Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

my ric 360 has less sustain than my gibsons and heritages played thru the same rig: tweed+equalizer+a little reverb.

the pulloffs and slides that work well for me on my lester and heritage h150 are anemic on my 360. makes me sound like a hack! (which i am !!! )

does this square with anybody else's experience?

ric has dealer set up, from willcutt, and is dyn-O-mite axe in all other respects so i'm reluctant to mess with pickup height. doesn't mean i'm unwilling if that's what it takes . . .

i searched "sustain" before posting and saw references to compressors; maybe that's the direction i need to go.

your comments and suggestions are appreciated! many thanks, eljayski

I know very little of the guitars but on bass, there is a lot more sustain than most basses have in my experience--even though they are neck through, which is a good way to enhance the sound but it can actually hurt sustain in some cases. One time I was having a weird problem with sustain on my low E string though and it turned out the pickup was too close. It was a Toaster with those powerful alnico magnets. After backing all the pickups off so they were about the same distance from the strings the sound really perked up. Also, according to my guitar tech, the neck pickup is the most likely culprit as it is pulling on one of the most flexible parts of the string compared to the middle/bridge pickups.

Considering the 360 has a tailpiece and the LP and H150 have a stop bar this doesn't surprise me. Each type of guitar construction (ie. bolt neck, set neck, neck through, semi-hollow, hollow, etc.) along with hardware differences make for different sustain. I do emphasize different. More isn't necessarilly better. It depends on the song and what you are going for. John and George didn't get alot of sustain from their Epi Casinos (hollow bodies with trapeze tailpieces) but the songs they used them on sounded great. Most Jazz guitars don't have alot of sustain. I'm sure you can add sustain with an effect pedal if that is what you are going for.

A Rick bass should sustain very well without much tweaking.
Although there's room for improvement there, but that would probably kill the rick tone.

My 360 has good sustain, not LP territory though. It isn't one after all, it's a rick.
It has a dead straight neck and a decent set of 13's on it.
Off course the toasters do not deliver much gain, unlike the Gibson HB's.
This could also account for a subjective feeling of less sustain.

Most Jazz guitars don't have alot of sustain.

It' my opinion that the harder you pluck the strings on a jazzbox, the less they wil (subjectively) sustain, because of the sudden volume drop and midrange peak.
I can get an enjoyable sustain out of my Emperor. Good enough for blues.
Now, a banjo, THAT will not sustain

I'm going to venture that this is why people often say 'you can't play lead on a Rick'. I've never had a Rick with great sustain. I only have vintage ones currently and have always favoured accent vibratos, but I do play a lot of lead in my band. I use a compressor for leads that require a hotter sound and more sustain, but I'm happy with it.
I believe it's the nature of the design, but curious what others might say.

Anyone who says "You can't play ___ with a ___" dosen't know what they're talking about.

Bump up the mids on your amp; you'll get more sustain. Different types of guitars require different settings than others to get the most out of them, including more sustain.

If you're playing with 7.4K toasters you're not going to get as much sustain either. All of my Ricks have either 12K toasters or overwound 14K toaster p/ups in the bridge positions for better sustain.

Spike- wrote:Anyone who says "You can't play ___ with a ___" dosen't know what they're talking about.

+1!

doctorwho wrote:

Spike- wrote:Anyone who says "You can't play ___ with a ___" dosen't know what they're talking about.

+1!

Hmmm...you can't play bass on a mandolin...

eljayski wrote:my ric 360 has less sustain than my gibsons and heritages played thru the same rig: tweed+equalizer+a little reverb.

the pulloffs and slides that work well for me on my lester and heritage h150 are anemic on my 360. makes me sound like a hack! (which i am !!! )

does this square with anybody else's experience?

ric has dealer set up, from willcutt, and is dyn-O-mite axe in all other respects so i'm reluctant to mess with pickup height. doesn't mean i'm unwilling if that's what it takes . . .

i searched "sustain" before posting and saw references to compressors; maybe that's the direction i need to go.

your comments and suggestions are appreciated! many thanks, eljayski

No big surprise to me.

I was recording some guitar leads in harmony this weekend, going for a Steely Dan sound. Since I don't have a Tele, I used a Mustang and a Riviera. The Riviera out-sustained the Mustang by a very noticeable difference! So who knows?

What I want to know is... you have 13's on a 360??? Wow, that must have required some adjustment! Tell me 'bout that!!!

eljayski wrote:my ric 360 has less sustain than my gibsons and heritages played thru the same rig: tweed+equalizer+a little reverb.

Seems to me, you've just discovered the difference between single coil and double coil pickups.

I'm sorry, they're not 13's is this set:

EXL145 Heavy Plain 3rd 12-54
http://store.daddario.com/category/1458 ... _3rd_12-54

I didn't like the 13's (or other set of 12's) because of the wound G.
I like the G to sound like a plain string.

No serious adjustments needed whatsoever, even string bending works fine - for a rick - (yet another myth)
Sustain is normal, the tone is not! OMG pure heaven.

Maple guitars typically have less sustain and more twang and snap. Also, a solid body LP for example is going to sustain for weeks, it's kind of what they do. Different sound.

That said, i get good sustain out of my ric. Just watch the setup and make sure everything is ringing true.

A Rick 650 with its neck-through constrution and hardtail bridge has more sustain than their other models IMO.

I play both my Ric 360's - 6 & 12 String Guitars thru Vox AC15CC1X with Alnico Blue Spkr. & can dial in nice Sutain. My Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb not so much.

Might be the Amp?

Glenn