My Rickenbacker Experience
Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 10:35 pm
I've been playing guitar off and on since I was a teenager. I could strum out some chords and I wrote a few songs, but thats about it. I got away from it for quite a few years. In 1983 I had a kid, got married, and joined the army (in that order). I spent 6 years in the army, had two more kids, and didn't realy have time for guitar. In 2005 I started getting back into it, but this time I started learning about the guitasrs them selves. It started with acoustics, and in the past couple years moved into electrics.
The more I learned about guitars, the more compulsive I became. I went through Taylors, Martins, Ovations, Takamines, Yamahas, Breedloves, and probably others. The think about acoustics is that nobody has yet to design a pickup system that sounds exactly like the guitar un-plugged. I have probably tried just about every pickup system on the market, and just was never happy with them for one reason or another. I spent tons of money trading this one for that one, and trying this pickup system and that pickup system, and I took so many baths at GC that I started bringing soap and shampoo with me...
I decided that I wanted to try an electric guitar one day, so I traded my acoustic towards a Gibson Les Paul. I didn't know anything about electric guitars at the time so I asked the guy at GC what a good electric was and he said that the Gibsons and Fenders where good, so I did the eenee meene minee mo thing and wound up with the Les Paul. Then I started learning about electric guitars and started getting compulsive with them. I wanted an electric guitar that I could apply my acoustic style of playing to. Then I discovered the Stratocaster. I could run it through a multi effects pedal and straight into a PA and get great strumming sounds with some chorus/delay/reverb, and there was no need to worry about getting an acoustic sound (thank god) and no feedbasck issues either (another problem with acoustics).
My compulsiveness grew. I started experimenting with the different Strats and strings to better fit my style. I discovered D'Adderio Chromes. They are flat wound steel strings and sound amazing on a Strat. I used 12's (because thats what I used on my acoustics) and they gave the Strats a fat mellow sound and realy brought out the wound strings when strumming. I went through several Strats over the past year, and during a series of bad deals at Sam Ash I decided to try something else. I tried a couple of the Gibson semi hollow bodies, but wound up with a PRS Custom 10 Top. All the accessories where missing and the case was damaged, but the guitar was in good shape and they ordered me a new cas (I assumed ther accessories would come along with the deal). The case came in and when I asked them about the accessories and the hang tag, their attitude was like... "oh well...sorry". I was not happy about that so I decided to return the PRS and just get another Strat.
I went to go buy some strings and look at some Strats, and I saw this Rickenbacker 330/6 hanging there. It must have just came in because it wasn't there 2 or 3 days before. I asked the guy about it and he told me it cam in 2 days ago and nobody had even played it yet. I told him I was returning the PRS and getting the 330/6. I played it for aout five minutes and that was it. I knew my search was over...
I got it home and started learning about it as much as I could (that is how I found this forum), because I wanted to do a good setup on it. I learned about the dual truss rod and that the neck should be just about dead flat with low action. I have never been able to get a Strat action low (1/16th) with hardly any neck relief without any buzzing at all, so I assumed it would be the case with the Rickenbacker, but I was dead wrong. I can tell they put a lot into their necks to be this percise. I could not find much info on pickup height so I just set them 2/32nd's from the top of the pole piece to the bottom of the string. I adjusted the whole pickup for the low and high E strings, then adjusted the A, D, G, and B pole pieces individualy so all the pole pieces where the same distance from the strings. I hope thats a good way to do it.
I put a set of the D'Adderio Chromes on it and it sounds absolutely amazing for my style of playing. I never see these guitars in stores before or I would have discovered this a long time ago. I've only ever seen one at an open mic in the past 6 years that I have been going to open mic's.
I made this test clip so you could hear the result of my setup & string choice, and my style of playing, and it's just 4 to 5 minutes of me noodeling around (and I'm not that good either...
)...
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10537102
Anyway, I'm glad I discovered Rickenbacker guitars.
Cheers
The more I learned about guitars, the more compulsive I became. I went through Taylors, Martins, Ovations, Takamines, Yamahas, Breedloves, and probably others. The think about acoustics is that nobody has yet to design a pickup system that sounds exactly like the guitar un-plugged. I have probably tried just about every pickup system on the market, and just was never happy with them for one reason or another. I spent tons of money trading this one for that one, and trying this pickup system and that pickup system, and I took so many baths at GC that I started bringing soap and shampoo with me...
I decided that I wanted to try an electric guitar one day, so I traded my acoustic towards a Gibson Les Paul. I didn't know anything about electric guitars at the time so I asked the guy at GC what a good electric was and he said that the Gibsons and Fenders where good, so I did the eenee meene minee mo thing and wound up with the Les Paul. Then I started learning about electric guitars and started getting compulsive with them. I wanted an electric guitar that I could apply my acoustic style of playing to. Then I discovered the Stratocaster. I could run it through a multi effects pedal and straight into a PA and get great strumming sounds with some chorus/delay/reverb, and there was no need to worry about getting an acoustic sound (thank god) and no feedbasck issues either (another problem with acoustics).
My compulsiveness grew. I started experimenting with the different Strats and strings to better fit my style. I discovered D'Adderio Chromes. They are flat wound steel strings and sound amazing on a Strat. I used 12's (because thats what I used on my acoustics) and they gave the Strats a fat mellow sound and realy brought out the wound strings when strumming. I went through several Strats over the past year, and during a series of bad deals at Sam Ash I decided to try something else. I tried a couple of the Gibson semi hollow bodies, but wound up with a PRS Custom 10 Top. All the accessories where missing and the case was damaged, but the guitar was in good shape and they ordered me a new cas (I assumed ther accessories would come along with the deal). The case came in and when I asked them about the accessories and the hang tag, their attitude was like... "oh well...sorry". I was not happy about that so I decided to return the PRS and just get another Strat.
I went to go buy some strings and look at some Strats, and I saw this Rickenbacker 330/6 hanging there. It must have just came in because it wasn't there 2 or 3 days before. I asked the guy about it and he told me it cam in 2 days ago and nobody had even played it yet. I told him I was returning the PRS and getting the 330/6. I played it for aout five minutes and that was it. I knew my search was over...
I got it home and started learning about it as much as I could (that is how I found this forum), because I wanted to do a good setup on it. I learned about the dual truss rod and that the neck should be just about dead flat with low action. I have never been able to get a Strat action low (1/16th) with hardly any neck relief without any buzzing at all, so I assumed it would be the case with the Rickenbacker, but I was dead wrong. I can tell they put a lot into their necks to be this percise. I could not find much info on pickup height so I just set them 2/32nd's from the top of the pole piece to the bottom of the string. I adjusted the whole pickup for the low and high E strings, then adjusted the A, D, G, and B pole pieces individualy so all the pole pieces where the same distance from the strings. I hope thats a good way to do it.
I put a set of the D'Adderio Chromes on it and it sounds absolutely amazing for my style of playing. I never see these guitars in stores before or I would have discovered this a long time ago. I've only ever seen one at an open mic in the past 6 years that I have been going to open mic's.
I made this test clip so you could hear the result of my setup & string choice, and my style of playing, and it's just 4 to 5 minutes of me noodeling around (and I'm not that good either...
)...http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10537102
Anyway, I'm glad I discovered Rickenbacker guitars.
Cheers
It sounds like you're using a little delay or a chorus on a very slow rate of sweep. Welcome to Ricworld!