Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Jean: This depends on your definition of jangle, and to a great extent on your pickups and amplifier. I have had very good results with Gibson Sonomatic strings using the wound G. I also like the RIC strings. There is nothing like toasters, a little reverb and a tube amplifier to accentuate the jangle.

Thanks Peter. As I am mainly a bass player and never play guitar on stage but only in studio, I have no amp. I use a Johnson J-Station modeling box. Sure it's not perfect, but for me it is the ideal intermediate solution between an overpriced Vox AC30 and... nothing. Vox AC30 on the J-Station is "decent", and even the best high-tech modeling gear cannot replace the natural vibration of a cabinet.

After reading these post i will stay with
rick strings. They sound real good with my
360 that I play thru a Vox AD120VT

I realize that my comments that follow may be heresy to some, but here goes anyway.

I have found I get a much better "jingle-jangle" from my various Rickenbacker 6- and 12-string guitars when they are played through my 1968 Fender Twin Reverb (factory JBL D-120Fs) or my 1969 Fender Dual Showman Reverb (factory D-130Fs) than that from my 1995 Vox AC30TBX Limited Edition (purple Tolex, Blue 'dogs), or from the 1968 Fender Bandmaster (early 1968, AB763 circuit) I sold earlier this year (played through the DSR JBL cabinet or a Marshall Model 1936 with 2 x 12" Celestions).

The main difference appears to me to be in the Middle control on the TR and the DSR (the BM lacked a Middle control, and the Vox doesn't seem to have a comparable control); this control really adds a lot of 'color' (harmonics?) to the mid-range and makes all the difference in the world. This is especially noticable with the 12-string guitars. In fact, a friend thought that my 660/12 TP running through the TR sounded better than his 370/12 RM with the compressor kicked in on his amp (can't remember offhand what amp he was using at the time, but it wasn't a Vox or Fender).

Because the only 1960s Vox I have played through has been a 1965 AC-4 I sold a while back, I can't say how the sound would compare to that from an AC-30 of that era.

In a side note, I can adjust the settings on my Crate GX-40C (solid state, 2 x 8" Crate speakers) to give a nearly identical sound to that coming from the TR, the main difference being in the low-end punch (logical that 8" speakers can't match 12s). I used the dual mono output of my 370/12v64 to do this. This amp is probably one of the most under-rated amps made!

I agree about the importance of the Fender Middle control to the Rick 12-string sound. I have a 370/12RM with unwound pickups and Pyramid flatwounds and nothing can beat the tone that I get through a D130F-equipped Blackface '67 Dual Showmans at any volume, but particularly at V=6, T=8, M=7 and B=4.

Like Gary, I also have a Silverface '69 Dual Showman Reverb and although the tone controls seem to fight against each other a bit more than the Blackface amps, the Middle control and the JBL speakers seem to bring everything out in the open, while the AC-30 and blue speakers conspire to make it sound as if you're stuck down a tunnel. (Now there's real heresy for you).

I also have two AC-50 Super Twins and an AC-100 Super Deluxe and none of them does justice to the 370/12RM compared to a Fender Twin or Dual Showman.

I'm taking sides with Gary and Mark here; nothing against Vox amps, but definitve Rick 12 jangle is achieved with 60s Fender amps w/ JBLs.No heresy
spoken here. Now if you're on Voxtalks, you have a problem saying these things......