Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hey, I was talking to a guy on the fourm and he said that 325s need Heavy Gage flat wounds ? is this true

kieran campbell wrote:Hey, I was talking to a guy on the fourm and he said that 325s need Heavy Gage flat wounds ? is this true

They need them in the way that Homer Simpson needs beer.

It's not a necessity, but it's the Homer we know and love, and he seems to perform his best when he has it!

that is probably one of the best analogys I have ever read,hear or Dreamed of!

+1 Bravo Nick!



Must ...have ... flats ... MMMMMMMM!

Definitely flats. I went to D'Addario Chrome 12s, then 13. Stays in tune and has that great early-Lennon attack. Little harder to bend strings, but the short scale mitigates that to a degree. I can still do the lead break to "You Can't Do That" even with 13s.

I have to go with the consensus, here. I use Thomastik-Infeld Jazz-Swing 12's on my 1996 RI and it's definitely got the Beatles' vibe going. I originally had used Pyramid 12's, but I like the TI flats better because they sound just as good to my ears and have a lot less tension than the Pyramids, so they're a bit easier on the neck. I highly recommend them.

They don't need to have flatwounds, but if you're looking for that sixties sound, they'll get you there.

I have D'Addario .011 chromes on my 325, and I love them.

On a C58, it does take bit more fine tuning if the guitar still has a Kauffman, but the .011s note just fine. Just don't move the Kauffman arm (no matter what string you have....)

Another T-I Flat 12s fan here for these little guitars. In addition to the sound, the feel of these strings is great on that short neck.

Bill

Although I am a fan of flatwounds, all of my short-scale Ricks have roundwounds on them.

I have TI flats on my 1996, 12s I believe. I actually really liked the stock Rickenbacker ground-wounds a lot too, but I wanted to try flats for that historically-accurate thing. If I had newer 320 (early 80s MG would be perrfect) I'd put some ground-wounds on it.

I scored about a dozen sets of Vintage 60's era pyramid flat .13s and have them installed on a new 325c64. I have modern versions of Pyramid flats on some of my other 325s and 1996. The vintage ones feel and sound very different than the current ones. I like them both but the vintage ones are much smoother and not as stiff.

The holy grail (aargh, I can't believe I said that) strings for Rickenbacker 325's is the Maxima 13-56 flats. Never heard anything better for chording. You'll have a bit of trouble with the solo for 'You Can't Do That' as you really need a plain G to bend to pitch, but for the shingalingaling there's nothing like them.

mike_d wrote:I scored about a dozen sets of Vintage 60's era pyramid flat .13s and have them installed on a new 325c64. I have modern versions of Pyramid flats on some of my other 325s and 1996. The vintage ones feel and sound very different than the current ones. I like them both but the vintage ones are much smoother and not as stiff.

More info please if you can provide it......

Si........

37012player wrote:

mike_d wrote:I scored about a dozen sets of Vintage 60's era pyramid flat .13s and have them installed on a new 325c64. I have modern versions of Pyramid flats on some of my other 325s and 1996. The vintage ones feel and sound very different than the current ones. I like them both but the vintage ones are much smoother and not as stiff.

More info please if you can provide it......

Si........

Sure thing. Initially, I bought three sets of vintage Pyramids through an Ebay auction for $30.00. The seller was a music store in Canada. The seller mentioned that he had many other sets, so I made him an offer for 10 more sets! I may contact him again to see if he has any left. This was about six months ago, so they may all be gone by now. They sound great on my 325c64.