This one, a Maple Glo 330/12, came up on CL locally about a week ago and hasn't budged, so I finally emailed the seller and set up a viewing the other day. I went by a local store that sells Rics first to demo a few others just to have a frame of reference. I played a 360 6-string and another 330/12 which was pretty challenging to play.
This 330/12 is basically new. The seller bought it for his studio, used it twice and otherwise it's lived in a case since about 2000. Based on the serial, it's a Jan 1998 build. The sticker is still on the pickguard and there's not a scratch on it. The other upside was that it's got stock toasters which I would have been curious about anyway. Evidently the seller bought the guitar with the toasters, so maybe it was a special order...not sure.
Maple Glo was low on my list of looks that I was excited about, but this one, it turns out, is really beautiful. The wood has nice depth and it's very handsome all around. The final price was $1200, which I thought was a pretty good deal considering it was like new and it had the toasters.
Sonically, it's a 12-string Ric and there's nothing else that quite does that sound. It's a little challenging to play, but mostly due to needing a little more hand strength to fret more solidly. It's fun though and I think I'm going to enjoy having it around, especially for recording projects at my studio.
Thanks for providing such a great resource. Good reading.
Here's some pics:
It looks like you've scored a real beauty at a great price.
