Please Help Me Control My 380L PZ

mdbuck · Post by **mdbuck** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 6:37 pm

Say John (Pollard), is your 380 as dark and rich looking as that in the pic? Mine is actually pretty light. Thanks for the comment on the wood grain on mine. However, I don't think you could get one that was any less equal in beauty. I think the one's I've seen on here are just as astounding and unique as no two look the same. I think I like that the most as far as asthetics go. Your 380 is just as nice looking as any I've seen on here including mine. I think the folks at Rickenbacker have got choosing the wood for these and the other Rics down to a science. Thanks, John Hall and Company!

squid · Post by **squid** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 3:26 am

Yes, Mike, mine is really that dark. I chose that particular picture because it seemed the most accurate in terms of colour. The more time I spend with the guitar, the more attractive it seems to me. I think when you're the owner of "traditional" Rickenbackers, opening the crate on a 380L has a certain "shock of the new". Most of the 380's I'd seen were like yours (but, as I say, not as marble-ized), so I wasn't expecting the dark colour or the relatively tight grain of the wood. Your right, though -- they're all unique, and the more I look at the picture Peter posted for me, the more I think, "Yeah, that's a really nice looking guitar."

I played around with some pedals last night. A little bit of compression, delay, and chorus with the piezo and humbuckers equally mixed. Boy, was it gorgeous. I could have played all night.

melibreits · Post by **melibreits** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 5:13 am

Wow, everything you guys have to say about these guitars just fascinates me.... it sounds like it can make just about any sound you would want, and the pictures are beautiful (You mean I could trade in my whole Ric collection and get the same variety of sounds out of ONE instrument? Not that I would be able to, LOL!).... Sounds like a lot of fun!

squid · Post by **squid** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 6:53 am

Well, I don't know about that, Melissa! You've got a ton of Rics and I'm sure they all do different things. The 380L sounds very different than my 381, for instance. I can't get a "vintage jangle" out of the 380L, but I don't think this guitar was designed to get that sound. That being said, the sounds that it does produce are really varied and very attractive. I think of the tone as being "softer" or "rounder" than the other Rics I've played (some might say "darker" with respect to the humbuckers alone). It doesn't bite or sting the way my 381 sometimes does (although, as I've said, it will certainly scream when asked). This isn't a criticism of the 381, by the way. Sometimes you want a guitar to bite and sting. I think if you were to add a 380L PZ to your already considerable collection, you'd probably have every available tone known to Rickenbacker-kind!

shamustwin · Post by **shamustwin** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 9:22 am

I have a couple of questions, if you please: Are these built for round wounds? I've heard a sound clip of the piezo pu and it was amazingly accoustic sounding. Can you go from that sound to an electric sound with the flip if the switch, as in a live situation (you know, verse accoustic, chorus electric)?

sir_andrew_of_left_coast · Thu Feb 26, 2004 9:44 am

Mike,

There is a sound clip of a 380 in "acoustic" mode over on Bjorn's site (http://www.rickbeat.com). Just click the "Sounds and Specials" link and scroll down a bit.

On a side note, have you checked out the new guitar store in South Pas on Fair Oaks?

squid · Post by **squid** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 10:37 am

It's not a flip of the switch, it's the twist of a dial. It's not as immediate as you might think. The blend knob pretty much controls the available tones. I haven't tried to do a quick switch from "acoustic" to "electric", but with the set-up I'm using (i.e. one amp running off of the combined piezo/humbucker output jack), I think it would be kind of tough. You could jack up the humbuckers and then turn them off by swinging the blend knob all the way to the "piezo" position in preparation for a big crunch when the blend knob goes back to full humbucker mode, but you'd have to be pretty quick on the dial.

The situation may change if you're lucky enough to have two amps. Then you could run the piezo signal to one, and the electromagnetic signal to the other and activate them with an A/B switch. Or you can take a more direct route. Last night, I hit the switch on a Frantone Creampuff fuzz pedal with the piezo on and it got nice and crunchy. Heck, I can even over-drive my amp with the piezo ... although it doesn't sound too good.

A quick caution on the "acoustic" sound of the 380L PZ. It doesn't sound like an acoustic guitar per se. It sounds like a piezo pick-up hooked up to an acoustic guitar, if you get my drift. I think if you wanted this thing to sound like, say, a Martin HD-28 in a small room, you'd be disappointed. Check the samples on Bjorn's site to see what you think.

Hope this helps.

squid · Post by **squid** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 2:47 pm

Sorry, Jerry. I only answered the second half of your question. The guitar I received came equipped with roundwounds, of course, but I don't see why the 380L couldn't accommodate flatwounds. The truss rod system is the same as other Rics, so any problems due to different string tensions should be manageable. I don't know what effect flatwounds would have on the sound of the piezo pick-up, though. Am I right in thinking that piezos amplify the resonant frequencies of the solid materials that they're in contact with? I guess a flatwound would have to have a different resonance than a roundwound, but I don't know how that difference would play out through the piezo. Interesting idea. It might eliminate some unwanted string noise during slurs and slides. The piezo really picks those things up when it's cranked.

eatswodo · Post by **eatswodo** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 3:14 pm

Couldn't you use an ABY switch? I have a Morley unit (http://www.morleypedals.com/daby.htm) which will switch one of two inputs to a single output, or combine them.

The Morley is certainly not the only option - Rolls, among others, makes a similar device.

shamustwin · Post by **shamustwin** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 7:26 am

Pardon me, I meant the clip (from Bjorn's site) sounded amazingly like a pup-ed accoustic. Has anyone tried re-wiring to enable toggle switching piezo to magnetic? (this question valid only if I've read the function blurbs correctly). Would that be possible on this guitar? I know I'm jumping the gun a bit.
John, do you blend the piezo and magnetics often?

squid · Post by **squid** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 7:46 am

I think you probably could work something out to toggle the piezo and the magnetic pick-ups, but I'm hopeless with wiring, so I'd leave it to someone else to give you the definitive answer on that. Then you could use the blend knob when both toggles were in the "on" position. On Bjorn's page, there's a little write-up on a modification that someone did to the blend knob on their 380L PZ so that the humbuckers are truly "off" when the blend knob was all the way on "piezo" ... apparently, even in that position, there is still some output from the magnetic pick-ups. I think the reason for the modification was sort of unique -- the owner had an amplifier that had separate inputs for magnetic and piezo pick-ups, and even with the blend knob all the way to "piezo", he was still getting a magnetic signal sufficient to overdrive the amp.

I blend the piezo and the humbuckers all the time. That's where the guitar's sweet-spot is. I'm still fiddling with tones, but there's one in particular that's about 30 percent piezo and 70 percent humbucker that's just great if you're into dreamy clean sounds.

shamustwin · Post by **shamustwin** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 7:51 am

...drrrreamy clean sounds...(Homer Simpson drool)

melibreits · Post by **melibreits** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 8:37 am

A Ric that doesn't jangle? I dunno, guys....

But then again, my 220 doesn't jangle either, thanks to the humbuckers....

Sounds like fun!

mortivan · Post by **mortivan** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 9:26 am

Melissa,

With your vast arsenal of beautiful RIC's, I'm sure you can find any sound you have a hankering for!

(And no, I'm not from the South...)

squid · Post by **squid** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 11:01 am

Tsk, tsk, Melissa ... I said "vintage" jangle. (I was real careful with that.) This thing will jangle all you like, but not in the same way that your 325's will.