Hey electronics wizards.......

[teb]

(which certainly leaves me out of the picture) How hard is this to build (either with the phone jacks as a box or without them for directly wiring-in) and what are all these little squiggles?

[johnallg]

Todd, too easy. The squiggles are resistors. I count 15 parts counting the 9V battery, a clip for it, a switch, and an aluminum box for it all.

[teb]

Thanks John, I thought it looked pretty simple. I've always wanted to try one but they get pretty high prices for the old ones considering what's in them. I must say that I certainly prefer and understand the drawings you post a lot more than the official technical versions. I may have to make a trip over to Radio Shack and then call in a favor from one of my buddies who can read this stuff and knows how to solder.

[admin]

An interesting project Teb, which I did about four years ago. I solicited the help of a local tech wizard and he completed the project in quick order. The cost of the parts was about $20 in total. At the end of the day, it certainly did boost the treble but the quality of the tone was very harsh (yes I know something boosting treble is likely to do this) and not very useful overall.

There are a number of treble boosters on the market, one by HBE that is roughly $100 that is much more usable with some interesting tonal options.

To my way of thinking, the Vox Treble booster was like so many effects from the "old days." The idea is larger than the result. But then history has a way of colouring our view of reality.

[johnallg]

Thanks for that, Peter. Todd's cost will be a little less than that, and as soon as the pot/switch and jack show up here for me to wire in and mail back to him, we will have an eval from him on how it works on the center pup of his 370/12. Now I'm even more interested. I would think playing with the gain of the stage would alleviate the harshness. We are wiring the circuit in after the volume pot and before the jack. No other tone circuit - pup, volume, treble circuit, jack.

[teb]

Peter, John graciously agreed to assemble one for me and we hashed it around for a while and came up with a plan, which he is assembling as we speak. It's been kind of fun - I think up a crazy idea and John figures out how to make it work (maybe more fun for me than for John...) In a nutshell, we're going to try it on one circuit of my 370 stereo twelve and rather than being an add-on or stomp box, it will be on-board. Currently, this guitar is set up as follows:
The neck (toaster) and bridge (high-gain converted to a toaster cover) pickups have the standard Rickenbacker-style setup with the five knobs and the toggle, just like you would find on a stock 360, 330, etc. - but without being rigged to do Ric-O-Sound, so they use a single, mono output jack. The middle pickup (another toaster) is all by itself. It has no tone pot because it would always be full-on anyway, but Dale suggested adding a volume pot for it when I put it in, which I did (the sixth knob) and it runs to a second mono output jack that I used to replace the original ROS jack. I run the guitar with a double-mono Y-cord into two amp or mixer channels, two amps, or two tracks on the recording deck, depending upon what exactly I'm doing. The regular (neck/bridge) circuit is nearly always run through a Janglebox set to bright. The middle pickup circuit is run straight into it's amp or channel. I like the sound of the J-Box on bright with the knobs turned up pretty high, but find the sound to be a little bit "thin" for my taste. I can fill-in the overall sound as I like by using the sixth knob to add a certain amount of stock middle pickup sound to the mix. It's right there at my fingertips and I don't even have turn around to adjust it. In practice it's not as complex to get set up and sounding great as it might seem when you read this and I really like the variety of sounds that I can get out of the system. If desired, I can also plug any regular guitar cord into the neck/bridge circuit's output jack and essentially have a sotck 330-style system. Most of the time though, I run it in stereo with both channels working and a blend that's maybe 70%-80% neck/bridge/J-box circuit and 20%-30% plain middle pickup.

The treble booster circuit board is pretty tiny, I will build a little case or mount for it and the 9-volt that it needs and stick them in the control cavity with some sort of minimal attachment system to keep them from bouncing around. The booster will be connected only to the middle pickup circuit. The pot for the sixth knob (middle volume) will be replaced with a push/pull pot (pull=booster on, push=booster off, knob still controls pickup volume and overall blend of the three pickups). The middle output jack will also be replaced with the original switch-equipped jack . The extra pair of lugs (the switch part) will be rewired to function as a battery on/off switch. Plug the guitar cord into the jack and battery power for the booster comes on, unplug the guitar cord and battery power is switched off to preserve battery juice. Thus, even if the raw booster sound is pretty agressive, it will be able to be feathered into the overall sound as desired or turned on and off by just messing with one knob on the guitar. I don't yet know how it will sound or how useful it will be. My biggest concern at the moment is "how much noise or hum will it add?" If it's a bust, a few minutes with a soldering iron can return things to their current state. I figure that John and I should at least earn a few style-points for developing a clever application and installation. If it does work, I'll eventually cut some sound samples and post them. If not, I can always start looking for other small effects boards that might be able to be stuffed in there instead of the booster.

"Why do all this stuff to a perfectly good Rickenbacker" the purist might ask? First of all, I really love my Ricks, but I'm not a purist. I do modify them to suit my desires and needs, but try to plan the mods very carefully. This guitar has been Arnquisted to the max to get me some playing room for my big fingers and the sound mods give me everything from surprisingly close to an acoustic twelve all the way up through that "bee-in-a-beercan" - full-blown 60"s Rick-twelve-sound, just by turning knobs and flipping the toggle on the pickguard. I'll put its tone and sound-versatility up against any electric twelve on the planet and if I ever get run over by a bus or something, many of you should probably start bidding on it If the new booster works well, it's just one more arrow in the quiver. If not, then John and I had some fun brainstorming it anyway.

sound sample (pre booster)
http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/M ... s/saw3.mp3

[johnallg]

Todd, let me state right here that I've really enjoyed this project.

[teb]

Yes, it has been fun and it will be interesting to see what it offers in the way of sound possibilities. One of these days I'll see if you can help me decipher the wiring in my old Frankenstein Gibson bass. I've been thinking about refinishing it, or maybe just stripping the old laquer off of it's walnut body and oiling it, but every time I pull the plate off the back and see the mass of wires in there, I decide that I probably shouldn't be messing around with them. It was wired back in 1973 with a mudbucker on one circuit for the neck and a P-bass pickup on the other for the bridge pickup. Each has tone and volume pots and the mudbucker has a bass-cut cap on a toggle switch. They go to separate jacks but share a master volume pot and a four-way switched knob (neck, bridge, both, and stand-by). The inside of the control cavity looks like a bird's nest.

[johnallg]

Yes, it has been fun and it will be interesting to see what it offers in the way of sound possibilities. One of these days I'll see if you can help me decipher the wiring in my old Frankenstein Gibson bass. I've been thinking about refinishing it, or maybe just stripping the old laquer off of it's walnut body and oiling it, but every time I pull the plate off the back and see the mass of wires in there, I decide that I probably shouldn't be messing around with them. It was wired back in 1973 with a mudbucker on one circuit for the neck and a P-bass pickup on the other for the bridge pickup. Each has tone and volume pots and the mudbucker has a bass-cut cap on a toggle switch. They go to separate jacks but share a master volume pot and a four-way switched knob (neck, bridge, both, and stand-by). The inside of the control cavity looks like a bird's nest.

Sounds like you made a very wise decision so far - avoidance! Detailed pics might provide a means of deciphering. Depends on how ratty the nest is!