advice please rickenbacker 330

marktheharp

hi all, my mate has 330 and he wants the guitar to sound a bit fuller ? Is there any off the shelf pickups or is it a custom pickup (would prob give Ash a shout at Oil City )
or is it not cost effective ,if so is he is better keeping as is?
he currently gigs with it and a Korean epi les Paul,which he likes with humbuckers!
he fancies a firebird type guitar ,so would this be better for him and keep the rickenbacker for recording etc.
apologies for waffling on :-)
all comments and advice most welcome .
cheers Mark .

dogload

How old is his 330? If it is fairly recent it should have the high output pickups with the mushroom shaped hex screws. I find that those on my 360 are very full sounding anyway and are more than capable of doing thick, rocky and distorted sounds. The old 'Rickenbackers only have one sound' thing again!

If he has the older 'toaster' style pickups, then he should swap them with my more modern high output ones! Only joking. I would advocate leaving the Rickenbacker alone and using another guitar for the tones he feels he cannot get. If he mucks around with it, it won't sound like a Ric. 

Just have a look at Kevin Parker from Tame Impala- he gets some ridiculous fat sounds.

dogload

Oh, pedals help as well of course.

badlydrawnbanjo

I was watching a Jools Holland Oasis special from around 2000 on YouTube last night and Noel Gallagher's getting quite a fat sound from a maple glow 330. 

ICBM

If you can't get a full sound out of a Rick with the high-gain pickups the problem is probably not in the guitar.

If you really want it to be thicker-sounding you can get Rickenbacker humbuckers which are a drop-in fit on the guitar - almost nothing else is, and I would definitely not advise modifying the woodwork. They're quite difficult to get and expensive though.

Any other replacement pickups will need to be custom-made by someone who hasn't been nobbled by RIC's legal eagles, since they've trademarked the size and shape of the pickups and actively go after copiers.

marktheharp

Thankyou all, very good comments :-)
gonna recommend he tries bad monkey pedal and failing that....
no harm in him trying a firebird type guitar or epi dot with a pickup swap?
thanks again guys
cheers Mark .

ICBM

An Epi Dot will be much fuller-sounding than a Firebird. Firebirds are brighter than Ricks (with high-gain pickups), if anything.

marktheharp

thanks ICBM and others :-)
he is gonna leave ric as it is
and get another guitar ,when he gets some funds together ?
thanks again everyone .....
cheers Mark.