660/12 set-up

milo · Post by **milo** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 1:22 pm

I just got a few month old 660/12 that was supposed to have been professionally set-up and it doesn't play as well as my old 450/12.

I've always done my own set-ups so I'm fairly good at it, but my main question is whether or not there's anybody here who doesn't set their Ricks up with the neck dead flat or darn close to flat? I've always set mine flat (and most of my other guitars close to flat) but this thing came with a fair amount of relief in it: not bad neck type of relief, but set-up like a lot of people would set the neck on a Gibson or Fender. Is there any reason not to take most or all of the relief out of the neck on this model? I haven't tried yet, but will the TRC come off of this model without loosening the strings a lot? It won't on my 450/12.

I'm assuming this one still has Rick strings on it. Are these generally somewhat stiff feeling? I can only find D'Addario or sometimes Ernie Ball 12-string sets around here and they don't feel as stiff to me.

While I'm at it, are the new toasters quite a bit lower output than the late '70s high-gain pups? I've got to turn the amp up quite a bit to get the same volume as I get with the 450/12. This 660/12 has one of the Ed Roman goofy bridges on it but it came with the original bridge, too, which I'll be putting back on during the first re-stringing. Maybe the graphite bridge saddles are affecting the volume a bit. I've put graphite saddles on a couple of guitars in the past and noticed that they seemed to soften the sound in general.

doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:51 pm

Jeff, IIRC, there should be no (zero) relief on the neck. I sometimes will leave a teeny bit when I set up mine, but it doesn't seem to have a negative effect on playability.

milo · Post by **milo** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 11:52 am

That's pretty much what I remember seeing somewhere and it's how I've always set mine up in the past. I took some of the relief out last night and it plays quite a bit better. I'm still not sure what the Ed Roman bridge is supposed to accomplish. The heavy bridge body is pretty nice but I'm convinced that the graphite saddles take away some of the ring from the guitar.

That goes next, when I get some new strings.