Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

aceonbass wrote:As a side note, until RIC started using 330K tone pots, ALL of the pots I was getting from them were specking out at 170-195K on my multimeter.

My experience also.

Thanks for the advice guys. I've got some CTS pots and K40y-9 .022 caps on the way.

aceonbass wrote:As a side note, until RIC started using 330K tone pots, ALL of the pots I was getting from them were specking out at 170-195K on my multimeter. Way too low for any application requiring 500K.[/i][/b]

So, I'm not the only one. I thought something was wrong with my 1981 360-12WB FG ckbd. They're in the same ballpark. Thanks for the observation.

iiipopes wrote:I agree the 500kohm pots are necessary to bring out as much usable treble as the pickup can produce, but on bass, do you really want all the top end possible? Some do. I'm content with staying in the trenches with a tad bit of natural rolloff.

I'm with you on this one, Scott. I once made a "no-load" circuit for one of my basses and I couldn't stand how bright it made everything sound. I think there is some tone shaping going on with the impedance loading that affects the entire signal, and my ears miss it when it is gone, replaced by something I feel sounds too clinical.

That said I always keep in mind what's going on in the circuit in terms of the final impedance value... if it's just a single pot for volume and tone I will use 250K pots, if it's a couple of volumes/tones I will push it up to 330K or thereabouts (I can definitely see using two 500Ks with dual HB-1s for a final 250K load), and in the case of my 3-pickup 4001FL with Toasters I decided to use all 500K pots for a final load of 167K. This setup still gives me bucketloads of treble "clank".

As for caps, I recently tried a .022 uF in one of my simple VT circuits (250K volume load) and have been really pleased with the resulting resonance. It gets just dark enough but not so characterless that it is muddy at all; there is still a "shape" to the sound from the surviving mids, even sending cap signal directly to ground.

cassius987 wrote:As for caps, I recently tried a .022 uF in one of my simple VT circuits (250K volume load) and have been really pleased with the resulting resonance. It gets just dark enough but not so characterless that it is muddy at all; there is still a "shape" to the sound from the surviving mids, even sending cap signal directly to ground.

Hmmmm....The .022uF cap when used with an HB1 makes it a bit brighter, so I would imagine it to have the same effect on a single coil. This is why I replace the factory .047uF cap in 4004's.

I would be surprised if any of these pots have a tolerance tighter than 30%.

If you spec yours out prior to use you are hand selecting them. I am refering to factory (pot manufacturer) specs. Although many from the factory will be tighter than 30%, I don't doubt that they let them out the door at 30%. Many people may not have as critcal of an ear as you. If you spend more and purchase high tolerance audiophile type pots you wouldn't have to hand select them. If the pots that you measured at 170k, as previously mentioned, were 250k pots that is a 32% tolerance. I'm not knocking your methods I and just stating my observations through the years.

I don't doubt you. I recall having bought some caps to use in the tone stack of an amp I was repairing and they were over double the value as marked! I took my Fluke meter to the eletronics store where they opened a dozen packages of 2 before finding one in spec. Sometimes things are just mis-marked, but in the case of some pots, the tolerance is just not very tight.

cassius987 wrote:As for caps, I recently tried a .022 uF in one of my simple VT circuits (250K volume load) and have been really pleased with the resulting resonance. It gets just dark enough but not so characterless that it is muddy at all; there is still a "shape" to the sound from the surviving mids, even sending cap signal directly to ground.

Sometime try a .033. If you don't have a .033, solder a .01 across the .022 in parallel. If you don't like it, you can then easily just clip it out.

aceonbass wrote:It seems due to the out-of-spec pots, there is a lot of hidden tone in many old and new Ricks. I've been making quite a few wiring harnesses for these instruments over the last couple years.

...I second that! A lot of the discussions I read here actually could be due to this enourmous variance in pot specs. I once changed a complete wiring harness and got a total different bass . Another time i replaced only the Treb volume pot and again it was a total different sound . Finally I doubt that anybody ever heard that "typical Rick sound " at all!

petersland wrote:Thanks for the advice guys. I've got some CTS pots and K40y-9 .022 caps on the way.

Those Russian caps sound good too... I buy the .047 ones 20 at a time..

Eden.

I've now replaced my vol pots with matched 500k pots. They measure 463k and 460k.
My original pots measured 170k and 241k.
I also replaced the caps with 0.022uf Russian glass oil caps.
What a difference!
A bit more output and both pickups are nicely balanced now.
The caps are very bright. Neck tone is at 3 whereas I used to run between 8 and 10.
Might have to get me some .047's.
All in all very happy.
Thanks Guys for the advice.