rickenbackers with heavy strings?

[boyakasha]

are there problems that could be caused if i were to put heavy strings (12s) on a rick 360? does it stay in tune better or worse than other guitars? does it make that much of a difference?

 

thanks.

[cadfael]

I guess it depends how heavy. They were designed back when all strings were relatively heavy, 11-50 or more. Just like strats and the rest. Rick necks are very strong with two truss rods and multi-laminate construction. Hell it iought to sound great come to think of it.
You might look for Pyramid strings as well , these were used by the Beatles in the early days. They are fairly heavy,semi flat wound,reall easy on the fingers however.

[Wyatt]

They only probblem may be at the nut. Rics use (or they still did when they built my '85) a Bakelite nut, same as they did in the '50's. These wear and bind about as bad as plastic when it comes to large strings. I did use 12's with a wound G string on mine and I know I had to tweak the nut for wider slots.

Other than that, it should be fine. It's double truss rod will make more stable than most other guitars.

-Y.