A couple of weeks ago I was in a good mood following birth of grandson. Had a day off and I was tinkering on 12 string guitars and realised I was finding it quite hard to hold the strings down across the full width of the neck. This was particularly the case on my acoustic Takamine JC120 but even my PRS 12 string was relatively hard going. Some of this is down to lack of musical fitness and some down to losing muscle strength as you get older.
Rickenbacker 12s are renowned for being strung opposite to most 12 strings with the bass string of the pair first on a down stroke, and they are also known for their thin necks and close action! I had tried a Rickenbacker 6 string a couple of years ago at friend Jack's house and remembered it being different with a very thin neck and a low but quite playable action. A bit of research later revealed that neck nut width on most Ricky 6s and 12s is small at 41.4mm compared to a more typical 44 - 46mm from other manufacturers. Of course with a 12 string 'real estate' on the finger board cramps fingers much tighter than a 6 string! During this piece of 'guitar porn' research I found I was most attracted to the image of the 600 solid body series. The Ricky 660-12 is a relatively new model and, in response to customer pressure, has a wider 44.45 mm nut width - but it is quite expensive. In the end I decided to look for a more common and cheaper 620-12 with the thin neck to try out. I particularly liked the Mapleglo models and, looking on the net, I found a Mapleglo 620-12 in stock at Music Warehouse Colchester. So next time I went to the Ipswich office I finished a bit earlier and took a trip down to Colchester to try one out.
Well it looked fabulous and I immediately noted the price in the shop was lower than the web price ;-) I plinked away for about half an hour and concluded: + Easy action. + Perfect intonation. + Love the sound, its less strident than a normally strung 12 string and delivers a sort of natural chorusing sound when strummed. + The acoustic and amplified sound was very even across all the strings, and with a slight natural resonance, I would say it was nicely compressed acoustically! - The big playing drawback is the neck width cramping fingers. Its easy to strum but hard to pick out notes to create arpeggios etc. The neck depth comes across as feeling deep and chunkily full in the hand but with a nice silky feel.
Rick's have a quirky control system! You can select neck and bridge pickups individually or combined like a Les Paul - not my preferred system, I like one volume control! There is a blend control which seems to combine pickups to give a more semi acoustic sound at one extreme and a trebley single coil sound at the other extreme. There is a stereo "Rick-o-Sound" output which splits the pickups across two jacks, its unlikely I'll use that. Even in the shop it was clear that the hi gain pickups deliver a good sound level and lots of treble when you need it.
So it became 'make your mind up time'. I could see just by playing I was getting more used to the thin neck and fingerboard so I decided if the price was right I'd go for it! I cut the deal I wanted with the shop and left with the guitar in a strong but light Ricky case.
Here it is at home:
Now I've lived with it for a few days my playing on it is improving and, importantly, not really affecting how I play on a normal neck width guitar. A bit like driving different cars?
This photo shows a comparison of the two necks side by side. You can't really see much difference? But they feel sooo different!
Soundwise I'm really happy with the Ricky and I'd love to try it on a gig sometime. Maybe I'll work up a recording to demo it - something Beatley perhaps? I'd also like to try out a semi-acoustic 360-12 or, if money was no object, the Pete Townshend 1993 12 which has the wider neck. Dream on Mr Mog!
Rickenbacker 12s are renowned for being strung opposite to most 12 strings with the bass string of the pair first on a down stroke, and they are also known for their thin necks and close action! I had tried a Rickenbacker 6 string a couple of years ago at friend Jack's house and remembered it being different with a very thin neck and a low but quite playable action. A bit of research later revealed that neck nut width on most Ricky 6s and 12s is small at 41.4mm compared to a more typical 44 - 46mm from other manufacturers. Of course with a 12 string 'real estate' on the finger board cramps fingers much tighter than a 6 string! During this piece of 'guitar porn' research I found I was most attracted to the image of the 600 solid body series. The Ricky 660-12 is a relatively new model and, in response to customer pressure, has a wider 44.45 mm nut width - but it is quite expensive. In the end I decided to look for a more common and cheaper 620-12 with the thin neck to try out. I particularly liked the Mapleglo models and, looking on the net, I found a Mapleglo 620-12 in stock at Music Warehouse Colchester. So next time I went to the Ipswich office I finished a bit earlier and took a trip down to Colchester to try one out.
Well it looked fabulous and I immediately noted the price in the shop was lower than the web price ;-) I plinked away for about half an hour and concluded: + Easy action. + Perfect intonation. + Love the sound, its less strident than a normally strung 12 string and delivers a sort of natural chorusing sound when strummed. + The acoustic and amplified sound was very even across all the strings, and with a slight natural resonance, I would say it was nicely compressed acoustically! - The big playing drawback is the neck width cramping fingers. Its easy to strum but hard to pick out notes to create arpeggios etc. The neck depth comes across as feeling deep and chunkily full in the hand but with a nice silky feel.
Rick's have a quirky control system! You can select neck and bridge pickups individually or combined like a Les Paul - not my preferred system, I like one volume control! There is a blend control which seems to combine pickups to give a more semi acoustic sound at one extreme and a trebley single coil sound at the other extreme. There is a stereo "Rick-o-Sound" output which splits the pickups across two jacks, its unlikely I'll use that. Even in the shop it was clear that the hi gain pickups deliver a good sound level and lots of treble when you need it.
So it became 'make your mind up time'. I could see just by playing I was getting more used to the thin neck and fingerboard so I decided if the price was right I'd go for it! I cut the deal I wanted with the shop and left with the guitar in a strong but light Ricky case.
Here it is at home:
Now I've lived with it for a few days my playing on it is improving and, importantly, not really affecting how I play on a normal neck width guitar. A bit like driving different cars?
Soundwise I'm really happy with the Ricky and I'd love to try it on a gig sometime. Maybe I'll work up a recording to demo it - something Beatley perhaps? I'd also like to try out a semi-acoustic 360-12 or, if money was no object, the Pete Townshend 1993 12 which has the wider neck. Dream on Mr Mog!
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