Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Yesterday, I happened to be across town and went to a music store that is an authorized RIC dealer.
They had the normal 330 and 360 in FG,JG and MG.
There was only one 12 string, a 330 in MG and I decided to give it a test drive. I wanted to try out the feel of the neck. Anyway, I get the guy to hand me the guitar and I'll play it a little before I plug it in. I no sooner sit down to check it out and then it hits me.
WOAH!!!!!!!! The action is so high that it's almost unplayable. I am not kidding in the least to say that the action was 1/4 inch high at the 12th fret. You could easily tell that with a truss rod adjustment and bridge tweaking the guitar's action would have been 100% better.

Now I thinking to myself that the action may have not been perfect from the factory, but I'd be willing to bet that it was a lot better that this.

After about ten minutes of struggling to tame the beast, another sales guy comes over and asked what do I think of the guitar? I said that it could use a neck adjustment. He tells me that a lot of the guitars here could use an adjustment.

So after I leave I'm thinking that while I was there the place wasn't busy. Instead of just standing around with you finger up you know where, why don't you try some of the guitars out yourself and if they need adjustment have your repair shop adjust them.

I'm sure that some folks come in there and when they try a guitar like this must think that this RIC is a POS, when in fact it's not RIC fault. Nobody is going to buy this guitar the way it is unless they just plan on hanging it on the wall to look at it. It is really disheartening for me to see such fine instruments treated in this manner.

Don't get me started, it's amazing how bad most stores are at selling gear. If it doesn't come set up well from the factory, they should take it upon themselves to see to it that the guitars play well before they put them out. Why they don't is so frustrating, you want to smack them sometimes !!

I hear what you're saying, Charles, but if they go messing with the neck on a new Rick wouldn't they also be messing with the warranty? I'm assuming these were new Ricks you were talking about.

Stan, I don't see how this would affect the warranty. RIC shows you how to do it in their owners manual. If the owner can do it, I would believe that the store would be able to do it without voiding the warranty.

You're probably right, Charles.
I'd be really curious as to ask the dealer, what gives then? Why don't they adjust them? Other than laziness or ineptness.

Suppositions abound here.

Each Rickenbacker instrument is hand-set-up and hand-strung at the factory, by guys who do this all day long. They actually play the guitars to be sure that the action, tuning, intonation, etc. are within factory specs. This instrument did not leave the factory with action like that. Somebody at the dealer's messed with it.

Ineptitude is the #1 factor in this sort of nonsense. People who adjust Fenders and Gibsons (and even cheapo guitars) are quite intimidated by Rickenbackers and most often heavy-handed in their treatment of the instrument. A mere swap of string gauges from the factory gauges often requires an adjustment.

Additionally, most luthiers have the usual Fender/Gibson/Gretsch tools, but the long-shafted nut driver that RIC suggests to adjust their truss rods are not a commonly-used tool, and for best results on a Rickenbacker instrument, this tool requires a certain amount of modification, too. Who's gonna bother?

Bottom line: Guitar repairmen, who make their bread and butter tweaking the Big Three (Strats, Teles, Les Pauls) are out of their element when confronted with the highly responsive neck of a Rick. The consumer, as usual, is taking it in the shorts on this one.

I agree Paul that the guitar didn't leave the factory like that. What I believe happened was that the guitar has been there awhile and because of the climate change, winter heating etc, the neck bow has increased. A 1/4 turn on each of the truss rods would have done wonders.

I have always liked this statement. It's plastered right in front of your face on the Pedulla website home page. The same effort should be made by any quality guitar maker.

"It is of the utmost concern to us at Pedulla, that all our basses are in the best condition from the great looks of the bass to the perfect playability of the bass. At times, while our basses are on a retailer's showroom floor, a Pedulla bass can show signs of general wear and tear. It is of additional great concern to us if Pedulla basses are not well taken care of because some retailers don't always keep instruments properly adjusted and sometimes neglect to make sure that they are clean or that they still have good strings installed.

It is difficult and quite expensive to send out a Pedulla representative to every retailer that sells Pedulla basses to check on the condition of the basses on a regular basis, so this is how you can help us. If you find a new Pedulla bass at a dealer's store and are anything less than incredibly impressed with it's playability or the way it looks, we ask you to please let us know as quickly as you can. We will gladly follow up with the dealer and take care of it promptly."

A darn good idea!

I once had a jones for a Music Man 5-string, REAL BAD! I go to the local GC to check them out...thinking I am walking out with one. THEY ARE ON SALE, like half off! I'm thinking, my lucky day! I pick out one that's calling my name, plug it in and start playing. The setup was SO bad, the strings were fretting out, the batteries for the active circuit were dead, I tried another one, same thing. I eventually went over to get a guy I knew to tell him what the deal was, and told him, "Hey, I'd like to walk out of here with one of these, but I can't even play these, they are set up so bad."
He offered nothing in the way of ...well, ANYTHING, really, so I walked out empty handed. And happy about it.

When I bought a secondhand 330 Ruby ('88) 12 years ago, the shop done a new set up & strings to my preferences for no extra charge, despite me knocking down the price!

I wish all music shops were like this but it's not the case usually!

Yeah, I've struck good and bad like that too. I've mail-ordered most of my recent guitars, and a couple of shops where I bought my Am Dlx Tele and my Firebird VII have gone to great lengths to set up the guitar with my preferred gauge of strings at no extra cost. Others have sent me grotty guitars with corroded strings that have obviously been on the showroom floor for a long time (I'm actually talking about my 360 and 330 there). I did get friendly service and a nice street price on the Rics, but customer service and aiming for a good reputation should surely dictate that you at least clean the guitar before sending it to the new owner.

First impressions of a guitar can make or break the deal. I know that it is impossible to keep every guitar in a shop properly setup all of the time but some shops make no effort at all. Half of my collection is nearly unplayable most of the time because I can't keep up with seasonal neck adjustments. Unfortunately, many Ricks come out of the box with very poor setups and are not checked by the shop before being displayed. Who would buy an instrument that does not play properly? It is the fault of both the shop and the manufacturer. Mostly the shop.

"Many Ricks come out of the box with very poor setups."

Right out of the box, Ted? That's a tough statement to back up, because using a term like "many" implies a good-sized percentage, but still it's vague enough to be confusing. It does, however, give a strong negative impression that I'm not sure you intend.

Have you ever visited RIC? I have been fortunate enough to visit on several occasions, and each time, there are one or two employees in small rooms off the final assembly area, who string, set up and play the guitars and basses, then wipe them down and place them in their cases, to be taken to shipping and packed into boxes and sent out to dealers.

These employees are well-trained and experienced in what they do. It's a matter of pride that they can handle any setup anomaly that comes up in the course of a day.

How would a guitar or bass come out of the box with a bad setup if it went into the box with a good one?

Why would Rickenbacker spend so much effort on QC, to have first impressions ruined by a badly-setup instrument right out of the box?

I would fault the shop. Some techs can't keep their hands off the new stock. Ricks are especially tempting and especially susceptible, since they are so sensitive to bad setups and uninformed tweaking.

Hey, Tekkies! Leave our Ricks alone!

(Apologies to Pink Floyd...)

No slight intended.