Guitar Techs & Rick 12 Strings

[drumbob]

I can't stress enough the importance of finding a guitar tech/luthier who really knows how to adjust and work on a Rick 12 string. I have had two who don't, and have finally found one who does.

I orginally took my 330-12 to DM in Ringwood, NJ, and the first thing he said to me was, "I hate working on Rickenbacker guitars." I should have taken that as a bad omen. He totally screwed up the intonation and action. Twice. That was the end of him. The guitar was virually unplayable. I don't even take my 6 strings there anymore.

Next, I took it to BB, another prominent north Jersey tech, just for a string change. The neck was OK. I had adjusted it. I got it back, and it was buzzing and fretting out, I called BB, who said, "Must be a bad set of strings. Just raise the action," and hung up. That's the last time I'm taking that guitar to BB as well.

Then, I finally got smart and took it to my good friend, David Petillo of Ocean Twp, NJ, son of the late, great Phil Petillo, and a fine luthier in his own right. Within 15 minutes, David had the neck right, the action right, and the intonation as right as you can get on a 6-saddle Rick bridge. The guitar plays perfectly now.

Any other similar stories?

[jimk]

No stories from me. I hope to God I never have to take my Rick into somebody here in Kaunsaslaund, the land of Ibanez, Yamaha, Fender & Gibson.
JimK

[Folkie]

I have two local guitar techs who work on my 330/12 and 360/12. One of them is the most respected tech in the city and has lots of experience working on Rickenbackers, but he charges more and is generally backed up two to three weeks. He also hates to work on Rick 12's. The other is the owner of a mom and pop store and does most of the setups on both guitars. He charges me next to nothing and does minor string changes and adjustments on the spot. If I have a problem that stumps him, I go to the other tech. One of these days I'll have to learn how to set up those two guitars myself. I've been so spoiled that I don't even change strings myself: I find it's just not worth the headache when I can drive out to Euclid and have my tech do it.

Robert

[drumbob]

Robert...I won't change the strings on my 12 either. I take it in to have it done, because I know I will screw it up somehow. Heck, I sometimes have trouble changing strings on my 6 string guitars, thats how much of a mechanical klutz I am.

David Petillo adjusts my 12 on the spot also, because I have to drive a long distance to reach him, and he's a good friend. If it was a more involved job, I'd just leave it with him. Fortunately, one of the bands I work with plays in the Jersey Shore area quite a bit, especially during the summer, so I see David regularly at those times.

You'll notice I used the initials of those two luthiers who messed up my Rick. One of them will continue to do my 6 strings, but the guy from Ringwood will never see one of my guitars again. He did do some good work on my Gretsch Anniversary.

[wmthor]

The tech that I've used since 2000 has closed up both of his shops. I've yet to find someone else in Houston that I trust with my lefty 360/12CW. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

[elreydlp]

My tech is Fred Marrota at the Repair Zone in San Diego. I have him do the initial setup on most of the guitars I buy-including 3 Ricks (one 12-string). I'm VERY happy with his work. Once the guitar is set up, I do my own re-stringing until something changes. Fred has set up several other 12-strings for me and does consistently good work. He's best known for work installing an setting up Bigsby-equipped guitars.
I recently bought a MIJ Fender Stratocaster XII (I know BLASPHEMY) that had been set up by a local shop in Temecula where I live. I've known the guy who did the setup for years, but never used him. The Strat setup was great and the intonation was dead-on (12-saddle bridge). I may take my next setup to him.

[Clint]

I do as much of my own set up and repair work as possible. Whatever I can't handle, I take to Mark Kaiser. In Southwestern Ohio, he's the Man.

[tomt3]

Can anyone recommend a good tech in the Chicago area?

[bcalvanese]

Is there a reason you can't learn to do the setup yourself?

[jimk]

Because I didn't trust anyone to get it right, I got up the courage to adjust the neck to dead level myself. I went to the hardware store and found a nut driver the right size, filed off the outside so it would fit, and slowly by degrees gave the truss rod nuts the necessary turn. No harm done, and she plays like a dream. I even adjusted the pickup heights just so, and experimented with raising the pole pieces. (I returned them to their original heights because I didn't care for the results.)
JimK

[iiipopes]

I also grew up in an area that had no proper luthiers for many years. In fact, I sold a 1974 Jazz bass in 1981 because there was no one who could do a proper refret on the bound fingerboard, and I sold a 1976 4001 in 1992 because of the same reasons and because a pickup died and replacement pickups weren't available then. So I learned how to do all my own setup work and such.

Finally, there is a luthier at a local store who is absolutely great, loves Rickenbackers, and has even been able to replace the truss rod on my fanned fret bass. My 320 developed a buzz a few years ago, and he sorted it out perfectly. A fret buzz on a @1936 Gibson L-00 was written off as not reparable by another luther, my guy charged me comparatively next to nothing for a complete refret with proper period frets and it played better than new.

I hope you all find good luthiers as I finally did. This guy is a tad younger than I am, so unless something really off the wall happens, I should be set for the rest of my playing decades.

[JakeK]

I believe that most techs just don't have the patience of Paul W, Larry Davis, the guys at Pick of the Ricks and other people who know what the pluck they're doing with Rics.

I've talked about him many times, but here is my story in full (I doubt anyone will have anything at all to say):

It all began in 2004 with a man named Phillip A "Phil" Patterson. He worked at the music store where I took lessons from, and I need "some major work" as described by my guitar teacher to my very first Ric, a 360/12 from 2003. I took it to him, and he strung it traditionally saying "it left the factory wrong". Now being as ignorant to guitars as anyone, I let him restring it traditionally until one day in 2007, I learned that the Ric way is the correct way for a Ric, so I showed him various pictures of Rics owned by Roger McGuinn, George Harrison, Pete Townshend and Carl Wilson showing the way they string their Ric 12's. Plus, a look at the nut revealed how they went in. He got that right.

Thankfully for my 660/12 that came in June of '07, it had a 12-saddle bridge, so he couldn't possibly screw up intonation and the D'Addario strings he "recommended" stayed in tune with the 12-saddle bridge. I asked him about putting flats on it and he said quite simply "The only good flatwounds are Pyramids and they're awful."

When that guitar left and my 360/12V64 arrived with TI Flats on it, I asked him to string it with those. The lowest "E" was bad and he blamed it on the strings. Luckily, I told Chris Clayton the problem and he sent me a new lowest "E" free of charge, suggesting the old one was a bad string. (I strung it myself). He also put the tailpiece on backwards or the lefty way. The next string change I tried Curt Mangan strings, Phillip absolutely loved them and suggested I use those from now on. And again the tailpiece was backwards. So, for the next string change, I showed him pictures of John Lennon's 325/12, George Harrison's 360/12OS, Pete Townshend's 360S/12 OS, Tom Petty's 1997 and 660/12 and various V64 and 1997 models with trapeze tails to show him the "correct" way to put on a trapeze tail. He FINALLY gets it right! I brought him TI Flats and said simply, "I like these. I'm not you. Plus, the dull low strings bring out the octave strings, and that's what I like." He didn't make a fuss. When he returned it, he said one of the highest "E" strings broke and again blamed it on the strings. He also said that I should sell it and get a modern Strat XII or Phantom Guitars Phantom XII because it was old and wasn't doing anything.

I love Phillip and he's done absolute wonders with my Fenders. No doubt about it, but he relies solely on modern equipment, so from now on (thanks to them saving the guitar's input jack with D-Oxit), I'm taking my 12-string to get changed at International Vintage Guitars. They're a bit more experienced with Rickenbackers.

If I ever have a modern guitar, it goes to Phillip. For everything else, there's IVG.

Phillip builds custom acoustics, and musicians in Louisiana who can afford them love them. His "company" is better than Gibson's acoustics.

This is his website:
http://www.abitaguitar.com/index.htm
(My lead guitarist Chris Lenox wrote a review about them that's published on their site)

His acoustics remind me a little of Martin, Guild and Taylor.

[collin]

Here's the issue with guitar techs in general:

To be an official auto repair tech, you typically go through very organized training processes and typically "specialize" in one brand or another.

To be a general "guitar tech," you can pretty much self-proclaim your own job title and after setting up a few Strats, consider yourself well-versed in guitar repair---and, naturally, all guitars are constructed the same, right?


Sending your Ric to get setup by somebody who doesn't ALREADY know Rickenbackers is just asking to get the fingerboard snapped off when they tighten the truss rod nuts as if they were a Gibson/Fender etc...and that's only the tip of the iceberg.

[sleepingtiger]

A good tech is like a good doctor or car mechanic. If you've got one, hold on & recommend him to all! I use Scott at Fat Cat guitars in Carpentersville, IL.

Tony

[JakeK]

For anyone who gives a rat's hat...

My V64 was in need of a string change. Rather than taking it to Phillip, I decided to take it to pros, which is IVG.

As I handed it to Jack the tech, I started to tell him what needed to be done and what I liked, and he stopped me about mid-sentence and said, "You don't have to tell me, we know what we're doing." Sweetest words I could ever hear.

A week goes by, and I get the guitar back. They did a perfect job, no string buzz, neck dead flat, intonation perfect, it was like I've been dreaming of. Phillip also tends to break a higher string when using TI flats, but IVG did such a good job they used all 12 strings! AND they didn't overwind a single string!

Jack echoed pretty much what Collin W said about most techs, and he said that I should take my vintage RI Fenders to them as well. Despite the fact they are 60 miles from my poor remote house, I'm gonna use them for all my work.

It's a shame I don't live in San Francisco, then I could just take it to Paul W!