Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hey Rickenfreaks:

Something strange has happened to me and I'm wondering if any of you have had a similar experience. About six months ago, I replaced the hi gain pickups with scatterwounds on both my 360/6 and my 360/12. I have noticed that, since the change, I am not drawn to play my 360/6 as much as I used to be. No change in the 12 string playing frequency.

Any theories about what is happening in the tone center of my brain? Perhaps I expected too much?

Geoffrey: I swapped out high gains for toasters, humbucker/toaster and humbucker/toaster/high gain combinations in my 350.

The only way to see if your recent experiment is responsible for your difference in guitar preference is to get another 360 with high gains and see which one you choose more often.

Another thing you could try is to switch the string type on the 360 to see if it gives you a different sound.

You probably have become accustomed to the high gain sound with the 360. Just in passing, to my ears the high gains are more sensitive pickups with jangle too and that may be something that you did not fully appreciate until now. It may be that the greater sensitivity is something that suited you picking style that I have noted in your recordings you have on your site. The attack on the high gains is certainly different.

I would have your tone center a little lower, about ear level. By the way, I challenge you to be able to identify the difference in sound on an online test. LOL.

That pic is making me. . . .greedy. POTR is expecting a black 660/12 with my name on it. Mike Parks has some in that were ordered around the same time. So theoretically, the call should be coming soon. . . .


I personally have really grown to love the high-gain sound. . . it'll be interesting to see what happens with a set of toasters in the house.

Jeffrey, if you decide to switch back to the hi-gains i will gladly buy your scatterwound toasters. I love 'em. I just acquired a 2001 620 in fireglo, similar to the one in your photo. I came with the vintage scatterwound toasters. I'm about to get a 610 FG that has hi-gains so I want to switch those to toasters as well.

I went through something similar when I swapped hi-gains for toasters in my 330.

I didn't want to screw up my 330 so I took it to a local guy for installation. After he did the work, he asked me to listen to it in the shop before he let it go. He very politely asked if it was *supposed* to sound like that, and offered to re-install the hi-gains for free if I wanted!

Toasters sound VERY different to ears accustomed to humbuckers and f*nd*r single coils. At least they did mine. Kind of vanilla at first. This is an awful attempt as a description, but I think of 'other' pickups as being deeper but narrower in tone. Toasters are a bit shallower but broader. But then you get used to the sound, and there's nothing quite like it. I love em now!

But I'd still like to have a hi-gains 330 as well!

Perhpas you play the 12 string with toasters because it's a unique sound unduplicated by your other guitars. Looks like you've got a number of 6 strings, so your ears may not have adjusted yet to the sound of the toasters yet on the sixer.

If you're plugging in that LP sitting next to you right after you play the Ric with toasters - well, that's a HUGE transition. If I have my amp set to play either the 325V63 or 360V64 and then grab my ES335, the whole room shakes. You have to really crank the amp up for toasters.

No Jeff, I don't think that anything happened to the tone center of your brain. But I *do* think that you need to get rid of some of those extra (perhaps unplayed?) guitars behind you. You could throw one my way, in fact.

BTW, I too have downloaded some of your sound files. Great music!!

Ooops! I hope that last post of mine doesn't get RIAA on my tail!

James...I have been dumping some gear lately. My wife had her eyes on the Seafoam Green Strat (it has Abagail Ibarra wound pickups!), so I made it hers, permanently. I donated the DeArmond Starfire to my church after I purchased a Gibson ES-335 earlier this summer. I gave my son a Hamer super strat so that he has an extra guitar for his buddies to play when they come over.

Thanks for listening to my music. It is free for all. I have a day job that pays the bills. Music is my passion, not my work:-)