First Ric (FG 660/12) arrived last night...

fendertweed2 · Post by **fendertweed2** » Thu Jan 30, 2003 6:50 am

The FG 660/12 I ordered in early Dec. arrived last night and is not a disappointment at all. Oddly, it's sticker date is Nov. '02, which makes me wonder at what point in the process does the SN get assigned, since it is sticker dated prior to my order, yet took ~8 weeks to arrive (no big deal, just curious).

It's light (7.2 lbs), well balanced, and plays & looks great. With the usual super sales & service (and prices) at Washington Music Center, it was a no brainer to take it home. I'm looking forward to using it, though most of my gigs are swing and blues, so it'll be tough to work into gigging.

Based on my first hour or two with it, it lives up to the best Rickenbacker tradition in looks and tone.

So........John Hall, another happy customer, don't retire early and head off just yet

Jon

ricrocks · Post by **ricrocks** » Thu Jan 30, 2003 8:39 am

Congratulations on your 1st Ric Jon

Great choice! The 660 is a real nice 12 string and it looks cool too. Youre gonna love it!

jwilli · Post by **jwilli** » Thu Jan 30, 2003 12:52 pm

Jon, just out of curiousity....was your 660/12 made before or after the 48th week of 2002? I've been told that around the 48th week, RIC slimmed the neck contour on the 660s.

johnhall · Post by **johnhall** » Fri Jan 31, 2003 8:09 am

The sticker is produced first and handed to the woodshop as the very first step in production.

There's several months of "grace period" built into the sticker date to allow the guitar to be built and shipped to the dealer. Given that almost every guitar is sold immediately upon receipt, if not in advance of order, this was done to assure that most everyone gets at least the full warranty period, if not some extra days.

In your circumstance, the dealer must have had the instrument already on order for several months (perhaps for their floor inventory) when you ordered it, otherwise you'd still be waiting.

fendertweed2 · Post by **fendertweed2** » Fri Jan 31, 2003 9:03 am

Thanks, John Hall, that's interesting... as far as I know it was an order placed when I came in on Dec. 2, not one they had on order, but as they explained to me, sometimes things can move up faster because, e.g., something another dealer ordered isn't shipped because of a credit hold, etc. (when they said they couldn't estimate delivery time, but could be anywhere from 1-2 months to 6, depending...), so another dealer wanting the same instrument may get it sooner.

John Williams, how do I determine the week of build, I assume that'll be 2 of the numbers in the SN that are near the high 40s/early 50s in this case. I'll check when I get home.

regards,
Jon

corey · Post by **corey** » Fri Jan 31, 2003 1:59 pm

I know in the case of my own 12 string order from 2002, I placed an order on February 25th for a 360/12 FG and by April 5th, UPS delivered said guitar to my house. My serial number indicates that the guitar was finished right around the exact day I placed my order, so I just got very lucky at how things worked out.

fendertweed2 · Post by **fendertweed2** » Fri Jan 31, 2003 2:21 pm

It is a week 48 guitar so it, too, has a serial no. from right around when I ordered it.

I've played only a couple of 660/12s but this neck is more like them and not the pencil necks that I find so unplayable on the 360/12 (which I wanted to love so much...). I like big necks, this has a bit of shoulder to it, medium depth.

Cheers,
Jon

jimintexas · Post by **jimintexas** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 8:41 am

Hi Jon..

You've had a couple of days now to bond with your new guitar. I understand that this is your first Ric's so is it what you expected...the neck, tone, bridge intonation, tuners, etc? Do you really have to support the neck due to the in-balance?

I'm planning to buy my first Ric too. My thoughts are to buy a 330 and mod the nut, pups and bridge but the 660 keeps calling to me.

Please share.

philipnz · Post by **philipnz** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 9:37 am

Hi all
I'm a fairly recent ric convert as well. Back in October I was looking around for a "normal" guitar to replace my 86 steinberger when I chanced upon a second hand 360v64. I was blown away by its beauty, sound and feel and bought it immediately. Rickenbackers are few and far between in New Zealand. I got hooked and purchased a 660/12 and 325v63 over the net along with an AC30 locally to play them through.

I now have on order a 380lpz which i feel rounds off my collection, but then maybe...........

philipnz · Post by **philipnz** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 10:07 am

p.s. One of the first things i did was alter the 325v63 wiring to make the 5th knob function as a volume control for the middle pickup as described in the rick reg page. It's easy and it works really great. Gives you so many new tones as well as nailing some John Lennon ones

fendertweed2 · Post by **fendertweed2** » Tue Feb 04, 2003 10:23 am

Jim Muirhead, I was able to take about an hour or two and play the 660/12 over the weekend at pretty loud volume, through my Bad Cat Cub 15R (think Vox AC15), a great amp. Wow! Great tone in all three settings, lots of sparkle and chime and the bonding was instant. No, on this guitar, the balance is quite good, it is only the slightest bit head heavy, it actually hangs nicely at a 90 deg. angle when I release it, I don't feel that I'm working against the neck. Intonation high up the neck is something I'm still working on getting used to but figure I'd rarely play big chords up there, so all in all I give it very high marks so far. I wish my gigs had more opportunity to use the Ric, but not too much call for it in blues & swing, and I sub infrequently w/ a friend's band where I could really use it.

regards,
Jon

fendertweed2 · Post by **fendertweed2** » Tue Feb 04, 2003 4:16 pm

Let me clarify that what I meant re: intonation has more to do with my fingering & pressure on strings, than the intonation of the guitar, that seems to be good. Re: balance, it's sitting on my lap as I type, just slightly weighted to the headstock, not what I'd consider an overly head- or neck-heavy guitar. Lots of resonant unplugged jangle factor, a good sign in any guitar IMO.

Oh, as to 330/360 vs. 660, while I prefer the 330/360 shape, I just don't want to buy a guitar that I then have to mod the nut, pickups, etc. on, and not be sure I'll like it... I want to know when I play it that it is or will be what I'm comfortable with, hence my choice of the 660/12 (looked at a couple of used TP 660/12s but didn't see the need to spend more just for the TP name, etc., since I buy to play, not collect/'invest'). So far I'm very impressed/happy with this 660/12.

Cheers,
Jon