First Impressions of My First Rickenbacker
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 10:39 am
Hi Folks,
My new 330/6 AFG arrived yesterday, and I had a chance to play with it a bit last night. I wanted to post my first impressions and ask a couple of questions.
I should preface all this by saying that I am still very much a novice when it comes to guitar playing and guitars in general, so if some (or all) of my comments/questions seem naive or ignorant, that's probably why. Let me also preface this by stating that this 330/6 is the second of my, now, 2-guitar collection - my first (purchased just one month ago) is a G&L ASAT with a semi-hollow swamp ash body (no f-hole), natural wood body binding, a gun-oil tinted maple neck/fretboard with a polished gloss finish and vintage Telecaster shape/dimensions (7.25" radius, 1 5/8" wide at nut, modern C-shape profile). It has Dunlop 6100 Medium Jumbo frets. The pick-ups are G&L's Magnetic FIeld Design (MFD) single coils, the bridge is G&L's Saddle-Lock fixed bridge and it has the G&L non-compression truss rod. FYI, for those unfamiliar with G&L, it is the company started up by Leo Fender and George Fullerton after they sold Fender to CBS and wanted to get back to making guitars (and basses). The G&L web site is here and a good G&L discussion site is here.
As expected, the 330/6 looks very nice, and, also as expected, I am very impressed with the fit and finish on the Ric. I haven't yet gone over it with a fine-toothed comb, but it's clearly a well-built instrument. I am also very impressed/pleased with the build quality and fit/finish of my G&L - I would say the two are quite comparable in that regard. From my research into both these guitars/companies, that was a comment that I consistently heard for both: "...build quality is top notch; it's like getting a custom built guitar at a bargain price...". I'd have to concur in both cases.
Based on some reviews of the 330/6, I was expecting the 330/6 to be a bit (or more) less comfortable to hold than the G&L, but I didn't find that to be the case so far. Now, based on my novice playing abilities, I'm not running far up the neck at this point (just working on notes & open chords in the first position and starting to work on barre chords as well), so the 330 "horns/antlers" might be a bit of a comfort/accessibility issue when working up the neck, but I cannot yet comment on that.
In terms of tone, I can definitely hear a difference. I love them both: the G&L is similar in tone characteristics to a Telecaster, but the MFD pickups give it more depth and richness. Also, the fact that it's a semi-hollow model ASAT adds another dimension as well. I really love it. You can hear audio clips of the ASAT semi-hollow here (by pro players, not me, thank goodness). In terms of tone, the Ric is, well... a Ric (I suppose there's no need to go into a detailed description of the Ric tone for this audience). I don't know whether it's the maple vs. ash body wood or the Ric open hole semi-hollow body vs. the closed semi-hollow body of my ASAT or the Ric High-gain vs. the G&L MFD pickups (surely all three factors come into play in terms of the resulting tone), but the Ric sound is truly unique. I love it as well. In fact, I love it just a little bit more than the ASAT.
Finally, my impressions of the playability of the two: the 330/6 was a bit of a challenge for me when I first picked it up last night. It's got a flatter curve to the fretboard (10" vs 7.25" on the ASAT), and that was noticeable, but not problematic, for me - I'm not yet sure which of the two curvatures I prefer. The neck widths are the same (1.63" at the nut), so no issues there. I think the thing that presented the biggest challenge for me when I first picked up the Ric was the fret size and height. They seem to be significantly smaller and lower than the Dunlop 6100's on my G&L. Consequently, I found that I have to be more precise in my finger position (I have to have my fretting finger right behind the fret) and use a bit more fretting force on the Ric. After about 15-20 minutes, though my open chords were ringing clear and true. I suppose having the smaller/lower frets means that the action on the Ric can be set very low (though it doesn't seem to be so, as shipped; I'll probably want to have it adjusted lower sometime soon; anyone have any good Ric luthier/tech recommendations for the DC/MD/VA area? Charlottesville is most convenient, Richmond is OK, too; but I can certainly make the trip up to NoVa/DC/MD to take it to a highly recommended person).
The other thing I noticed, that I think may need some adjustment, is that the 1st string is very weak sounding from the bridge pick-up. It sounds great unplugged and on the neck pick-up, but when plugged in and playing through the bridge pick-up only, it doesn't really chime through on chords like (I think) it should. I presume it would be simply a matter of adjusting the pole height on that pick-up for the 1st string. Would that be easy enough for a non-expert to do?
Thanks in advance for any comments/insights/recommendations you can provide.
Andrew
My new 330/6 AFG arrived yesterday, and I had a chance to play with it a bit last night. I wanted to post my first impressions and ask a couple of questions.
I should preface all this by saying that I am still very much a novice when it comes to guitar playing and guitars in general, so if some (or all) of my comments/questions seem naive or ignorant, that's probably why. Let me also preface this by stating that this 330/6 is the second of my, now, 2-guitar collection - my first (purchased just one month ago) is a G&L ASAT with a semi-hollow swamp ash body (no f-hole), natural wood body binding, a gun-oil tinted maple neck/fretboard with a polished gloss finish and vintage Telecaster shape/dimensions (7.25" radius, 1 5/8" wide at nut, modern C-shape profile). It has Dunlop 6100 Medium Jumbo frets. The pick-ups are G&L's Magnetic FIeld Design (MFD) single coils, the bridge is G&L's Saddle-Lock fixed bridge and it has the G&L non-compression truss rod. FYI, for those unfamiliar with G&L, it is the company started up by Leo Fender and George Fullerton after they sold Fender to CBS and wanted to get back to making guitars (and basses). The G&L web site is here and a good G&L discussion site is here.
As expected, the 330/6 looks very nice, and, also as expected, I am very impressed with the fit and finish on the Ric. I haven't yet gone over it with a fine-toothed comb, but it's clearly a well-built instrument. I am also very impressed/pleased with the build quality and fit/finish of my G&L - I would say the two are quite comparable in that regard. From my research into both these guitars/companies, that was a comment that I consistently heard for both: "...build quality is top notch; it's like getting a custom built guitar at a bargain price...". I'd have to concur in both cases.
Based on some reviews of the 330/6, I was expecting the 330/6 to be a bit (or more) less comfortable to hold than the G&L, but I didn't find that to be the case so far. Now, based on my novice playing abilities, I'm not running far up the neck at this point (just working on notes & open chords in the first position and starting to work on barre chords as well), so the 330 "horns/antlers" might be a bit of a comfort/accessibility issue when working up the neck, but I cannot yet comment on that.
In terms of tone, I can definitely hear a difference. I love them both: the G&L is similar in tone characteristics to a Telecaster, but the MFD pickups give it more depth and richness. Also, the fact that it's a semi-hollow model ASAT adds another dimension as well. I really love it. You can hear audio clips of the ASAT semi-hollow here (by pro players, not me, thank goodness). In terms of tone, the Ric is, well... a Ric (I suppose there's no need to go into a detailed description of the Ric tone for this audience). I don't know whether it's the maple vs. ash body wood or the Ric open hole semi-hollow body vs. the closed semi-hollow body of my ASAT or the Ric High-gain vs. the G&L MFD pickups (surely all three factors come into play in terms of the resulting tone), but the Ric sound is truly unique. I love it as well. In fact, I love it just a little bit more than the ASAT.
Finally, my impressions of the playability of the two: the 330/6 was a bit of a challenge for me when I first picked it up last night. It's got a flatter curve to the fretboard (10" vs 7.25" on the ASAT), and that was noticeable, but not problematic, for me - I'm not yet sure which of the two curvatures I prefer. The neck widths are the same (1.63" at the nut), so no issues there. I think the thing that presented the biggest challenge for me when I first picked up the Ric was the fret size and height. They seem to be significantly smaller and lower than the Dunlop 6100's on my G&L. Consequently, I found that I have to be more precise in my finger position (I have to have my fretting finger right behind the fret) and use a bit more fretting force on the Ric. After about 15-20 minutes, though my open chords were ringing clear and true. I suppose having the smaller/lower frets means that the action on the Ric can be set very low (though it doesn't seem to be so, as shipped; I'll probably want to have it adjusted lower sometime soon; anyone have any good Ric luthier/tech recommendations for the DC/MD/VA area? Charlottesville is most convenient, Richmond is OK, too; but I can certainly make the trip up to NoVa/DC/MD to take it to a highly recommended person).
The other thing I noticed, that I think may need some adjustment, is that the 1st string is very weak sounding from the bridge pick-up. It sounds great unplugged and on the neck pick-up, but when plugged in and playing through the bridge pick-up only, it doesn't really chime through on chords like (I think) it should. I presume it would be simply a matter of adjusting the pole height on that pick-up for the 1st string. Would that be easy enough for a non-expert to do?
Thanks in advance for any comments/insights/recommendations you can provide.
Andrew
I did talk to him about RICs and he seemed pretty knowledgeable about them. I have no experience with Guitar Works, but I will check them out since Marguerite has been under the weather.