Harry Klippton
Not Interested
Thanks to @MichaelW for the term
. I had been wanting to go since like jan '21 or something and finally got the chance. The major impetus for this was that I noticed a guitar shop near my parents house with a lot of coll shit usually had a Rickenbacker 330/12 and well I've wanted to get my grubby mitts on one for a long long time. So buckle up, I'm gonna tell you about the cool shit I checked out today. Tl:dr- I didn't buy anything .
Here's the 330/12, flanked by a Novo Serus and a Frank Brothers something or other, more on those later. The 330 has the narrow nut spacing that everyone complains about on the internet, but I found it to be just fine. It played like a dream, sounded great. The action was super duper low. I usually like a medium high action but for a 12, it works better this way. Made me realize I'm FIGHTING on my 12 and now I know what I'm missing out on. I'm not particularly interested in the 330 body shape though, this was purely exploratory. I feel like I can confidently order the Ricky 12 of my choice sight unseen without fear of playability. They also had a 325 too, so I fiddled around with that a bit too. I was always curious about their diminutive scale length and I found it quite pleasant to play and didn't feel too tiny.
I played a metric butt ton of teles, of which I forgot to photograph. Fender custom shops: 2 different '58 teles, one with a big U profile and one with a V. I loved loved the V and the U was decent. I also played a '53 with a BIG honkin U that I didn't really care for. I briefly picked up a Whitfill tele of which the body felt real nice but the neck finish not so much. And also a TR Crandall tele, which I'm not familiar with. It was also ok. All of these guitars had 9s on them, which is certainly not my preference.
I played a couple of K-line truxtons, one of which I really liked, and the other one not so much, and a Nash tele that was hand painted with some desert UFO themed thing by bill Nash himself. It was also just ok. A lot of the guitars today desperately needed their strings changed, which detracted from the experience.
I also got to play a fender vintera road worn strat in firemist gold. I wanted one of those so badly when they came out. I actually socked some money away in case I got to check one out in person, prepared so that if I loved it, I could buy it on the spot. Well, about a year and a half has gone by since then and I finally got to try it, and it was great. I really loved it, but mentally I've moved on, and I've also already allocated those funds to something else, which I'm not at liberty to disclose at the moment. I might be having feelings about this.
To round things out, I played a gretsch that was pretty great. First time playing a gretsch and I liked it. A Les Paul is home to me, and this was like a lighter and kinda more comfy les Paul.
Finally, as mentioned above, I played a Novo serus, which was fine but didn't wow me. That's not really my style but I said what the hell why not. I'm pretty indifferent to it. On the other hand, this Frank Brothers thing was really cool. I loved the color and it played pretty great.
Last but not least was an honest to goodness '53 tweed deluxe, which I did not plug in, but I might have drooled on.
Here's the 330/12, flanked by a Novo Serus and a Frank Brothers something or other, more on those later. The 330 has the narrow nut spacing that everyone complains about on the internet, but I found it to be just fine. It played like a dream, sounded great. The action was super duper low. I usually like a medium high action but for a 12, it works better this way. Made me realize I'm FIGHTING on my 12 and now I know what I'm missing out on. I'm not particularly interested in the 330 body shape though, this was purely exploratory. I feel like I can confidently order the Ricky 12 of my choice sight unseen without fear of playability. They also had a 325 too, so I fiddled around with that a bit too. I was always curious about their diminutive scale length and I found it quite pleasant to play and didn't feel too tiny.
I played a metric butt ton of teles, of which I forgot to photograph. Fender custom shops: 2 different '58 teles, one with a big U profile and one with a V. I loved loved the V and the U was decent. I also played a '53 with a BIG honkin U that I didn't really care for. I briefly picked up a Whitfill tele of which the body felt real nice but the neck finish not so much. And also a TR Crandall tele, which I'm not familiar with. It was also ok. All of these guitars had 9s on them, which is certainly not my preference.
I played a couple of K-line truxtons, one of which I really liked, and the other one not so much, and a Nash tele that was hand painted with some desert UFO themed thing by bill Nash himself. It was also just ok. A lot of the guitars today desperately needed their strings changed, which detracted from the experience.
I also got to play a fender vintera road worn strat in firemist gold. I wanted one of those so badly when they came out. I actually socked some money away in case I got to check one out in person, prepared so that if I loved it, I could buy it on the spot. Well, about a year and a half has gone by since then and I finally got to try it, and it was great. I really loved it, but mentally I've moved on, and I've also already allocated those funds to something else, which I'm not at liberty to disclose at the moment. I might be having feelings about this.
To round things out, I played a gretsch that was pretty great. First time playing a gretsch and I liked it. A Les Paul is home to me, and this was like a lighter and kinda more comfy les Paul.
Finally, as mentioned above, I played a Novo serus, which was fine but didn't wow me. That's not really my style but I said what the hell why not. I'm pretty indifferent to it. On the other hand, this Frank Brothers thing was really cool. I loved the color and it played pretty great.
Last but not least was an honest to goodness '53 tweed deluxe, which I did not plug in, but I might have drooled on.