Messing with my 360 and 620

[HKC]

Hi this particular post is not really a question, more a statement or testdrive of something I have tried out recently and something I had a little trouble googling so In would just like to put my thoughts on this for others to read. Of course these are just my thoughts and should not be seen as anything but my opinion.
I find that there are basically two sides of Rics that both are classic. One is the jangly 60s sound which is also very strumming friendly. The other one is the much more aggresive sound that could be thought of as a 70s new wave sound.
I have a 360 and a 620, both fairly young guitars from with the last 10 years so both feature hi-gains and are strung with ernie ball regular slinkys.
I have found that to really get the classic sounds (and here I mean really nail them, not just almost) you also have to get the right amps but if you only have one a AC30 topboost would not be a bad place to start. I personally have a 62 AC30 with the topboost option an the back, a 66 Fender Super Reverb and a new Fender DeVille. I found that the Deville was to neutral, the Super had too little mid definition while the Vox was brilliant. I suppose to really nail the 70s sound a Marshall or Hiwatt stack would be the real deal but they are all very related I find, and I really like the Vox better than the others to tell the truth.
To start with when just plugging the guitar into the amp (AC30) it's pretty clear that the 620 is far more "in-your-face" than the 360 and to tell the the truth it sounded brilliant right away but with a good compressor that also boosted the signal slightly it got even better. After a while I gave up making the 360 sound as good as the 620 so although the semiacoustic Rics are usually the ones that Weller and the other boys played I strangely found that at that job the 620 was the better choice. I am aware that they actually played a 330 but I only have one of those in the 12 string version so maybe there's a difference there that I'm not aware of.
For the more subtle 60s sound I found it almost impossible to dial in, or rather I found it impossible. So after checking my bankaccount I ordered two of the new 7.4 toasters and first put them on the 620 and found it kind of ruined everything that it was so good at before.
Then I put them on the 360 and now that guitar was getting in the ballpark although something was still missing. I of course knew that back in the 60s flatwounded strings ruled so I changed the strings. I also found that the 10s were a bit too thin for good strumming and since bending and soloing as such IMHO will never be a Ric trademark I put on a set of GHS brite flats (11s). I suppose it could be any flatwounded string but I already had these.
This changed the guitar completely, it's became so crisp in that 60s style that I couldn't believe it. The almost exagerated hi end of the toasters was changed to a creamy and very, very tight rhythm sound. Again, as with all Rics I find, compression is needed to really make it shine but remember that it's not MXR over the top compression you need. It's the "invisible" compressor type that does the trick. I have quite a few compressors which includes both Jangle boxes butI think these are best with 12 strings because none of them are much good at boosting the signal and they are also better for jangle playing like ie the Byrds because they really grab the tone.
Anyway my conclusion is that if you want both sounds you need two guitars set up very differently. Also it's very clear that although the 360 and the 620 have similar features (same pickups, electronics, bridge ect) they don't sound the same at all and have very different strengths.

[8mileshigher]

Thumbs up on the AC-30 and the Jangleboxes ...
Probably an awful lot of Forum members would agree with you that having several different models of Rics and different types of pickups, will lead you to the Nirvanna of Ric tone.

There are also You Tubes posted by folks giving different models of Rics comparison tests, using this amp and that compressor, etc. for distinguishing the tonal characteristics.

[sleepingtiger]

I think the hollows make better 12 stringers.

Tony

[Folkie]

I absoutely agree, Tony!