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Rick-o-sound

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2018 7:51 am
by thisismusicinc
Hello, guys!
It’s been almost 20 years since I bought my first rickenbacker bass, a fireglo 4003.
Apart from a few tries in the studio, with the neck DI’ed and the bridge amped, I never took the time to rig a fullblown rick-o-sound set up. Until now.

Over the years I’ve switched out the massive 2x15" hiwatt cabs with two Phil Jones Bass compact 8 with 5" drivers. And now I managed to get both a Quilter bass block and a Quilter tone block used. I’m so happy with this setup, I let my Hiwatt 200 go straight away. Finally I can really get out the full potential of the rickenbacker bass. Check out the quilter thread in the low end forum for more on the quilter amps.

My new, big problem now is that my two main players both are mono basses, a 4004 and a 4001v63. So I need to mod them so I can get rick-o-sound on all my basses. I’ve previously considered to volume-volume-tone the 4004, and would be ok with expanding the switch hole. Apart from that, I hope the mods will be as reversible as possible.

I’m aware that a push/pull pot would be an option, but I hope to find another way of achiveing stereo, as I line to have everything in it’s fixed position when I’m on stage.

Anyone has any good suggestions for how I can get rick-o-sound AKA the sound-of-rock-gods on my remaining basses?

Thanks, Jon

Re: Rick-o-sound

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2018 8:39 am
by jdogric12
Why no push/pull? Dane made a harness for my 650A with push/pull mono/stereo.

Re: Rick-o-sound

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2018 4:56 pm
by aceonbass
jdogric12 wrote:Why no push/pull? Dane made a harness for my 650A with push/pull mono/stereo.
Yep. Knob in mono, knob out stereo. Given the questionable specs of the original pots, a new blueprinted harness is best. The cavity depth needs to be one inch for the push-pull pot, so if it's not, then a bit of Dremmeling is required. Volume Volume Tone can't be made for stereo out once both pickups have been summed through the tone control. PM me for details.

Re: Rick-o-sound

Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2018 12:48 am
by cjj
You could always go with stacked pots, Vol/Tone for each pickup and then put a stereo/mono switch on the back cavity cover. Yeah, it's not really a convenient place for the switch, but you wouldn't really switch it "on the fly."

I did this with one of my 4004Cii basses. I went a bit overboard, added switches to do single coil/hum bucking and also to add/short a cap in series with each pickup...
Knobs.JPG
Switches2.JPG
Wiring.JPG

Re: Rick-o-sound

Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2018 11:56 am
by thisismusicinc
Thanks for the input, guys! :)
I know the push/pull pot is the easiest solution, but there's something about it I don't like. I guess I want to be certain not to push it in during gigs. Or that I'm bad at thinking in 3D.

CJ's concept looks interesting, though I don't think I'll ad that many switches. I like to keep things simple.

I plan to get new pots while I'm at it. I'll send you a PM, Dane

Jon :)

Re: Rick-o-sound

Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2018 4:04 pm
by cjj
Yeah, adding all the switches was mostly an experiment. It actually has the same circuit as a 4002. I'm planning on rewiring it back to standard 4004 but with the stacked pots, stereo/mono and just the coil tap switches for going single coil. I can't say the 4002 circuit really made much difference and the "vintage" tone isn't that useful either...

Re: Rick-o-sound

Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 1:21 pm
by pag
I have a similar question.
If we are setup for split pickup (Rick-o-sound) dual amp setup how do we then go about using mono basses in our stage setup such as Fenders etc?

I am thinking about converting my CS to a split output (as CS himself did) but I have other basses that are going to remain mono.

I am assuming that most people use a mono jack to two mono jack splitter for their other single output basses.
Is that what regular Rick-o-sound players do?

Re: Rick-o-sound

Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 3:10 pm
by ram
a third amp or maybe pick one of the amps you'd use from the pair for the ROS for the mono basse(s). and have a switch pedal set for the two different options off the ROS splitter.

Re: Rick-o-sound

Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2018 2:44 pm
by squirebass
Another endorsement here for the push/pull Aceonbass(aka Dane) did on my v63. Since he did his magic on my bass I have been playing in Ric-o-Sound coolness daily! Beautiful 20 something women hit on me daily, songbirds sing harmony whenever I play, and the sun always shines!
Plus the ROS is tre cool, so many options! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Re: Rick-o-sound

Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2018 4:24 pm
by aceonbass
squirebass wrote:Another endorsement here for the push/pull Aceonbass(aka Dane) did on my v63. Since he did his magic on my bass I have been playing in Ric-o-Sound coolness daily! Beautiful 20 something women hit on me daily. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Now I know where they all went!...... :lol: