Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

What kind of strings do you all like?
Where do you buy them?
How often do you change them? (I know this varies by individual)
Thanks.
Tim

I like the standard Rick compressed rounds on my 660/12. I change them as infrequently as possible

Does anyone use heavier than .10 gauge?

I do on the bass side of the neck!

Just to be clear, I meant anything greater than 0.010.

The low E is usually a .042 or .046 isn't that greater than a .010?

The Original Rick flatwounds used an .038 for an E....Low that is...

I used to like the Rick brand compressed roundwounds but I hate to have to mail order them. I tried Pyramid flatwounds and found them to be too stiff, although they did nail the vintage sound a bit more. I also had a hard time getting the octaves to sound once in awhile because the difference in gauge between a couple of the high and low strings made it hard to press both down evenly.

I can only find one local store that stocks any electric twelve set and they carry D'Addarios in a .010 gauge. I've been using these recently and have no complaints at all. I used to be able to find Ernie Ball's for an electric twelve and have used those, too. I think they start with a .009 or .008 but I can't remember. They sounded good but seemed to corrode awfully fast.

I often use the Daddario electric 12 set, but substitute a wound 3rd and a .010 for the G octave. The .008 strings break too easy. I take them out of the packing and immediately throw them in the trash. I do like the RIC strings better, though.

I like the D'Addario's too & use them on my Fender XII but IMHO the RIC strings sound way better on a Rick than a comparable set of D'Addario's.

I like the SIT's on my 360/12....Last a while & tune up great.

+1 for the RIC-branded compressed wounds, I really like them.

When I got my 660 I had my luthier set it up with the Pyramids and a bone nut (wasn't happy with the spacing). They did feel really stiff as others have pointed out. Really got the wood humming, though -- I could play along with some Petty tracks and literally feel the exact tone from Learning to Fly from my fingers, up my forearms... and this was unplugged, mind you, early morning, trying not to disturb my wife still sleeping upstairs. And yes, it woke her up.

But the stiffness issue, and the extravagant price (~$50 at the only shop in town that carries them), led me to try the compressed wounds. I already really liked the RIC heavy guage (.012s) 6-string set on my 360, and heck they were only about $16 at that same shop. They sound great with the toasters, too, feel great, and so much easier on the wallet.

I might consider using Pyramids again if I had a 300-series 12-string, I think the way they'd move the top of a semi-hollow would have a more marked difference in tone than the difference I perceived between the two sets on the solid 660. Come to think of it, maybe I should try a 6-string Pyramid set on the 360. But I do really like the compressed rounds on that guitar, too, so much that I'm really not interested in searching out alternatives.

Long story short, Rickenbacker strings really do suit Rickenbacker guitars extremely well, IMHO.

And to answer your other questions: I buy them at a shop in downtown Osaka Japan, not too far from where I live. Try to change strings once a month or so, though it depends how much I'm playing that guitar at a given time.

I like the factory Rick strings, I did mess around with other brands, but the Ricks are perfectly suited for that guitar, IMO.

The RIC compressed RWs are good strings. Their non-compressed set is like running your fingers across a file, though.