Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Although we now know the correct answers, I still find that first set of sound clips to be very deceptive... perhaps because Jeffrey wasn't "digging-in" to the strings as hard as he was with the second set of clips, which brought out the character of the pickups a lot more.

All-in-all, a very fun and interesting thread; and, more importantly, it brought Jeffrey up to the level of "Senior Member" (100+ posts). Congratulations, Sir Profjeff!

Thanks, Sir Andrew. I will be looking for the AARP literature now that I am a senior.

I am always amazed at how difficult it is to transfer decent tone to a recording, especially when it is compressed to an mp3. You lose all of the subtle details in tone and the overall dynamics. Before I normallized the clips, there was an amazing difference in volume between the single coils and the humbuckers. Most people can percieve differences in volume much more readily than differences in tone...it's a well known psycho-acoustic principle. I would venture to say that, based on this principle alone, most of us would easily be able to tell the difference between toasters and hi-gains if you were sitting in my studio when I recorded the clips.

The question that remains is: "Do the three Ricks that I recorded share certain characteristics that idenify them as possessing the Rickenbacker sound?" Again, I think that it would be helpful to fine tune the sounds of the guitars and the amps so that the signature sound of these instruments could be easily heard. Which brings up another much discussed forum question: "How do I get 'the sound' out of my various Rickenbackers?" What kinds of strings, settings, devices, amps, speakers, and playing style will allow me to produce the sounds of my Rick slinging guitar heroes? Clearly, it's much more complex than turning up the controls and plugging a 330/12VP into an AC-30, although that's a good starting place.