Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

gonna have to disagree (slightly) there, my RIHS sounds NOTHING like the hi-gains in my other Rics ('84, '89, '98) - much more ballsy tone, higher gain, more treble and upper midrange.

but then again, i've never heard 2 Rics that sound the same...

Neil, current higains, which are also wound to the 11.6k range. Your higains are less, around the 8k+ range.

aceonbass wrote:Has anyone noticed that the horseshoes on the pair of new C64's on Ebay have the shoes bent upwards in the middle like the originals?

I soitenly did!

If you mean the ones Jake is selling, maybe he will comment here as to whether they are as like from the factory or if he used Jeff's method of opening them up.

Not all vintage shoes were open more in the middle. I have shoes from an 8 pole Rick steel and they are just like the factory RIHS shoes, flatted in the middle. No way to bend them as the metal is very brittle.

Jake makes no mention in either auction of any mods being done to these basses.

All I can say is theres a great song from West Side Story that Yes covered and its called "Somethings Coming".

seyesbass wrote:All I can say is theres a great song from West Side Story that Yes covered and its called "Somethings Coming".

Sure hope it doesn't look like this!

Thats what a Rickenbacker looks like after the Tesco supermarket offer of 18 bottles of Becks for £5!
All hail the economic down turn!

johnallg wrote:If you mean the ones Jake is selling, maybe he will comment here as to whether they are as like from the factory or if he used Jeff's method of opening them up.

Here's what Jake said about it on the other thread:


I haven't done a thing to either of them -- didn't even really need to polish them up for the pictures. Since they're both like that (and these were both made this July), I'm guessing that's how they make 'em now. These were both customer returns to a music store, so I don't think they've been messed with at all before they came to me. The bent horseshoe is a nice touch, and maybe something they're doing for the possible new models we keep talking about.

jps wrote:Jake makes no mention in either auction of any mods being done to these basses.

That's correct; I didn't bend the shoes on either.

Here's another C64 from 2009 currently on eBay -- it also has bent shoes, and looks to have been made around the same time.

Funny thing is that I noticed on the ones I'm selling, but I didn't think a whole lot of it since they just look right this way to me.

aceonbass wrote:The shoes would not have been bent on the lap steels since the "fretboard" on a lap steel is flat, and therefore the strings are all in the same plane. Bending the shoes up in the middle would have only been done for the basses since there's a radius to contend contend with that causes the A and D strings to hit the shoes if they are too close.

One set of lap steel shoes I have are bent open, the others I've already wrote about are flat. And while we're all talking about it, why do we refer to them as "bent" when the RIHS shoes are the ones not like the originals?

Thanks for the updates, Jeff and Jake. Sure glad they are making them like the original bass shoes now.

I smell double chocolate cake with fudge pudding and chocolate frosting......

johnallg wrote:I smell double chocolate cake with fudge pudding and chocolate frosting......

You should come to band practice sometime, John.

I'm either going to throw a cat among the pigeons or mention something already covered. It was reported somewhere that Pal D'Amour from early TOOL actually removed the shoes from the HS pickup on his CS. Apparently it yielded more harmonics and top end. Listening to Undertow you could almost believe that, however I don't have a clear reference for the sound of a CS.

What is everyone's opinion of his tone on that album? I like it because it suits the music perfectly IMHO, but I wouldn't necessarily want to cop that exact tone for my own music. Maybe once or twice but never a full-time thang.