Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Just wondering if the 370 has a more powerfull tone. I love my 360, but sometimes I wish it would drive the amp more.

Or would humbuckers in the 360 do that?

Any thoughts?

Buy a Gibson Les Paul? No just kidding. You have high gains or toasters on your baby?

I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer since I don't have any experience with the 370, but I've been experimenting lately with getting different tones out of my 360 (and other guitars) thru my recently acquired tube combo amp.

The amp is essentially a no-frills AC15 (2 inputs, 2 knobs, 2 EL-84s, 1 12" Weber Bluedog). My ('94, stock hi-gains) 360 sounds superb thru it, but especially so on the lower volume settings. After about 11 o'clock the power tubes start to overdrive, very sweet and compressed, but the tone is nothing compared to the sounds I'm getting with my solidbody humbucker-equipped guitar: that one just screams going straight into the high gain input on the amp. (Ditto my 660/12 with toasters.)

For overdrive/distortion sounds with my Ricks, I've found that pedals are the way to go. You should've seen the smile on my face when I finally broke down and plugged the 360 into that ugly old Rat pedal that'd been lying around. Amp volume about 9 o'clock (still very clean on its own), just a modest amount of distortion on the black box, voila! Same goes for the 660.

I really wanted to get usable pure natural overdrive out of my Ricks, but they just were not sounding as good at high volume settings as other guitars with humbuckers thru this amp. Surely a Rick 650 would be terrific, but how to justify another guitar purchase when there's still so many amp options to try? With the Rat my singlecoils sound different... but still dreamy, usable, musical. Fantastic. Gotta experiment with other pedals as soon as I can get my hands on some (clean boost, treble boost, overdrive).

So, humbuckers in your 360 probably would drive your amp harder (especially if like me you're playing a low-power tube amp). But don't you love your hi-gains?

Jeepers Andy carry on and finish that book you started writing. LOL

John try a Ric HB-1 in the bridge position. Cheaper than a pedal (better signal to noise ratio I might add) plus it will add the punch that you are looking for and not ruin the look of your beautiful Ric.

Oh and Andy,

Welcome to the forum.

Yeah, sorry for the long post, it's a problem I have
It actually takes me a lot more time to say anything useful and precise with fewer words, and since touch-typing is really about the only useful skill I learned in high school, well...

Just giving the good natured gears. Your gonna fit in just fine around here, everyone is great except you'll notice that there are one or two curmudgeons (by their own admission I might add) that post a lot. You'll no doubt learn a lot of very useful stuff about Rics here too.

I don't notice a particularly more powerful tone from my 370. What's leading you to suspect that the tone would be more powerful anyway?

John, I have a 360 & a 370, as well as a 360 with humbuckers, but I haven't got time for a long post now, so I'll do it tonight. I think I can help with your question.

The extra pick up adds a little more bottom end, as well as more midrange. I have modded both my 330's to become 345's & intend to do the same mods to my 360. The third pick up is fantastic! There are plenty of ways to wire it so as you can have the neck & bridge only, so you can have the best of all worlds. I am now hooked on three pickups & an accent. The sound is more 'focused', finding it's own space, if that makes any sense, but still sounds 100% Rickenbacker.....unlike the humbuckers! I am taking them out of my 360. OK, but 'sterile', quite un-Riclike & surprisingly, not much more powerful than your average hi-gain. They are probably very good pickups, but I like my gtrs to sound like Rics!

You often here of people not having enough space to pick on a 3 pickup gtr. My first gig, I must admit, the first half I thought that I wasn't going to get used to it. The second half I hardly noticed it....by the third day, it was as if I'd been playing three pickup gtrs all my life! You VERY quickly get used to it.

Hope this helps & it's just MY opinion, but I will mod nearly every Ric to accomodate another pickup & I really believe that it helps my sound AND my playing.

One or two curmudgeons............ Hah!!



Which one is Paul?

I get plenty of grunt out my 330/6 with toasters through an overdriven AC-30. Lovely!!

Waiting for a nice 650 to pop up on eBay......

Howard, one mans grunt is another mans groan!

The left one....

Are we still looking for Paul? I thought we stopped doing that in 1969. Shows you what I know. He did finally show up on that roof top gig in London with the lads though didn't he. Or was that sort of like NASA going to the moon (the Hollywood production theory) back then. LOL

I have an extra hi-gain, but I am not sure i wanna mod my 360. What if I don't like it? Then I'd have a hole in my guitar!

But from what you are saying, that is kinda what I've been wanting.

Decisions, decisions...

Bring it around, John. Then you can take some pics and show these jokers that I look like neither one of those Muppet Hotel Magnates...