Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I took two snapshots of my Rics and after looking them over it became obvious to me that the pointy horned 330 is far more stunning visually than the rounded 360.





- Does anyone prefer the rounded look?

Tom, I like them both as they remind me of different eras. I especially remember when George Harrison moved to the rounded horn on his 360/12. Also, a perfect excuse to buy two models, a concept which already seems familiar to you.

I prefer the pointed horns. I never did like my 1964 360/12 NS. It played extremely well. I just could not get along with the way it looked.

admin wrote:Also, a perfect excuse to buy two models.

Yeah, Ric got an extra couple of thousand out of me because of the different horns. I'm sure others have succumbed to the different horns temptation, too.
I like the round, but I do think the pointy Ric is a must have in anyone's guitar collection.

Round and pointy are both cool but I definitely prefer straight cable to coiled!

I like pointy more than rounded...

cassius987 wrote:I definitely prefer straight cable to coiled!

Come on, there's an incredible sixty feet of cable in those two pictures and it only looks like about four feet! Those coil cables stay short until you want them to be long. That's a nice advantage.

Pointy over rounded
Coil over straight

Tommy I used to used coiled cables back in the 60's. The only disadvantage is that mine got noisy over time as the insulation and shielding flexed. I have no idea why. That caused me to change to 25 ft Belden straight cables. I still love the look and versatility of the coiled cables however. So I am on the fence on that question.

Rounded horns. Straight cable.

Pointy horns.
Straight cables.

To-MAY-toe... To-MAH-toe

For some reason.. I've gravitated to the pointy horns.

I like the history of Rickenbacker. Capri.. 325 /( 350 ) .. 330

yes.. VERY early on the rounded horns too became an early part of RIC history.. and continues to this day.. so it's not like the 360 NS isn't a card carrying member of RIC History..

but for some reason..

the pointy horns say "RIC" to me..

Yeah, I thought the idea of coiled cables was great... back before I understood electronics, and was surprised by the difference in sound. Of course, you can (and will) have the same effect with long straight cables.

The thing is, with cables, you have 2 conductors running side by side. This creates a distributed capacitance along the cable. The longer the cable the higher the capacitance. The higher the capacitance, the more high frequency loss you get. Sorry that's physics, it's just how the universe works.

Now coiled cables are always longer than a straight cable. Even when stretched to the maximum length, the coiling will add cable length (and the associated capacitance/high frequency loss). So, while coiled cables are great for allowing a lot more length in a smaller space, you will get some loss of high frequency tone.

The moral? Use high quality cables of the shortest length possible. Even better, go wireless since there's almost no cable at all. Now, if only I could find a stereo wireless setup so I can run Rick-O-Sound.

Oops, sorry for letting my techno-nerd side out...

I prefer deluxe over standard... I like both 360 O.S. and the "new" rounded 360.

cjj wrote:The longer the cable the higher the capacitance. The higher the capacitance, the more high frequency loss you get. Sorry that's physics,

Is there ever a case where low end frequencies are lost? (I am a treble junkie.)

Speaking of physics, the pointy horns add more "frequencies" to Rics. I think I read that here at this forum. More air in the body of the guitar, pointy horns create a different (AND BETTER!) sound.

Tommy wrote:

cassius987 wrote:I definitely prefer straight cable to coiled!

Come on, there's an incredible sixty feet of cable in those two pictures and it only looks like about four feet!

My point exactly!