Rickenbacker 360MG

The Rickenbacker guitars are no doubtmost well-know for their jingly, bright 60's sound, and their association with people who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent. The 360 is most well-known for it's 12 string version, probably one of the first 'serious' 12-string electrics.

The 6-string, on the other hand, is relatively obscure. Maybe it's relative obscurity is due to the fact that on the strength of the Rickenbacker myth and reputation, it didn't fare as well as other models.

The 360 is a beautifully crafted instrument, which can sound exceptionally good under some circumstances. To start with because of its unusual hollow body (the top is a solid piece of alder carved-out and glued to the back, rather than top and back glued to side-pieces), it has a very beautiful and controlled feedback sound.

The large single coil pickups do not have enormous amounts of power (as with most other Rickenbackers), which sounds a bit thin with light gauge strings. String it with normal to heavy gauge strings, though, and it starts to sound very full and sweet, halfway between a Les Paul with P-90's and a semi-hollowbody Gretsch.

The main difference between the 330 and the 360 is in the presentation, though, and sound-wise I would suspect that the 330 behaves much the same. Still, the 360 has a nice attention to detail and interesting cosmetic features. The fretboard is varnished rosewood (which is very unusual.) Mine is also a 24-fret instrument, although I believe earlier one may have had 21 or 22.

Minor inconvenience: the strings are held not at the bridge but on a floating tailpiece, and its particular design allows it to move sideways, which means that whenever one string is tuned, all the others get detuned a little, which makes it an experience to tune. It is not impossible, though, and surprisingly for the design, it does stay in tune very well.