Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi guys!
I am the proud owner and player of a 360/12 in mapleglow and have two questions:
1) I would like to change strings to 9s in order to relief the tension on the neck
and to make for easier playing.
Anybody using 9s ?

2) Thinking of getting toaster pups :
Is there a big (noticable) tone difference to the regulat pickups ?

Thanks in advance,
Cheers C.J.

I fitted 9s to a 360/12 I had years ago for similar reasons..
It worked fine and the hi-gains still provided plenty of torque...

There is a vast difference between Toasters and Hi-gains. You will get a substantially clearer sound with them, however with the lighter strings it may be too much to get used to so quickly..

Just try the lighter strings first and see how you go..


And Welcome!!

Eden.

Welcome Claus!

And I agree with everything Eden says, though I'm disillusioned that a great 12-string bass player such as him had to revert to 9s to play 12-string guitar. I was under the impression that those mitts of his could fret shipping cable tuned to pitch!

It depends how many panadol I've had....

Eden.

Thanks guys for the advise!
I'll be putting on the 9s and see how it goes and hold off getting the toasters.
Usin 10s all my life on all guitars I recently just to check it out I put 9s
on my Les Paul and it worked out fine - no loss in tone at all.
My Tele came with 9s and is just great too. I begin to wonder about
the myth about heavy strings.
Cheers,
C.J.

String gauge vs tone is all about an individuals playing method and how heavy handed you are..
And that's about it...

Eden.

weemac wrote:String gauge vs tone is all about an individuals playing method and how heavy handed you are..
And that's about it...

Eden.

That's what I actually always believed. Clapton is said to use 9s and Harrison used a light guage
on his Ric. Thanks for confirming my belief , it is great to hear from someone who knows
what he is talking about!
C.J.

dc3c46 wrote:it is great to hear from someone who knows
what he is talking about!
C.J.

I never said that....

Eden.

By all means, give it a shot and see what you think. As mentioned, its a matter of preference, style, and technique.

I'll still give you my two cents, though. Note that I avidly reject the whole "heavier is better" thing, in general. (Page, Beck, Hendrix, Gibbons, Van Halen - all guys who could have been somebody if they'd just sucked it up, learned to play 12's, and had some "tone". )

I've settled into a place where I mostly run 9s on Fenders and 10s on Gibsons, but sometimes drop to 8s on either. I tend to stick with 10s on Ricks (but have dabbled with 11s recently). As an experiment, I strung my 330 with 9s a while back and just wasn't at all happy with it My explanation (to myself) was that the 9s just didn't have the energy to get the wood moving. Being semi-hollow/semi-acoustic, that's a decent part of the character of the model/series - to me, at least. Made sense to me, anyway since acoustics tend to run heavier gauges, and I do prefer 12s on my Gretsch.

Do what works for you, though. For the price of a set of strings, you'll know whether you like it or not.

To ease my fingers, I also use 9's. I assemble a custom set of singles from D'Addario. 9 - 9; 11 1/2 - 11 1/2; 17w or 18w - 8; 24w - 10; 32w - 14; 42w - 22w. I also filed a custom offset bridge saddle for the low E string so that the low E intonates off the back of the saddle and the octave intonates off the front of the saddle. Perfect intonation for a 6-saddle bridge using a wound octave string. Finally, I purchased a set of stamped nickel mandolin bushings and trimed the collars to fit the horizontal slotted tuning posts so the tuners tune more smoothly. It passes the "five-foot" test, meaning you can't tell they have been installed.