Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I'm new to the board so please excuse me if this topic has been flogged to death. I'm a Rickenbacker neophyte, but love their sound and their look. I've always been drawn to the 330, but I checked one out at a local music store and found the 330's action about 5/8 of an inch of the 12th fret and it sounded flat through a Fender Blues Junior-I think the flat tone is a product of dead strings, but was the action normal or is this guitar in desperate need of a set-up?

To compare I tried out a 360 and found that the neck on it was much faster and seemed to play much smoother; apart from the inlays, what is the difference between these two necks?

Welcome Bulltrout. I agree with Wooly. A setup and new strings is in order. Ask for that to be done and then try it again.

Aside from aesthetic issues, I can think of two functional but not-so-obvious differences:

1) No neck binding on the 330 - which gives a noticeable smidgen more of usable fretboard
2) 330 is 15% larger in terms of air space in the body - some say this changes the tone. I don't know because I have never had a chance to do a fair comparison.


Hope this helps (I'm basically a newb too - welcome!)

The 360 has 21 frets, the 330 has 24. The neck on my 340 felt like a baseball bat compared to my 360! I have long-since sold the 340.
Everyone that plays my 360 claims if feels 'broken in'. Of course... it is.

I love the 330 sillhouette though. So my advice:
find a 360V64!

Cheers, Noel

My 330 has very low action and sounds great through my Blues Jr. Sounds like the one you played needs new strings and a good setup. That's definitely not normal action. I just measured string height of 1/16" at the 12th fret.

Thanks for all the feedback guys! I saw a picture of the 360V64 on the web - is it not a re-issue from the eighties and quite rare?

Chris, the 360v64 was discontinued in 2001, they are hard to find.

Did it have slim neck?

The neck on the 330 I played seemed comparable to the one I have on my telecaster, so I do not beleive that it was a slim neck - but my technical knowledge of Ricks is pretty slim.

Current 360s also have 24 frets. To make things a little more confusing, find a 360WB - a 360 in a 330's body!

I have played my '66 335 and '02 360 through a Blues Jr and they do sound quite different. Believe it or not, the old guitar with toasters seemed to have richer tone and a character that is hard to describe. I liked the Blues Jr. with that guitar, although the sound with the 360 wasn't bad at all.

On the reverse side, the new 360 sounds better through my Roland JC77 than the older one w/toasters. I'm sure I've got something screwed up somewhere. But these two guitars are very different for me.

I also agree with the set up comment. Try one that you know has been set up right -- it makes a HUGE difference!