Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

i've finally joined the ranks of the ric 12-str owners with my new 330! from wildwood:



i'm wondering about the set up. the octaves are not well intonated. the action looks nice and low but doesn't play as well as it looks like it should. bar chords aren't clean. i have a 12-str. telecaster conversion and its setup is much better.

this is not a rant. the guitar came to me today without a pre-delivery set up. WW will set it up for me for free and i'll get that done at an early convenience.

fwiw, my 4003, from WW, needed a post-delivery setup while the 360 and 381, from willcutts, were perfect out of the case. i think that's just a difference in the way the two dealers do business.

what i hope is that the 330's setup can be improved, noticeably. do i have reason for optimism?

your comments are most welcome. thank you, eljayski

There's a Roger McGuinn DVD available in a lot of places like Amazon & E-bay and on it he shows some of his 12-string set-up tricks. They work well. You might try that for starters. It might even be on YouTube.

Larry,

All of those problems you described sound like issues that would be taken care of by a knowledgeable luthier/tech familiar with Rickenbackers. I'm sure there are other members of the forum who can tell you precisely what needs to be done to your guitar to make it right, but, unless you want to do the work yourself, I think your first step will be finding a qualified tech. You could send it back to WW, but you might find it easier to have someone local do the job.

Just my two cents. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to get that guitar set up right for your playing style.

Robert

thank you both for your replies. i neglected to mention that i live only about 75 minutes from WW, so getting a setup will not be a big strain. back to playing!

Congratulations! My 360/12C63 came to me with numerous problems and symptoms as you describe. I played it for a year like that and finally about a month ago found a pro that I trusted to properly set up the guitar. He adjusted the truss rods, then adjusted the bridge with a Conn Strobotuner, strung her up with a fresh set of Ric strings, all while I watched. The result was like playing a different guitar. The bell-like chime, the unbelievable ease of play, all the attributes Ric 12's are famous for were there.

Now I can't stop playing my Ric.

While I was fortunate not to have to deal with intonation issues, nevertheless, after a while I noticed that something needed to be changed. I bought an 18 inch steel ruler at an office supply store, and sure enough; the neck on my 360 had something of a very slight bow. Not having anyone I trusted nearby to take care of my Rick, I did it myself. It isn't difficult, and you probably won't break your guitar. I took my cues from that Roger McGuinn DVD.
JimK

Let Wild Wood set the guitar up for you; if the service is free and they know what's up, yo shoulod be chiming away on that guitar in no time.

paologregorio wrote:Let Wild Wood set the guitar up for you; if the service is free and they know what's up, you should be chiming away on that guitar in no time.

I agree 100% with your assessment Paul (and I fixed your typos in the embedded quote)

got a setup at wildwood earlier today. made a tremendous improvement, as i hoped it would!

eljayski wrote:got a setup at wildwood earlier today. made a tremendous improvement, as i hoped it would!

That's good to hear!

Glad things are working out for you, Larry! Keep us posted on how things go.

Sounds like your problems are solved, though should you become dissatisfied with the intonaiton, there's always the potential to swap out the 6 saddle bridge for a replacement 12-saddle bridge. Opinions do vary on this - some find it enables a worthwhile improvement with more precise intonation, some have no issue with the intonation using the stock 6-saddle bridge and find the 12-saddle unnessary, and some even prefer the 6-saddle to the 12-saddle, believing either that the 12 ever-so-slightly alters the sound unfavorably or that slight departures in intonation are part of "the sound" and actually help a 12-string Rick sound like a 12-string Rick... I have a 12-saddle bridge on one of my four 12-string Ricks and the stock 6-saddle bridge on my other three (with a "spare" 12-saddle bridge in the case of one of 'em that I"ll eventually have installed...) It does seem to enable more accurate intonation, though I'm not overly sensitive to the difference...