"The cap"

cassius987 · Post by **cassius987** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 5:46 pm

Joey, your JBN website is truly worthy of a medal or some kind of actual monetary compensation... especially if people are linking you and you're not getting anything back. I'm most impressed by how nice your PDF diagrams are. Not going to lie, I downloaded a couple of them and have them stored on my computer.

superdick2112 · Post by **superdick2112** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 5:52 pm

So, there's a cap in my 4001C64?
It would be cool to have a second tone varation in my C64, and I prefer the sound of my '08 4003 with the cap disengaged, so it looks like I'll be ordering & installing a push/pull pot from Ric in the near future.

As a side note; Joey, sorry to hear of your troubles.
Imho, there's few things lower or more aggrivating than someone else claiming credit for work that you did. Good luck resolving that issue.

jps · Post by **jps** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 7:18 pm

When I got my April '98 4001V63 there was a cap in it, a ceramic one, obviously not original, that was bypassed with a wire. I played it that way for a few years and when I put the magnetic horseshoe pickup in the bass I got and installed a correct cap (thanks Mark!

). Sounds right, now.

badeggs · Post by **badeggs** » Tue Feb 08, 2011 10:41 pm

jps wrote:I got and installed a correct cap. Sounds right, now.

I bet it does! Nice to know someone else on here doesn't cut the cap...

johnallg · Post by **johnallg** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 12:38 am

badeggs wrote:
jps wrote:I got and installed a correct cap. Sounds right, now.
I bet it does! Nice to know someone else on here doesn't cut the cap...

Hey, what am I, chopped liver???

I've been known to add the cap in a lot of my Ricks.

jps · Post by **jps** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 12:46 am

johnallg wrote:Hey, what am I, chopped liver???

You had to ask, huh?

cassius987 · Post by **cassius987** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 1:42 am

In blend mode the cap can be pretty amazing. I don't really like what it does to my 4003FL's tone as much but on a fretted Ric I think it sounds much nicer for many styles of music. Actually in old-school fusion music sometimes it can sound really good to have the cap in, solo the treble pickup, and roll the tone down! Weird but it works. (Boost the gain!) I used to do this when playing "Actual Proof".

ilan · Post by **ilan** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 3:15 am

I think the cap was gone by 1985. When John Hall became CEO, this was one of the first things he did.

Hate the cap. So many 70's Rics were modded and routed for different pickups because owners thought their original pickup was too trebley and lacked bass frequencies. Had I known about the cap, I'd probably still have my first Ric ('74 Jetglo). My mission in life is to bypass as many 4001 caps as I can. Evil cap!

rickcrazy · Post by **rickcrazy** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 5:43 am

Ahh, the cap... The very heart of the real Rickenbacker tone, period. (*rather than ducking and running for cover, looks everybody defiantly dead in the eye*)

weemac · Post by **weemac** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 7:54 am

I love to hate the cap (I call it the yucky cap) yet they are firmly installed in both my Rickenbackers and in my custom made Spira 8 string. I try to remove them and end up putting them back in...

Eden.

teeder · Post by **teeder** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 9:20 am

I like having a cap in at least one Rick. It sounds great in my '71 4001, but then again I also like the RIHS without cap in my V63. I just use them for completely different music.

badeggs · Post by **badeggs** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 9:23 am

To my ear, you take the cap out and you lose the crunch. You get a Rick mixed with a Fender...I hate that a 10-cent part can do so much, but it does.

Need more bass? Try turning this up:

cassius987 · Post by **cassius987** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 11:42 am

badeggs wrote:To my ear, you take the cap out and you lose the crunch. You get a Rick mixed with a Fender...I hate that a 10-cent part can do so much, but it does.

Yes, exactly. I assume you're talking about blending the pickups and this is exactly my experience as well. Without the cap you get that scooped Jazz-ish sound.

superdick2112 · Post by **superdick2112** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 11:51 am

Joshua (and the rest of you experts), I want to keep the cap in my C64 and install a push/pull pot for a bit more versatility. Do you recommend the factory cap already in there, of is there a crunchier-sounding alternative?

lucidsounds · Post by **lucidsounds** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 3:09 pm

Don't forget, the sound of the bridge pick-up with the series cap in circuit will change depending on the input impedance of your amplifier.

For example 1, assume an amplifier input impedance of 500k ohms. The volume pot is, according to the schematics, 330k, so the cap 'sees' a total resistance of 200k.

For example 2, assume a much lower amplifier impedance, lets say 100k ohm. The cap now 'sees' 76k. This will produce a more 'bass-light' tone than the example above.

The lower the resistance 'seen' by the cap, the more the bass end is reduced, and the frequency at which the phase cancellation occurs in blend mode will be higher.

Lucid.

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