Rickenbacker 360

My Rick was built in March '09
Mapleglo Finish
2 Hi Gain P.U.
rosewood fingerboard
5 control layout (2-V 2-T, 1 Blend)
pickup selector
24 frets
maple body
maple neck
Schaller tuners
R tailpiece
bound body and neck
dual truss rods
standard jack
stereo Ric-0-Sound jack
standard molded case
triangle fretmarkers
6 saddle bridge

What can you say about the sound? It's a Rickenbacker.
It has that famous chimey, jingle-jangle. Bright and alive.
Nothing quite sounds like a Rick. I play thru a Fender Champion
30 DSP. I play blues and rock, but, you can play anything on this guitar.

My Rick was set up perfectly from the factory. I didn't have to do anything, just take it out and plug it in. No flaws, or blemishes. It has that beautiful mapleglo finish. The Chrome\Nickel hardware shines. Fast, easy to play neck, I like the triangle fretmarkers. Look sharp. All controls, pick-ups, switches work great.

This guitar is built like a tank. Solid as a rock. Rickenbacker is a family owned and operated company that takes pride in their works of art. They have been builting first class instruments for 78 years. They are America's best guitar company. This guitar is built to last, will probably outlast me. The Mapleglo finish is terrific, it along with their Fireglo finish helped put the company on the map. 2 Outstanding colors. I would replace if stolen, it's not leaving my sight.

I have contacted the company by phone and email several times for general questions and have always found them, friendly, helpful and eager to satisfy. The warranty is the standard "long as you own the guitar" contract.I would have to search around, I would think, to get repairs done, only a couple of dealers in this state.

I have always wanted to own a Rickenbacker, since I first saw John Lennon play one on Ed Sullivan in '64. I have been playing guitar since then. I have Fender, Gretsch, Epiphone, Phantom guitars (8 in all). This Rickenbacker is something special. Rickenbacker is a special American company. They build beautiful looking and sounding instruments. When guitar companies are having their guitars built overseas to save a buck. Rickenbacker keeps turning out theirs from Santa Ana-California, USA. I'm so proud to own one.
By the way, my next purchase will be a 330 in Fireglo.

1993 Fireglow, 2 volume, 2 tone, 1 blend. 2 outputs, one standard and one "Ric-o-sound" stereo output. Schaller tuners, double truss rod. This is one stunningly beautiful guitar, people who aren't into guitars gasp when I crack the case open. Strats and Les Pauls don't have quite the same impact.

It has a unique sound, its a big part of the appeal. You want chime and jangle, you need a Rickenbacker. Its one of the most tonally complex electric guitars I've ever played. Harmonically rich, just gorgeous clean sound but also sounds fantastic overdriven.

This is my second Rickenbacker, both had intonation problems. On both guitars I have removed the springs behind the low E and the G string because I couldn't get the saddle back far enough to intone the string properly. Before that I was constantly retuning and never feeling like it was tuned properly. Very annoying. The action is slick all the way up the neck, very very sweet playing guitar, although the neck not very wide.

It feels solid, its just so beautiful that I don't really want it to get into potentially damaging situations with drunk people. That's what Squiers are for.

nice website, always bought older and used, never thought of calling them up

Been playing for over 30 years. I sold my 330 a few years ago and had seller's remorse since. This 360 came my way this week and I will never let it go. Right now I've got a Reverend Manta, Gibson SG, Tele 52 Reissue, Tokai Strat, Gretsch 5120, and now the Ric 360. If I could only keep one, this would be it. I have a deep emotional attachment to this guitar, I think my wife suspects something...

2002 360 - with the standard high gain PUs, 24 fret. has ric-o-sound
( don't use it) , German Shallers, - the whole thing is stock other than a pro set-up years ago. Sometimes I miss a bigsby but I'd never change this

Here is how you make it sound rating a "6 or 7 " - plug it into some boutique Klon, Fulltone, analogman pedals than to an AC15, AC30, DC30, Lightning, Twin, marshall, bassman, mesa, Dr Z or anything else rated at more than about 10 watts RMS. With these amps in small clubs you get the volume up to maybe "3" at best - then you wonder " where is the magic Ric tone?

Hear is how you make it sound rating at "10" ( the way I eventually learned to find the magic ) - plug it directly into a non master volume 7.5 watt EL84 amp and turn the amp up to 3/4 full volume - then use the guitar volume knobs - then you smile.

This guitar moved me away from strats, teles, LPs and aeverything else once I figured this out. Also pedals are silly with a ric. they give pre-amp distortion ( no magic ) - but at < 10 watts you get the power tube saturation - then you get the roar and the wonderful ringing tone. Then you sell your solid bodies and matchless amps and silly $400 pedals. This is how it went with me. Those big amps would be ok for outdoors or big halls I guess. I have played 40 yrs and owned too many guitars and played big amps for WAY too long. The 360 taught me that guitar straight to amp with no pedals and using guitar tone and volume knobs is the way to go. I play in a cover band - lots of campy dance stuff people love - 60s R+B, poprock, AC/DC, beatles , maroon 5 , etc - My favorite moment is when a 20-30 y/o LP, strat,marshall player hears that ric though an amp turned up and their jaw drops... ALL kinds of music sounds just awesome.

There was a transition period of moving from years of rosewood, ebony and maple boards to the laminated board of the 360 but and after a few months I loved it. Obviously rics are rhythm monsters but lead playing grew on me and the bends are smooth ( even compared to old brazilian boards). Intonation is dead on - and tuning stability is absolutely the best of any guitar I have owned - which is wierd - no locking tuners. lubricating the nut and saddles does make a difference. For me it plays better with the bridge cover off - better right hand muting and position. Another wierd thing happened with the 360 - I found myself using thinner picks ( 0.60 mm ) - they just work right. There is maybe one thing I might change - I really liked the slightly wider neck width on my 660 that I had 10 years ago. I think the Carl Wilson model had this wider neck - would be fun to try it. Also I'm not sure the strap locks are needed - but no big deal. Another big deal is how nice 360s lay on your shoulders - they just feel right. 4 hours is ok with these - I don't miss those 8-10 pound solid bodies

No problems - I do bring a back-up - strings start to break after 3 weeks on teles and strats - longer on the ric.

I don't know.

I am thrilled with it. It is a refreshing 3 dimensional tone compared to years of those other typical guitars and amps. I get lots of positive comments. The hi gain PUs are part of the deal. My 660 had the vintage toasters - toasters are nice and jangly - but you can never get the growl - I sold my 660 - this was an eye catcher tho - really held value.
The only tone that comes close to making me this happy are Casinos. - the P90s + true hollowbody does growl like a ric - but you don't get that ringing sound with a casino. There is nothing like the sound of a low output amp turned up and unmiked - and this is it. The amp that works right for me is an English Gibson GA15 - 3 simple knobs ( in triode - 7.5 watt mode ) it's interesting - paid $400 for this used about 7 years ago ( out of production)- not handwired - NOT "boutique" and I have sold my bad cat, lightning and will probably let my old AC15 go too. Probably other 5-10 watt amps would be right - but probably needs to be an EL84 amp.

2 pickups

fireglo finish

24 frets

typical rick 360

I bought this 1989 Rick on ebay about 5 years ago. Both pickups were shot and did not work. The finish was cracked and chipping all over the guitar. A real relic that had been played hard its whole life for sure.

I tried every pickup Rickenbacker had to offer and settled on a Rick humbucker in the bridge position and a Rick toaster in the neck position. I use the stereo "Rickosound" out. The neck (toaster)pickup goes into a modern Orange ad30 head and the Bridge (humbucker)pickup goes to a vintage Sound City 50 plus head, then both heads go out to a stereo wired 4x12 Orange cab. Its all power! sounds amazing! Everything from Metal to Country and all the rest.

i play in a band that is kinda hard to describe -floyd/jesus lizard-just simple dynamic rock music.(www.myspace.com/thepoleslive)

This guitar is just a joy to play. Its pretty much the only guitar i can play now. Im in love. head over heals. But it was not love at first sight or play, it took time. Slowly building a relationship. It took me a long time to fall for this guitar, i owned it about a year before she started really sinking her teeth into me.

The action on the guitar is so low and easy to play its silly. No buzz. No dead freats. perfect tone on every string and every fret all the way up the neck, all 24 frets.

As i stated this guitar was pretty beat up when i received it. finish cracking all over the body. Large spots of missing finish. pickguard cracking and broken in spots. That's what i love about her! She's not a pretty girl. She's a work horse.

I never adjusted the neck or the bridge. just installed new pickups due to the old ones being shot.

like i said before i tried all of Rickenbacker's pickups ( high gains, toasters, humbuckers). I put a humbucker in the bridge and a toaster in the neck. A great combo i would highly recommend for any Rick owner. Because of the Rickosound, i get the hi-gain of the humbucker (with no squeal) and the power and fullness of a single coil mixed together for unbelievable stereo rock tone!

Its addicting i can't get enough of this set up.

This guitar came to me looking seriously abused. Somebody obviously treated this guitar very badly. Though it is 20 years old, it easily looks twice that age. After changing the pickups (which i did myself) i have never had a problem out of her. A rock solid guitar.

no need

A Rickenbacker is an aquired taste. If your used to playing Fenders and Gibsons it will take time get used to the Ricks ways but once you get past the learning curve its all gravy! These are quality made solid guitars with thier own charm and charisma. Try one but give it time grow on you.

USA made, fireglo finish, 24 frets, stock passive pickups, grover tuners, skb hardcase.
Very well finished guitar in every detail.

I pursued this guitar for a long time, I bought it in Florida 10 years ago, in a Sam Ash store to be exact.
I didn't even tested it, I fell in love instantly with it's glossy finish...what a mistake.
The thing is, this kind of guitars have an specific and narrow sound, they didn't have the acoustic values of any guitar I previously owned, so, my critic comes from a personal perspective.
I mainly played through an 1969 original silverface Deluxe Reverb Fender with telefunken/GE NOS tubes, the sweetest amp I've ever used.

It just never worked for me, the intonation was right, the action great, well balanced sound, very playable but without any soul. Very, very dissapointing through the years I used it as a lead guitar in a pop band. Tried to cover the holes to see if it seems to gain any body...didn't work

no flaws in this one, beautiful in every angle.

solid guitar, stays in tune, and stuff...

...

well, I have a strat model by Peavey, a MIJ Fender Jazzmaster, Epiphone Dot, a vintage MIJ Vox inspired Fiama semi hollowboby and my latest one is a 5198 Gretsch.
Just compared to the Peavey the 1000$ Ric was useless, it didn't work for me, I had to sell it to a Beatles collector, and I can??t be more happier with that ;)

Standard Ric 360. Bought it in 1998. Have used it steadily for the last 10 years, including gigs about once per month and weekly band practices.
Hardshell case included.
Jet Glo (black and white)
Tone and volume for each of the 2 pickups (neck and bridge) - pretty standard stuff. Plus, the 5th knob that controls blend between the two and ALSO controls the stereo output balance if you use the stereo Ric-O-Sound output (I never do).
Nice bridge with individually adjustable saddles to get perfect intonation.

I played this through a 1970s silverface Fender Twin Reverb for years and loved it. Recently, I bought a Vox AC15 Heritage Handwired.
All I can say is, if you want to sound like The Beatles, this is it.

But in addition, I've always been impressed by how you can get smooth bluesy sounds from this thing. Easing off the treble on the Vox amp, crank it up a bit so you get some breakup, and this guitar does a nice job with crunchy sustain and overdrive.

You will get fabulous jangly rhythm sounds from this thing, but you are not "sentenced" to only that sound. I wouldn't pick it for a metal band or for playing mainly hard rock or blues. But if you want to do a few songs like that in your set, you can get by.

But man, for classic rock, country, and anything in the singer/songwriter roots rock alt-country vein, this thing can't be beat.

I never use effects pedals. I hate them - batteries, noise, phoney baloney sounds. An excellent guitar like this and a good tube amp makes for a better sound than any silly pedal ever will.

Guitar came with their "compressed 10s" strings on it.
Light E is a .010, heavy E is only a .038. Since then, I've stuck
with that (Fender makes a classic 150 set that is .038 - .010)
After about 5 years, I did have to tighten the truss rod nuts, as
the wood has settled enough that the nuts had actually become
loose. But it was no big deal to do this.
Finish is beautiful - smooth glossy black.
All the parts fit and feel solid.

I bought this thing MAIL ORDER, and it was set up perfectly right out of the case.

My only complaint is that the individual bridge saddle pieces were actually a bit too wide and couldn't slide past each other. I couldn't turn the allen screws to make them move because the pieces next to each other would actually bind. So I pulled the saddle pieces out and hit each side (left and right) with a few swipes of a big flat mill file. That solved that issue.

But because of this, I knocked it down to an 8 instead of a 10.

Has been 100% reliable for 10 years of (admittedly) gentle, but steady, gigging.. I have never carried a backup
guitar. I can't even remember the last time I broke a string.

Never needed any.

Been playing for 30 years. Play mostly classic rock and singer/songwriter alt-country. If it were lost or stolen, I'd buy another one immediately.
My second choice would probably be a Telecaster - since I am a jangly rhythym kind of guy, but I like the semihollow body feel and I am more comfortable with the strings being up higher off the body on the Ric, like an archtop would be.

And man... for about a grand, it's one whale of a grade A guitar.

I bought this guitar in the early '90s. '73 USA standard 360, which I did a slight modification to (see below). Modestly equipped and well built, this guitar is close to being the perfect guitar for me. Only one small flaw (which to most players is a feature)...

I used to play a few different guitars, so I frequently had to plug in a new guitar for the next song. With the Rick-O-Sound stereo output on one jack, it was a hit and miss situation, a real pain. So I rewired to have both jacks mixing both pickups, but with split available when I use both jacks simultaneously.

Technical reference for those interested: I changed the jacks to standard mono with NC switches, and crosswired the switches to the pickup inputs. I.E. both switches connect between the two pickup inputs, so both jacks must be plugged to break the connection. I used properly screened wire between the jacks (although the gap is small, with passive pickups it's "better safe than sorry" I guess).

My style is mostly folk/rock, trough I try my hands in many styles. Originally an acoustic player, I tried a lot of different electric guitars. Really good instruments, some of them, but they still didn't quite hit home with me. When I first tried this guitar, the "organic" sound was the first thing that struck me. Maybe the semi-hollow body gave me the physical feedback I was used to from the acoustic, I don't know.

It needs a good amp with high impedance inputs to perform well, though. With transistor preamps it's sometimes flat and dull. Currently I use a Laney 30W all tube amp with an old Zoom digital effects box in the loop, and that provides what I need. (Most of the time it's only the guitar and amp, though.)

I did some fiddling with the pickup heigth and had to retune the bridge for proper intonation. It seems the previous user had put the bridge on backwards and adjusted it accordingly, but there was no evidence of it being played lefthanded (saddle grooves were intact). Other than that, the guitar was ready to play, and still is. It never needs any adjustments, it seems.

This is one dependable guitar. A few dents and scratches, but you need to come u close to notice. I once lent it to a friend who played in a punk style band, and it came back with one pickup dead. That's the only time I ever had trouble with it, and it wasn't the guitar's fault (foreign object inside one of the output jacks, easily fixed...). His belt buckle did make some dents in the finish on the back, though...

As I played different instruments when I used to play gigs, I could always fall back on the mandolin or acoustic guitar, so I didn't bring a backup. Never had a problem, though.

My only "support incident" was when I tried to find out how old my guitar was. The web pages provided a serial number input, and told me the guitar left the assembly line in september 1973. Not enough background for me to rate the support, though.

My Ric is a 2003 with Ric-O-Sound stereo output and it was made in the USA. Pretty much has the same features as any other Rickenbacker 360-- just a standard model. Two tone knob, two volume knob, a blend knob, and 3-way selector. Hi-Gain pickups.

I bought the Rickenbacker basically because I saw Tom Gabel playing a 330 the first time I saw Against Me!. Of course, upon further research, I found that the 360 is a much more luxurious guitar. I play everything. At the moment I am in a rock/punk band, but my tastes when playing solo are much more experimental/ indie/ blues sounding. Basically, I need a guitar that sounds unique and does what I need it to. My current rig is a '66 Fender Bassman Amp and I run it through a RAT 2 OCD. The single-coil pickups are kind of noisy at extremely high volumes, but you'll have that with any single coil pickup and still most humbucking pickups. The clean is jangly and sparkely, on pretty much any amp (but especially Fenders!) and many complain that this is pretty much the only thing that Rics pull off well. But I must contest. With the proper pedals, you can pull off any kind of sound you want with a Ric, regardless of what people say. The catch is, it will have its own unique tone seperate from any other kind of guitar. For me, this is especially good. The only thing that I hate about the Ric is that it doesn't do well with palm mutes. Personally, I never palm mute, but in the rock/punk band that I'm in, there is a lot of palm muting. If it were me, though, there wouldn't be so much.

In any case, to wrap it up, don't listen to what people say about versatility. A Ric can do anything with the right pedals-- just don't be lazy and you can get some really unique tones!

I got this used, so I can't say how things were straight from the factory. But when I got it it was set up perfectly. The finish is thick and extremely shiny- gotta love that. The fretboard is also laminated. That adds to the speed of the neck as well as comfort. Pretty much no flaws. My only complaint is that the finish is pretty easy to scratch.

This guitar has taken a lot of abuse. I've had it for about a year now- got it Christmas of 2006. I beat the crap out of it, and you can barely tell. If you maintain your guitar, clean it, and so on, it'll last forever. I already use it without a backup, though it's always good to have one just to be safe. I'm just an idiot.

Haven't really had to deal with it. Parts are really hard to come by though, and that's kind of unfortunate.

I've been playing for six years, and I also own a Fender Esquire 50's Reissue as far as guitars. If it were stolen, I'd be up shit's creek because I'm poor. So I would buy another... but it'd take a while. So, basically, I would have to find the thief and beat him with my Esquire until dead. Better that I destroy the Esquire to get the Ric than lose it. I love the unique tone of the Ric, and the versatility, I just hate how easily the finish scratches, especially since I don't have a case. But that doesn't affect anything except aesthetics. It's hard to compare a Ric to other guitars, seeing as that's basically comparing apples and oranges, but I'd just like to say that anyone planning on buying a Rickenbacker should consider that the tone is considerably different than any other guitar out there. So, if you're looking for "run-of-the-mill"... get a Les Paul.

I got a standard 360 made in 2004. It has all the standard features which Rickenbacker is known for. I didn't expect nothing more or less.

I love the sound of this guitar. It's always a pleasure to play a Rickenbacker, but I don't understand why they (Rickenbacker) replaced the toaster pickups with the High-gain pickups?? A toaster pickup sounds better...

Rickenbackers are known for their finish - not without reason! The high gloss finish is briliant and the workmanship is exelent. It's truely a quality instrument made of only the best materials available.
A standard Rickenbacker makes a Fender custom shop look like a cheap guitar.

I had two custom made Fender guitars - the first came with a defect pickup. The Second was painted in the wrong colour and had the wrong finish and it didn't sound like an old one - some exspensive shit made by mexicans.

It's a Rickenbacker!

Fast response

2007 Rick 360 in Blueburst - serial no. indicates it was manufactured in the first week of April 2007, I bought it in June 2007. The Blueburst finish is the 2005 Color of the Year, which can no longer be ordered, but Rick is still making them while they work on their order backlog, and if you look hard enough it's still possible to pick them up from larger dealers in the US. It's a knockout, and it's a Rick.

Has that chimy Rick sound - you either dig it or you don't. I do and wouldn't part with it for the world.

There is more high-level craftsmanship in any Rickenbacker than you are likely to find in a container-load of guitars from other mainstream manufacturers. Every Rick is at a level of quality that some other makers call their Custom Shop work. On the 2007 run however, Rick seems to have widened the string spacing at the nut over an earlier model that I have compared it to. This difference is not huge - about 1 or 2 mm over a previous year's example of this guitar. The problem that results at least on mine and I know of a few others as well is that the Top E string can slip off the fretboard at the 2nd to 5th frets if you are not careful. This was discussed on a forum on the Rickenbacker site recently and funnily enough the Thread seems to have disappeared. The change appears to have been made in response to customer complaints about narrow string spacing on earlier models. Rics have always forced players to fret the neck carefully as their necks are generally quite narrow, so this change will please some players and annoy others who find their style of playing will push the Top E off the neck periodically. Apparently even George Harrison once found this to be part of the quirky charm of playing a Rickenbacker, so be aware. For me, it's a 10 in almost every respect, and a 5 for the new nut, so I'll saw my rating off at a 7.

It's a Ric - enough said.

Rics can only be repaired under warranty by sending them back to the factory in California. I personally find that a pain, as that is bound to be an expensive and lengthy proposition. The good news is you are unlikely to ever have a problem with a Ric, but as for customer service I've never dealt with them, and if I ever did have a problem I'd order whatever part was needed from their website and have the work done locally. So in that sense, their warranty doesn't mean much to me, but at least some common parts are available on their site.

Own too much other gear to list but including one other Ric - the Rics are what I dream about.