:

I pulled the original wire harness out and put it in the closet. Ordered a mono, four knob harness from Rickenbacker. Soldered her in, capped the Ric-O-Sound hole and the "blend" knob hole. Shielded the electronics. I also put the volumes on top closer to my hand. DONE! Works better for me. I'm a player, not a collector. I can put the original harness back anytime.

Overall:

I love it. I'll never buy anything else. I'm a Rickenbacker Man now.

The only thing I miss sometimes is the strat whammy bar. How does the Accent vibrato compare? My old number one strat stayed in tune great during whammy abuse WITH a vintage tremelo bridge. Anybody experienced with the Ric Accent tailpiece? Would I need a roller bridge?

Scott

jps · Post by **jps** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 7:57 am

Welcome Scott! Oh, the discovery of all things RIC can bring on RAS real bad!

As you are into jazz fusion, check out my band's website www.rareblend.net. We are having our latest CD release party/gig tonight in Lakewood, alas, it is in Lakewood, Ohio.

scott381 · Post by **scott381** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 5:57 pm

Thanks Jeffrey....Rock on Ohio! So you're the bass player in Rare Blend? Is that the ultra rare 4005 bass you are playing? I wish I could get my bass player to use a Rickenbacker. His excuse?

"I don't like Rickenbacker five string basses. They didn't do it right. I've got to have that fifth string happening."

What a baby! That fifth string only adds four more notes. And the notes are such a low frequency only whales can hear it. Especially with a full band pumping on stage.

I'm working on him. Love the tone of Ric basses.

Scott

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 6:09 pm

Welcome to the family, Scott. We'd all love to see some pics of your 381!

About the Accent: In my experience, nothing really feels like a Strat "tremolo". Actionwise, the Accent Vibrato feels much more like a Bigsby to me, but with a little wider pitch variation. I absolutley love mine on my 330. If you stretch your strings out good when you put 'em on, then the thing will never go out of tune. Mine barely ever does.

jps · Post by **jps** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 10:14 pm

Yep, that's my '67 4005WB I'm playing in that shot on the website! There was a guy that came to our gig tonight from Milwaukee that does an internet jazz fusion show. I don't know the details of it, but I will find out as I have to send him pics my girlfriend took of us tonight. There is a fusion show on a local college radio station every Friday from 1-3pm at www.wcsb.org. Randy Allar is the host and he is very big on promoting this music; he emceed our show tonight.

This pic?

scott381 · Post by **scott381** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 5:48 am

How did you get that photo into your post? I tried to cut and paste, but it didn't go. Here's my myspace link....I'll put some photos on there:

http://www.myspace.com/heustis

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 6:00 am

See the information in the POSTING section, Under "formatting", down at the bottom of the pages. JPGs must be smaller than 500X500 and 36K. You can use a graphics program like Photoshop to resize and compress. A good free image mod and viewer program is Irfanview. (www.irfanview.com).

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 6:12 am

Scott, your 381 is stunning!!

scott381 · Post by **scott381** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 6:12 am

Ok got it figured out. Thanks Paul.

Here's a pic of my 381 when I first opened the case \image

scott381 · Post by **scott381** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 6:15 am

Trying again....

scott381 · Post by **scott381** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 6:20 am

Yep it's lovely. The first guitar I've ever polished. Here's a pic of the back showing some flame....

scott381 · Post by **scott381** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 6:23 am

Also FYI - PMBlues has a 381/12 in MB for sale just like my six string.....only with MORE figuring in the wood. I've got RAS bad!

jps · Post by **jps** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 9:08 am

Nice 381! It is interesting how far into the body the dark band of the finish goes.

kcole4001 · Post by **kcole4001** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 9:32 am

Welcome!
See what happens? You buy one & instantly "need" another to complement it

Seriously, that IS nice! You should really get the 12'er to go with. The value can only go up.

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 1:50 pm

381's seem to hold their value well - you rarely see one go for less than $1600 or $1700 on eBay.