Reading the posts regarding setups have been very enlightening. Thanks to those knowledgeable people for sharing.

I have a question about an '08 360MG I own. The bridge was a bit of a buzzer and after reading found that a loose set screw would be the culprit. It turned out to be the cause, but I could never get the screws to stay in place. I also found the bridge to be set pretty darn high, probably the highest it would go, but the string height was still pretty close causing some hitting. On looking further, the springs on the height screws of the bridge appeared to be crunched up and compressed due to the high adjustment so I ordered some new springs to switch them. When I took the old ones off, they were half the size of the new ones, obviously cut. (Yes, I ordered the correct springs.) Well, now with the correct springs, the string height is a bit lower which is probably why someone cut the springs to begin with. Easy to play but the strings hitting the frets aren't the best sound in the world. It's almost as if the neck was set too high. Neck has only a smidge of relief, what's been recommended.

What am I getting into and how do I know if a tech that will probably end up with this knows what to do? I really hate it when anyone says the Rics are like any other guitar. I don't think that sending it off for a setup is a good idea due to the changes the instrument goes through during shipping. Any thoughts and comments would be appreciated.

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Four Rics and Counting!

Aerome. Could you measure the string height at the 12th fret, from just under the string, with the ruler on top of the fret? ( No capo) In Millimetres?.

Is the buzzing detected when plugged in, or only when played acoustically? It's best if your strings are new. Is it at all possible to turn the screws even a fraction to raise the saddle? Those measurements you provide will help, if the sting height was 2mm at the 12th fret you should have no fret buzz, at 1.5mm all is still very good, but if your getting down as low as 1.4 and lower then that's when problems may start.

If you think the buzzing is coming from the lower half of the fretboard, loosen the truss rods one quarter turn, retune, and let it sit overnight. Retune as needed. Check again. If better, but still a problem, loosen another one quarter turn. Be precise and keep track of any adjustments, so you can back track if you need to. If you don't already have a proper adjustment tool, then get one first (really).

Thanks guys. I have the tool and most noise seems to be coming from around the 7th fret on the #6 side. No tension on the low side to release. Very little noise, if any, goes thru the amp. String height for jbud is actually 2.18 at the 12th and strings are new but they're 08's that RIC had on special and I wanted to try. Notes are whacked (big variation on finger pressure up top) so first thing I'm doing is going back to the 10's recommended in the owners manual and see where I am.

Appreciate the help.

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Four Rics and Counting!

Aerome................ NOW YOUR Telling us your using 8's , please go back to 10's it will be sooooooo much better for you. Those too light 8's have been the culprit all along, they will buzz badly.

I believe with the correct 10's on your guitar,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, you will be able to drop that string height down to under 2mm at the 12th fret, man it will be so much easier to play. With the 10's back on you should be able to set up that guitar, with a straight neck and lower action and nil buzzing ( as it should be)

Now really you have solved you own problem, yes it is those 8's
Try to get back to the forum when you have the 10's on and that string height to under 2mm at the 12. Thanks for providing those measurement though.

Loosening truss rods and raising string height to compensate for 8's is not the way to go about it. If you put 10's on and do a good set up it will feel like your using 9's as it's so easy to play with lower action and a straight neck.

Put a set of 10's on today, straightened out the neck and brought the string height down to about 2.1mm. Looks and sounds fine, thanks for the support, jbud.

One thing I can't understand though is why the neck on the 360 is set so much higher than my 620 while the bridge is the same part. Adjusted well on the 620, the screws and springs are about mid way where you would think they should be while on the 360 the bridge is high and springs compressed to get the 2.0 mm. Oh well, if I know how to operate on brains, I'd be a surgeon, I guess.

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Four Rics and Counting!

Good news Aerome, yes with the 10's on the set up you now have seems so much better. 10's and a straight neck and lower action that's the way to go. It will be so much easier to play and you will actually enjoy playing it. You now should feel proud and happy as you did it all yourself. You maybe happy with the set up as it is and never change it unless you use different gauge strings, I'd just stick to the 10's

Areome here's my set up statistics for my 2 Rickenbacker's. Relief is .004 (1 fret and 16th are depress and measurement taken with feeler gauge at 7th or 8th fret)
That is a very straight neck set at .004

String height at 12th fret is 1.6 or 1.7 mm.
Both my Ric's are a joy to play set up like this.

Is it possible to lower you action to say 1.8 down from the 2.1 ( it's seems only a fraction but it does make it feel much lower ( I find 2mm a tad high)
At 1.6 mm it's perfect for me.

However I'm with you on the bridge, yes for some reason both my guitars bridges are set at totally different height to achieve the same action!!!!!
On one guitar it's way up and on the other it's down as low as it can go.
Yes like you I would prefer the bridge to be more in the mid position where it can be raised and lowered. I'm not sure why there is that much difference between the two bridge heights on my Ric's I'm close to the limits on both yet one is very high and one is super low to achieve the 1.6 mm action.

Remove the springs from the bridge screws.
Replace the screws and adjust bridge to your prefered action.
Now place - one by one - a drop of superglue (cyanoacryate) where the screw end meets the bridge base screwed down to the body - one dropfor each screw.
Use a needle tip to get the glue into the right place - NOT the bottle.
Do only one screw at a time.
You will now no longer have problems with loose bridge screws - and still they are easy to twist with a little force (don't use epoxy...) in case you need upcoming adjustments.

PS My 360 is set up with an absolutely straight neck and 1 mm relief above 12th fret. No buzz anywhere

Reading some of the posts on different threads about pick-up height...some folks claim to get the pick ups almost touching the strings...How the heck do you do that? The foam pads are not that thick...

I don't know how they do it either - but I certainly do know that they shouldn't do it...
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One of the most common reasons for bad and unintended noise and pickup function is the pole pieces set too close to the strings. Magnetic pull may even pull string out of tune in some higher fret board positions making an otherwise perfect guitar impossible to play ...