Thoughts on the " Rickenbacher " tone....How much was the pickup , and how much was the guitar ?

[thefishinmusician]

Thoughts ??

[Paul Verticchio]

The final sound on recordings is totally due to the in-series compressors used to add sustain to the instruments.

But my take on the question you asked is: 60% pickups & 40% guitar.  No science in my answer.  Just my impression based on my experience with them since 1967.

They're high quality instruments with several major "eccentric quirks".

Take care 'fishin',

Paul (:

[Josh Fuller]

"Several major eccentric quirks"

 

That's an understatement.  Whatever it is, I spent a lot of money trying to get "that" sound in a guitar that was actually playable by an adult will full size hands, only to find you must deal with the original design to get the sound.  I wonder how many more they'd sell if they didn't use an 1 5/8" neck on the 12 string hollow bodies?

[John]

The 12 strings have the octave string on the bottom so that's a big thing, tailpiece and floating bridge is a big part of the sound. And for sure the pickups are a big part too. I'd have to say it's a sum of the parts thing. 

[Josh Fuller]

The bridge doesn't float on these-it's bolted down.  What gets me is there is no set back to the neck-it's parallel to the plane of the top.  They like absolutely no relief, and the frets are very low.  Strange, but I guess it works.