Rick-o-Sound, or alternatives to "the grey box"

dean712 · Post by **dean712** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 12:50 pm

Joseph, welcom to the Forum! You'll like it here.

I bought my blue 4003 from Mike back in the summer of 2003, and it was a 100% positive experience. I would definitely deal with him again.

Paul is very knowledgable about sound, so I would second his comments. I have a few Boss pedals. My Boss Bass Overdrive is okay, but these days I like driving my tube amp harder to get a little grit. My Boss Bass Synthesizer pedal has a really cool feature that I wish the Bass Overdrive pedal had - it has concentric knobs for separately adjusting the effect signal level and the dry (direct) signal, so I can set so that when I stomp on it, the dry signal stays virtually the same, and the effect signal becomes an addition on top. Try a few pedals out and see what fits your sound the best.

greg_mitchell · Post by **greg_mitchell** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 4:27 pm

Joseph, Welcome!
I find when I use my Ric-O-Sound with my 4003 and run it thru a Bassman and a Peavey Standard, my sound cuts through the mix MUCH better. I try to use it as often as possible when gigging.

rickenbrother · Post by **rickenbrother** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 4:33 pm

Welcome Joseph.

I've had a ROS box for about 18 years. The only time I ever used it was to demo Rick basses several years ago.

paul_yan · Post by **paul_yan** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 10:18 pm

You're welcoome, Joseph. Don't hesitate to ask around this forum when you have questions. It's a true "RIC Fraternity" here and everyone's willing to share what they know. I for one would love to see all of us get good sounds with our Ricks so that we can prove to the world that Ricks are one of the best!

Dean, thanks for your kind words. I'm not worthy.

00soul · Post by **00soul** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 10:54 am

http://www.samash.com/catalog/showitem.asp?SKU=HYPP117

is this the type of item someone without a rick-o-sound box should use?

johnhall · Post by **johnhall** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 12:08 pm

See, that's the problem. The connections look right but there's no indication of whether it's shielded or not.

Use an unshielded headphone cable and you're not going to be happy with the noise level.

johnhall · Post by **johnhall** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 12:13 pm

This one looks like a better choice.

henny · Post by **henny** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 12:37 pm

What's your favourite Ric bass, John?

00soul · Post by **00soul** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 1:16 pm

yeah, the one i posted is shielded, also it like it because you can put any length instrument cable through it

hieronymous · Post by **hieronymous** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 2:06 pm

I just bought a splitter from a company called "Loooper". They make an "ABY" box that allows you to select one of two channels, or both at the same time. They normally work with a Boss style wall-wart adapter, but you can also select a mod that allows battery operation. (And check out some of the custom stuff they've done!)

In the studio recently it allowed me to split my signal so that we had various options: DI and preamp, clean and distorted, etc. I also picked up a mini-effects loop that worked great too.

Personally, the Rick-o-sound thing never appealed to me - doesn't it prevent you from using both pickups at once? That's one of my favorite sounds, and I wouldn't want to give it up.

00soul · Post by **00soul** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 2:36 pm

no, you can use both pick ups at once. its just each pick up is running through a different amp or channel. you can have one pick up going into a string of effects and blend that with the other pickup

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 2:50 pm

Ric-o-sound boxes are still available as far as I know, I doubt they've run out yet. I bought one from The Rickenbacker Page a few months ago.
Get them before they run out and double in price.

dean712 · Post by **dean712** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 3:53 pm

Harry - I am preparing for some studio work this fall, my band's second CD. The first time around, I ran my 4003 direct into the board, with only a SansAmp effect, and mild settings at that. The sound was okay, but I wanted to try something different this time. I had been thinking about breaking out the ol' Ric-O-Sound and using one pickup to the board and one to a mic'd amp, and then working with the mix of the two later, but I have the same concerns you did about giving up a blend of both pickups into each channel.

You say the ABY box worked well for you? Would you suggest it for what I'm thinking of? I hope what I've written is understandable...

redvette · Post by **redvette** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 6:54 pm

I made my own splitter box. Metal box with a stereo jack feeding two mono jacks. Absolutely noise free. Cost about $10. I have a 120 watt practice amp and a 300 watt "real" amp. Playing the treble through the lower power and the bass through the higher one gives a great sound and lets me go quite loud when necessary.

To me the value of the Ric O Sound is that it gives you a lot of flexibilty. Take one amp and cab or two depending on the situation.

hieronymous · Post by **hieronymous** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 7:37 pm

00soul - I guess I meant that the sound of both pickups on seems to be not possible if each pickup is sent to a separate amp. Sometimes I like the bite of the neck pickup by itself, but I also like the roundness and depth of both pickups on together, I find them to be quite distinct and desirable sounds - I wouldn't want only one or the other.

Dean712 - we actually just used a Y-cable for the first day, since the Loooper stuff was a little late in coming. I haven't been able to dig into the stuff we recorded yet (it's waiting patiently on my hard drive), so I can't say that I've AB'd the Y-cable versus the Loooper ABY pedal. I just felt better about using the pedal. I'll let y'all know if I hear any difference. Of course, other companies make similar boxes, as well as homemade versions that people have posted about. I discovered Loooper after hearing it discussed on Talkbass.com...

If you have time in the studio, it might be fun to experiment with the Ric-O-Sound, especially if you already own one. But experiment with it at home first, so as to not waste valuable studio time! If you do split the full signal, you can then mix the two (clean direct and effected or whatever) later during mixdown. Also, make sure that the producer/engineer is willing to take up two tracks for bass!