Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I love the sound of my Revolution Casino. Those are P-90's.

How do the Hi-gains compare on the 330's or 360's to this sound? (Leady-type stuff, some chordulating). Can't say I've heard a Hi-gain Rick (though I'm sure I have).

I'm thinking I might want something different than a toaster, but don't particularly like humbuckers (well, I've only tried them on sold bodied guitars).

To my ears the P-90s are more mid-rangy than the high gains. Mellower if you like.

The high gains will certainly give you the edge you need for lead. I consider that you would like the high gains over the humbuckers, depending on the type of music you play.

Listen to the Rampant Carnivores stuff on their site and you will get a very good idea of what high gains can do for you. Perhaps the Field Marshall will pipe up here.

Thank you, Peter.

Jerry,

I will throw in a set of Hi-gains with the Fireglo 360/12C63 if you buy it. No extra charge!

"The Field Marshall".....ha, ha...good one Peter!

IMO, hi-gains are the perfect pickup..powerful enough to play lead & rock & yet with all the tone of a single coil. They really are quite spectacular pickups Jerry. You can get that '60's tone (if you want), but they have a really well balanced tonal quality across the spectrum that allows for so much more. As you may have guessed, I'm a higain fan.

I share Peters view on the humbuckers...the higains are far more versatile than the humbucker IMO.

LOL, Kevin.
I'm still figurin' on that delivery man at the front door being the stalling point. I promised the wife a new kitchen. She knows I bought 2 or three when she was in Asia, so she thinks it's her turn. What goes on in the minds of women? Go figure. Like I say, I might have brass in pocket at the confluence...

Tony, the guitars on your site are outtasight.
Nice beefy tone. All Ricks, I assume?

All Rics Jerry, in fact 99% of the album was recorded with a single 330!

Come on Kevin let Jerry in on the secret of how to hide all of those Ricks.

Well, she did come into my music room the other day, the closet's full of guitars in their cases, so a few were laying around. I had to fib a little.
Now, off to church and the confessional.

"Bless me father, for I have sinned...I have 14 guitars and said only ten..."

Funny, I have 14 guitars too, although that includes basses and acoustics. I'm trying to widdle it down to a cool dozen.

Howdy,

I want to "chime" in here Hi-gains sound similar to P-90's. Put another way, Hi-Gains are closer to P-90's tonally than any other major p/u I've heard i.e., Tele, PAF, Strat, see what I mean?
Like Anthony, I really like Hi-Gains (I wish they LOOKED like the vintage p/u's, though!)they've got a satisfying, meaty tone-but with clarity! This is the same despription I give to people about my beloved P-90's.
I like to think of Hi-Gains as sort of a "P-90 lite". Hi-Gains are wonderful.
Speaking of Epiphone Casinos, my MG 360/6 (Hi-Gains) can get pretty close to Keith Richard's tone when I play "Get Off My Cloud" through my '68 Vibro Champ. Serious fun!
Anthony, do you agree about Hi-Gains being able to get into "Get off My Cloud" territory? Hope I'm not alone, here

PS: For 12-strings, I prefer the vintage p/u's.

Eggman

Your point is well taken Larry. There is a similarity between P-90s and high gains. I just find that the higher frequency overtones have a bit more sparkle with the solid body Rickenbackers that I have compared to the Epiphone Casino, for example.

Then again, the difference in solid body versus hollow body coupled with amplifier differences may be confounding factors that I have not fully considered in my comments.
I do agree that the high gains are closer to the P-90 than the brighter strat single coils. But, high gains on a solid body Rickenbacker such as a 480 get quite close to the Tele sound.

If I talk long enough I usually form a circle!

Anthony and Larry, in your opinions, would the Hi-Gains get into that meaty blues zone that P90's can go to?

I have a hollow archtop project that I was going to put a pair of Duncan P90s on, but if the Hi-gains can get that meaty delicious P90 blues tone, I might reconsider. The Hi-gains look nicer and would be easier to mount on this project.

...Dean

Dean: I have subsituted high gains for P-90s on a solid body "tele" type guitar and there was definitely a "blues zone" tonality going on.

The sound was similar to the P-90s but I found that the resultant sound was punchier and again there was a sparkle with the high gains that the instrument did not have with the P-90s.

Dean,

I have hi-gains and a RIC humbucker on my 350. I play the blues (and other genres). My 350 will give some of my Strats a run for their money, but it does not quite have the same level of sustain as my Epiphone Les Paul. My 59 Gibson Les Paul has one P90 and one humbucker. IMO there is not a guitar in the world that sounds like it, so I can't reasonably compare it to any guitar that I own. I suppose that I should say that I do not like to use tons of effects. I use a little on board chorus and a little on board reverb.

My 360 with toasters and special wiring mods provides me with so many choices of tonality. It is without a doubt the most versatile guitar that I own.

Choice of amplification plays a huge part though in my sound. I get the best results using my Peavey 212 Stereo Chorus. I found that if you use a Vox AC30 or a similar amp that you end up with more of a traditional Beatles "Revolver" sound.

This is just my experience. Others may have different results because they use Marshall amplification or whatever. The bottom line is you have to try your guitar set-up through your amplifier.