had riff raffs for ages in one guitar or another, but i'm suddenly moved to write about them.
i've had to move back to my folks place temporarily, and thought my guitar playing was over for a few weeks. but i was getting withdrawal symptoms, so i set up my JMP50 Master Volume with a G12H100 1x12. Wasn't sure which guitar to use, but I picked up my Gibson Faded V with Riff Raffs and plugged it straight into the amp (pres=9, bass=2, mid=7, treble=2, master=1(i know...), preamp=7). the only mods done to the amp have been to remove the preamp control bright capacitor, and a JCM800 spec power transformer.
even at this volume, the tone was heavenly... something straight out of the 1970s. nothing original about it, just a really classy hard rock tone. riff raffs have a bit of brightness in hand, so the tone control of the guitar was useful. the sound had that extra life and shimmer to it that make scatterwound pickups so desirable.
without touching the amp at all, i was able to get quality blues tones on the neck pickup, with wonderful clarity, even if the volume on the guitar was set to 3. riff raff neck might be slighty too biting to be 100% ideal for jazz (i can see why some people pick a stormy monday neck with a riff raff bridge) but it pulls it off with great ablomb in any case.
the middle position clean was wonderful clear and complex, perfect for sentimental minor key stuff, sounded very late sixties.
winding up the volume of the bridge to push the amp into medium overdrive was wonderful. by digging in i could nail early judas priest sad wings of destiny type of tones. it would surely be ideal for ac-dc in an SG... but the whole tone of the guitar was blantantly classic flying v. great bite and crunch. but easily manageable dynamics too... near-clean to nwobhm drive with a flick of the wrist with the guitar volume on 10. even a beginner could extract screaming pinch harmonics even at medium gain levels. the pickups almost demand a physical playing style.
the clarity made the shonkier parts of my playing sound like pure shite at some points, but at least the tone was great ;) you really can hear every note in the chord, no doubt about it. i actually raised the action a bit as i could hear a little fret buzzing.
riff raff is definately a bit more of a specialist than the mule. while you can change the great basic tone of the mule (with its transparancy) quite alot, the riff raff always seemed to keep its character.
ok, thats enough praise ;)
