Brightening up a 360

[MrWilson]

Hello everybody !

I've been in love with my Rick 360/6 for years now, and despite owning a crazy amount of guitars, it has always been my main workhorse for studio and live situations. I need your help today, for I need to find a way to achieve a little tweak on that baby. My main issue being the "fatness" of the guitar, which seems to react oddly with some of my dirt pedals. Pickup height has been ajusted, and it's not the problem there. After hours of research and tweaks with EQ pedals and caps, I found that the problem is that the stock Higain pickups tend to lack a bit clarity on my setup, and here's what I wish to achieve :

- I'd like to cut some of the very lower frequencies of the Bridge Pickup, via the tone or volume pot (as I never use those). This would really help to acheive a less "farty" sound on my setup (Deluxe Reverb, multiple dirt pedals). I don't want to wire a cap straight out of the pickup, for I'd like this mod to be reversed quickly, and I don't want to install a switch or drill anything in the pickguard.


- I've already wired a cap on the 5th volume knob, which is a fantastic mod, as it works like a bass cut for the neck pickup, removing the somewhat dull and "too fat" sound of the neck pup when needed, while allowing me to get more punch just by turning up the knob.


Recently, I tried to replace the cap from the bridge pup tone knob, in order to make it work like a bass cut, instead of the classic treble cut. I used a 0.001uF cap, but it didn't work the way I expected. Then, I came across a post where someone was suggesting to wire a cap on the volume knob of the bridge pickup, in order to make it work as a bass rolloff instead of a volume knob. It kinda worked well (I wired it across one lug of the pot and the ground) BUT it was affecting the neck pickup : it rolled out some bass of the bridge pickup, while rolling out some treble of the neck pickup. I don't really understand why, and I guess the Rick-O-Sound wiring could explain this strange issue.


Now, I exactly know what I want and need for this guitar : a simple bass cut that can be dialed with either the volume or tone knob of the bridge pickup. How could I do this ? I really need your science on this one fellas !

[jdogric12]

What distortion and amp are you using? Seems the simplest solution is an EQ pedal.

[MrWilson]

I'm using a Deluxe Reverb and currently, a Zendrive pedal as my main. But I also play on 69 AC30's, with all kind of drive (TS and non TS-like). An EQ pedal could get me closer to the sound I'm after, but I'd like to be able to access the bass cut on a pot, to be able to dial the exact amount of cut I want per song.

[jps]

...I'd like to be able to access the bass cut on a pot, to be able to dial the exact amount of cut I want per song.

Buy a Reverend.

[MrWilson]

Buy a Reverend.

A less than $1 wiring trick would surely justify buying another completely different guitar, in terms of sound and feel ?


I know the bass cut pot on Reverend, which is very nice. The very simple wiring of this pot is complex to transfer on the 360, because of the Rick-O-Sound wiring, which somewhat links all the pots together, and creates weird interactions if trying to "simply" put a 0.001 cap on the Volume control of the bridge pickup, to have it roll of some bass while turning the volume down. Weird stuff.

[jps]

Buy a Reverend.

A less than $1 wiring trick would surely justify buying another completely different guitar...

Sure, there ares even less reasons, sometimes, for people wanting to buying another guitar. Check you pulse.

[MrWilson]

Touché ! I should have mentioned I already own more than ten in my small flat right now and madame is not ready to let another in yet (oh well...)

[jps]

Touché ! I should have mentioned I already own more than ten in my small flat right now and madame is not ready to let another in yet (oh well...)

Tell here you want either a mistress or another bass, no other option, pick one or the other.

[Dom]

I say a Trebleboster with an adjustable peak so you can get it just right.

[indianation65]

I don't think I've ever heard a Rickenbacker guitar that needed more "bright."

...wisdom

[aceonbass]

The stock pots in Ricks have been anything from 180K to 330K since the 90's. In the 60's-70's the tone controls were 500K, while the volume controls were 250K. That's where your clarity and top end went. I build custom wiring harness to correct that with components built to the older specs.

[irishstratfan]

I had a 2011 360/6 that had no real clarity on the higher strings and were very dull sounding. I tried a lot of different things as I was trying to get that Peter Buck sound for a couple of REM songs we were doing. Whenever I tried the same with my Fender Jazzmaster, it chimed like a bell, beautifully, where the 360/6 was dull. I eventually got rid of the 360/6 for a Johnny Marr Jaguar and never looked back. I still have a 360/12 but regret that the 360/6 never give me that clear ringing sound that I craved.

[jdogric12]

Compression helps a lot... and often, rolling the volume of the bass pickup down just a bit (maybe to 9) will help a lot with the shimmer, allowing the treble pickup to sit on top.

[Dr. Frankenrick]

Lose the Rickosound. The way it is wired means that when you are plugged into the mono input and have one pickup selected the volume and tone controls of the other are also attached to the output and vice versa. This results in a loss of clarity and high end.

Otherwise, look at the pot values of your bridge pickup. Unsolder all connections from them and see what they are actually reading, it might be less than what they should be. Otherwise, try dropping in a 1-meg volume of tone or even both for the bridge pickup. It will definitely brighten things up.

[Dr. Frankenrick]

Also, check that it's not the pickup that's the problem. I had to get a Hi-Gain neck pickup rewound as it was way way overwound. It was reading 18kOhms.

The guy who rewound it said that when he opened it there was so much wire on it, it was practically falling off. This was how it came from the factory.