Rivieras / Mini-Hums - Opinions?

[Pennyman]

Just wondering if anyone here has any experience with the Rivieras, or with mini-humbuckers in general. A local shop has a wine red Riviera looking like it needs a good home, and I’ve kind of gotten myself GAS’d up about it, but I really don’t know much about them.

 

 

[charlie brown]

Pennyman,

 

I have 3 guitars, with min-humbuckers. A '76 Gibson LP Deluxe, a (Korean made) Epi Riviera,

and a AIUSA Sheraton II. LOVE them all! BUT, my advice would be, to do a side by side comparison,

between the Riviera you're looking at, and another semi-hollow body, with full sized humbuckers.

They both have that "humbucker tone," but the mini's have a bit more (mid to treble) "bite," and

articulation...for lack of a better description. I love the mini's, for just that reason, but other

folks have other opinions and preferences. I especially like the mini, in the neck position, where

(some) full sized humbuckers can get a bit dull or muddy sounding, in comparison. Again, just my

opinion/observation. Anyway...IF you can, try the comparison. You'll know a lot better, which you

prefer.

 

Cheers,

CB

[LongMan]

Just wondering if anyone here has any experience with the Rivieras, or with mini-humbuckers in general. A local shop has a wine red Riviera looking like it needs a good home, and I’ve kind of gotten myself GAS’d up about it, but I really don’t know much about them.

Depends. I can at least speak for the chinese Rivieras that were sold as limited edition earlier this year. I bought one, and found it well crafted. The sound and hardware however didn't convince me over the time. I own an Elite ES-335, and in comparison the Riviera sounded somewhat pale. While the ES-335 has an expressive, sparkling tone with a lot of dynamics, the Riviera mini humbuckers have no real character. They do not sound really bad, but neither really good, just kind of flat. Same for the hardware: Not bad, but on the other hand no comparison to what is mounted on the Elite series guitars. It's not fish and not meat, an experience I made quite often with that type of budget guitars. You simply get what you pay for.

 

However the body and neck of the Riviera are crafted quite well, and it would be a pity to put that guitar in a corner and not play it. So I thought what could help it, and bought some spare parts. The last 2 days I were quite busy. The result is, that I converted this:

 

 

into that:

 

 

What's new? From top to bottom:

- Grover Super Rotomatics tuning machines

- TUSQ graphite nut

- Applied slight fret dress

- Gretsch Filtertron HS pickups

- Gibson/Switchcraft pots, PU switch and output jack (used a Gibson '59 Les Paul wiring type)

- Solid metal PU switch knob

- ES style pickguard (btw.: the hole was already in there, I would have preferred to mount it without the screw)

- ES style pick guard mount

- TOM type roller bridge on 4/8mm adapter studs (allows to mount US type bridges on asian guitars)

- Bigsby B7 vibrato

 

What does it sound like? Well, it cuts like a hot knife into butter Fire up both pickups, and you know what the term "Twang" comes from. Lots of character, and completely different from the ES-335. The Bigsby stays in tune pretty well, thanks to the roller bridge and the graphite nut. And the guitar doesn't look too bad I guess

 

But if you plan such a conversion, be aware you will experience a lot of unpleasant surprises. Just as an example: If you try to mount the pickups on the bottom of the pickup cavities you'll see that you can't. There's simply no wood where you need it Just at the place where the Filtertron screws come down, the cavities are routed down to the back of the guitar. So better don't try this at home

[Pennyman]

Now that's one sweet-looking guitar! Well done, LongMan!