Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hello everyone. I'm in love with the 650D, but I play Classic/Hard rock. I love the feel of this guitar, but I'm unsure if it will give me what I need tone wise. Do any 650D owners play a similar style? How are the stock pickups? Thanks in advance.

Welcome, Patrick! (from the one eagerly awaiting her 650D)
Could you tell more about how it feels - i'm curious?

I've owned and sold two 650's. The main difference to me is the taller frets. I tend to really dig in hard, and as a result, I would be bending notes without even trying. The lacquered 330-style frets are much more forgiving. If you're good with the fancy fingerwork on solos, etc, then you should love the 650.

I agree with Jason that the 650 is a real soloists guitar, something for all the Rickenbacker naysayers. It blew me away the first time I played it.

I think the tone would be great for classic/hard rock. They're not quite like true Seth Lover humbuckers, i'd say somewhere between them and a high-gain. A really unique tone overall that seemed really versatile when I played it. I was playing through a Fender Twin and didn't get to use any gain, however.

I couldn't agree more, John - I am constantly surprised by the sheer versatility of the 650. There isn't a bad sound in it.

It's eminently suitable for classic/hard rock, with appropriate amplification.

I have a 650C. It does everything that I would expect a humbucking guitar to do. It doesn't have quite the gain that my '59 Seymour Duncan equipped guitar has, but with todays modern amps it gets "there". I am running mine through a DC-5 Boogie and a Fender Blues Jr and have played it through a friend's Marshall and Rectoverb. It sounds great through all of them. I have made one mod to mine, I pulled the ground on one of the volume pots to give the effect of having 500K pots as opposed to the 250K pots. This give the guitar more definition and clarity. When it comes to noise these have none. I usually play clean but have taken this to Gilmour-esque like sustain and beyond.

If you act soon Kevin Kuney has a Monty Brown 650C in the for sale section. He is a great guy to deal with, he sold mine to me.

My Dakota absolutely rocks! It is incredibly versatile & REALLY shines at playing the blues. It will get downright nasty. Yet I play in my church praise band & can dial in a sort of jangly classic Ric tone if I go with a crystal clean Twin or AC-30 setting on my Pod.

It is perfect for hard rock & classic rock. Just think crankin' HBs that will really clean up nicely and get real pretty when you need them too.
I have fallen in love with the middle position with the neck pup volume rolled off a touch. WIth a Marshall, you can nail the Beano or Peter Green tone quite well.

Combined with a Strat, I have all the blues bases covered. Great guitar overall...I couldn't be happier with mine.

I loved the sound of the neck pickup clean on the one I played. It wasn't muddy at all, like humbucker-equipped guitars tend to be sometimes. It was crystalline and goregeous sounding.

I have always liked the sound of Rics with moderate to heavy distortion. I agree that the 650 has great potential for "harder" styles of music, but I even like the distorted sounds that I can pull out of my 360/6. Through a slightly overdriven tube amp, this baby crunches up quite nicely.

Just thought I'd throw that in there.

Absolutley Justin. I prefer the sound of my 330 & 360 and even my 660/12 with a little bit of distortion over the 650. But i'd say that's just because I like more of a dirty, twangy distorted single coil tone, ala my Ricks, Jaguar, Teles.

Amen! All hail the single coil!!

Bask in it's jangly radiance!