Played a Rickenbacker 360 and fell in love

[Securb]

I play Les Pauls with 50's necks so I didn't find the neck to be uncomfortable at all.

 

[Ashurbanipal]

Were the slanted frets then done for the same reason they do them now (better low notes) or was it a comfort thing?

I think it was a comfort thing; the scale length is the same across the strings, everything is just tilted. With the aforementioned Ibanez it's the same idea.

Don't know what the fb radius was on them.

 

[zionstrat]

The bodies feel like a block and the necks feel like half a baseball bat. The fret board edges are pretty sharp also, which is uncomfortable on the hands. Overall they have a very stiff uncomfortable feel. They are neat guitars but not nice instruments. They just make a sound no other guitar makes.

I totally get this -the first time I played Rickenbacker it seemed alien. And the hardware does look really cheap - it's like somebody hand built a guitar from scratch in the '40s.

But after playing one for a couple days, all of that goes away - the neck becomes normal and you ignore the hardware realizing that all of that strange stuff adds together for the great sound.

I've never bumped into sharp fret edges however, I wonder if that was more of the very narrow neck. If you rap your thumb you do feel the frets, but it's more due to the fret type and the thin neck. Again, I got used to all of the weirdness really quickly and found it a far more versatile guitar than I expected.

Of course it's the best way to do REM and Petty stuff, but I also found it extremely good for light crunch rhythm and leads-in the heavier environments, the jingle is muted and instead it cuts through a mix better than a strat or a tele.

And how else could you play blood and roses by The smithereens?

 

[Ascension]

Had a Fireglo mid 70's 620 at one time that i never should have gotten rid of. Really unique guitar that I could really have used today. They are very underrated and for certain things absolute killers. The neck and that lacquered rosewood fingerboard were pretty different and for what I was doing at that time it just wasn't exciting me. Would love to have another one like that first one today though as would play the heck out of it now!
This one is spot on my old guitar. https://reverb.com/item/63080439-rickenbacker-model-620-from-1976-in-fireglo-finish

 

[Ascension]

I think that they are thin and narrow. A Rick also sits on your body differently than most other classic guitars. They really have their own thing.
And it s pretty expensive to own just to have that one thing.

Yes the neck on mine was pretty thin and narrow and it had a different feel with that lacquered rosewood fret board after it had been fretted than most other guitars. Also hung on the strap differently so just overall felt pretty different. But man did it have a TONE in particular clean or with a medium to light breakup.

 

[beaubrummels]

I disagree.
Yes, the necks feel a bit thicker than the common slim-taper but not as thick as you make it sound.
I've never had nor played one where the fretboard edges felt sharp. They have all felt very smooth and comfortable to me.
They have their own feel which can feel a bit "stiff" if you're used to LPs, but very familiar if you're used to Fenders. I think it's due to the neck/body angle (or lack thereof).

I totally get this -the first time I played Rickenbacker it seemed alien. And the hardware does look really cheap - it's like somebody hand built a guitar from scratch in the '40s.

But after playing one for a couple days, all of that goes away - the neck becomes normal and you ignore the hardware realizing that all of that strange stuff adds together for the great sound.

I've never bumped into sharp fret edges however, I wonder if that was more of the very narrow neck. If you rap your thumb you do feel the frets, but it's more due to the fret type and the thin neck. Again, I got used to all of the weirdness really quickly and found it a far more versatile guitar than I expected.

Of course it's the best way to do REM and Petty stuff, but I also found it extremely good for light crunch rhythm and leads-in the heavier environments, the jingle is muted and instead it cuts through a mix better than a strat or a tele.

And how else could you play blood and roses by The smithereens?

The reason the neck edges feel 'sharp' to me is my 330/12, 450/12 and my 4001 bass all have 10" radius, which is a bit flat for me coupled with a thick neck, so the edge of the fretboard feels 'sharp' in my fingers inside the knuckles. My 320 has 7.25" radius and coupled with the short scale, I could play that all day comfortably. I do tend to 'grab' the neck when playing rock and roll, so I feel the fretboard edge if it's different from what I'm used to. Interestingly, I do have a Jackson with a much flatter neck, but it's so thin, for some reason it doesn't have that sharp edge feeling to me, and I do spend more time on my fingertips with the Jackson than muscling chords across the neck. Something about a certain thickness with a certain flatness together makes for an uncomfortable edge in my hands. But if Rick's 10" is comfortable to you, great. Horses for courses or different strokes or something like that.

 

[zionstrat]

Yeah that makes complete sense, I normally prefer flat wide necks- I started on classical guitar. So I was definitely biased against the Rick beforehand but learned to work with it for what it does.