Rickenbacker 360/12 WB

We all know and love the standard features, which have been the same forever, Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! My 1983 model goes one step further and has the checkerboard binding on the front.

Not all "high gain" pickups are created equal! My neck pickup had the same overabundance of #44 wire as most do, but the bridge pickup has only @7kohms, like a vintage. When you measure the bridge pickup on a vintage Rick, make sure you measure the hot lead upstream of the inline capacitor which is one of the vital components of the real Rick sound. Regarding the neck pickup, high gains can sound muddy. So I took mine off, took it apart, and unwound it from its original @14kohms to @8kohms. I didn't back all the way off to the @7.4kohms of the vintage reissues, as on mine, with the 24 fret neck, the pickup is closer to the bridge than a true vintage reissue with 21 frets, and picks up a tad more treble to begin with. When I put it back in after carefully reassembling it, it was magic on earth. Formerly, it was almost unblendable with the bridge pickup, and now I can get everything from classic Rick tones to, because of the placement of the neck pickup being roughly where a soundhole on an acoustic is, almost quasi-acoustic tones to boot.

UNLESS YOU ARE GOOD WITH ELECTRONICS AND/OR SMALL TEDIOUS WORK, DO NOT MESS WITH PICKUPS. YOU CAN RUIN THEM BEFORE YOU KNOW IT. I HAVE 30 YEARS EXPERIENCE OF SUCH.

It's a Rick. Looks great. The lacquer was sprayed a tad thick on the front, so it has some stress cracks in the finish. But they add character.

I've played this guitar everywhere from church to biker bars. By being careful with your string guages and taking the proper time to wind the ends of the strings properly around the tuner shafts and seat them properly, it will stay in tune, even with everything against it: usual maple hollowbody instead of solid, R tailpiece instead of stud tailpiece, original bridge with 6 sections instead of the new 12, and precariously balanced on 4 bridge screws on a plate instead of directly into the guitar, and Klusons when Klusons were still real, not the new ones with the refinements of manufacturing. OK, a 9. I have had to touch it up in the middle of a set occasionally when the spots heat it up.

Rick? Customer support? Warranty? Gentlemen do not talk about such. It's not nice. A Rick either lasts forever or it doesn't make it through the first gig. George's has lasted forever. So has mine.

I'm especially fond of it because after I had hoarded cash during 1989 in order to pay for my divorce before my X got it all, it ended up being $750 less than I thought. So I called Tom and asked him to find one for me. This is not BS; this is real: the next day he called me and said it just walked in off the street in trade as the guy didn't play it, and traded it for a Les Paul. I'm the second owner and only guy whose's ever played it a significant amount. Too bad the next guy won't be able to say the same about my X!

PS - I'm remarried to a lovely woman who appreciates my guitars almost as much as she does me.

Made in the USA in February 1990. It is a 12-string semi-hollowbody guitar with a solid top, it has the Old Body style (same as the 330), a binding at the back and at the front, and on the slash hole. The controls are the classic Rickenbacker controls : two volumes, two tones and a fith control knob. The two pickups were made by Rickenbacker, they are high-gains (single coils). The electronic is entirely passive.
The body is finished in Jetglo (black) and I cannot determine the woods used. I guess they are the usual woods used for 330s guitars. The bridge is the classic Rickenbacker bridge, and the guitar has a R tailpiece. The tuners are made by Schaller. THe neck is the classic Rickenbacker neck. Included with the guitar were the case and a Rick-o-sound.

I think this is the perfect guitar, one of the best electric 12 strings in the world. I can use it to play all that I used to play on the acoustic 6 strings or 12 strings, which is incredible... I can also play some of the stuff that I normally play on an electric 6 string. This would not be possible on most 12 strings, mind you. I use it to play songs from the Smiths, Suede, Leonard Cohen, Dylan, the Beach Boys, Phil Spector, Miossec, Dominique A etc.
The pickups are a bit noisy, but this can be expected from Rick pickups. The sound is obviously very bright on the bridge pickup, but I love the neck pickup sound as well, as it is very muted, round and fits many darker songs: the range of sounds I can get through a Fender 85 is incredible - I cannot wait to use it on a better amp. As with most Rickenbackers, it sounds better with a compression though.

I only wish there were three pickups and the neck was a Rickenbacker humbucker: the guitar would be so much more versatile... A friend of mine did that to his 360/12 and it has a great sound, ranging from Gibson 335 12 strings to Rickenbacker 370/12

I bought it second hand but it is very well adjusted - it was damaged during the shipping, but this is another story...

The guitar is 12 years old and if it hadn't been damaged during the shipping it would seem like new!

Haven't had to deal with Rick

I like it much more than any other 12 strings I have ever had, electric or acoustic. THere is no guitar that compares to it! If it were lost I would replace it, or buy a Rickenbacker 381/12.
Contrary to what most people say, this guitar is quite versatile, if you know how to use the fifth knob, which I reckon is a bit tricky first.