Rickenbacker 101

chrisj1602

Revolting1 said:

Do any Ric  12 string bridges allow accurate intonation adjustment?

Yes, there is a 12 saddle bridge available.

Wazmeister

chrisj1602 said:

Revolting1 said:

Do any Ric  12 string bridges allow accurate intonation adjustment?

Yes, there is a 12 saddle bridge available.

Chris is bang on, and they make a huge difference.

Seziertisch

Revolting1 said:

Do any Ric  12 string bridges allow accurate intonation adjustment?

There is the Rick one, which is essentially the same dodgy design as the standard Rick 6-string bridge.

Otherwise, Winfield Vintage do one with an ABM Müller 12-saddle bridge. Officially it is intended for the wider 660 fingerboard but I have one on a 360 and it works great.

TheBigDipper

This thread has reminded me that my 330/12 (Jetglo) hasn't been out of the case for 6 months. I've been playing lots of acoustic and it needed new strings when I last used it. So......  

scarry67

I, too, am preparing for the dark adventure that is changing strings on a Rik 12 string. I think it's been a year since last time. Whether 6 or 12, I've found that some kind of exaggerated compression really helps and yes, they're not naturally trebly unlike many recorded examples from Buck & Marr et al. Whatever their "quirks", I still find them the easiest on the eye of all electrics.

PhilKing

I have to do it on my 370-12, which I've been putting off for a long time, since it's such a pain in the arse to do. I appreciate that it keeps the headstock smaller, but it would be so much easier if it was like my Fender Electric XII.

NervousJohn

Revolting1 said:

Do any Ric  12 string bridges allow accurate intonation adjustment?

My personal experience is you really don’t need to bother. If you use reasonable quality strings (own brand Ric for me) the intonation between the octave strings is pretty much exact.

Plus the added mass of the big saddles help sustain. 

Revolting1

What's the concensus for 12 string electric; same size as 6 string or lighter?

 

ICBM

Revolting1 said:

What's the concensus for 12 string electric; same size as 6 string or lighter?

String gauge?

I always use the standard Rickenbacker 12-string set (10 gauge) - they're compressed-wound/rolled-wound, and in my opinion are a big part of the proper sound.

On 6-strings I don't like anything lighter than 11s, and I think they need a wound 3rd string, especially with the Toaster pickups - the G sounds really clangy otherwise.

Revolting1

ICBM said:

Revolting1 said:

What's the concensus for 12 string electric; same size as 6 string or lighter?

String gauge?

I always use the standard Rickenbacker 12-string set (10 gauge) - they're compressed-wound/rolled-wound, and in my opinion are a big part of the proper sound.

On 6-strings I don't like anything lighter than 11s, and I think they need a wound 3rd string, especially with the Toaster pickups - the G sounds really clangy otherwise.

Yes gauge,eg I'm happy with 12/54 6 string 10/52 12 string acoustic beause I do a lot of string bends.

   I use  10/52 for my 6 string electrics, fender or gibson scales....

   Anyone go lighter than 10s on Ric 12 strings?

 

Seziertisch

NervousJohn said:

Revolting1 said:

Do any Ric  12 string bridges allow accurate intonation adjustment?

My personal experience is you really don’t need to bother. If you use reasonable quality strings (own brand Ric for me) the intonation between the octave strings is pretty much exact.

Plus the added mass of the big saddles help sustain. 

I only own one Rick - a 360/12 - but I found the 12-saddle bridge to make a big difference intonation-wise.

I have swapped the order of the string pairs but even before I did that I found it to make a big difference. Though you are right, the 6-saddle bridge, does sound better.

The bridge in this photo is an ABM one, but you can see that for some pairs they are quite close but for others the difference for the correct intonation point is quite a bit. The strings are Curt Mangan strings from Pick of the Ricks https://www.dropbox.com/s/8a8ankr501v47dh/Photo%2022-04-2020%2C%2020%2015%2014.jpg?dl=0

thatguyoverthere

I bought a Rickenbacker 360 a few months ago. Found it crazy cheap, and figured if I was't into it I could easily flip it again for the same price. Turns out I'm into it, so it's staying. Does something different to my Fenders, love the woody hollow body character.

The neck does take some time to adapt to though, string spacing is pretty narrow. It also feels different since the neck is meant to be dead straight (as recommended by Rickenbacker), but with a bit of time noodling and tweaking, you adapt and it becomes easier to play. Used to go out of tune frequently too, but seems it's inherent to the bridge design and you simply need to get it perfectly flat for it to remain stable. Looks like that TOM bridge would resolve that issue.

Only recording I have so far is when I did a Beach Boys cover with it. You can see I struggle with the neck just a touch...

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B_PsuIQluLI/