Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

What do you all use?

I find myself never, ever using the bridge pickup soloed on either my 330 or my 660/12. I need that bit of extra oomph provided by the neck.

I find I can get most of the sounds I like just by changing where I strum. . . plenty of jangle on tap if you pick by the bridge, even in middle setting.

The neck setting on the 660/12 is fun, with OD, for "wall of sound" effects that privilege massiveness over articulation.

I use my 660/12's neck p/u alone, the bridge alone on one song, but use both adjusted with the blend knob about 90% of the time (bridge tone full treble, neck tone all the way down). A little touch of the blend and you go from "wall of sound" to full jangle.

I'm with you John, on the OD-neck P/U-12 string setting. I have a great patch on my Valvetronix 120 head using the US High Gain model and the tube OD effect (drive at 10), with a 1/2 sec delay. Wall of sound with sustain forever and a neat follow up on quickly muted phrases. We play Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" using the 660/12 and the "wall o sound" setting in place of the keyboards. Massiveness indeed. Over the top, yes. Fun forever!

...Dean

I for one would love to hear an mp3 of THAT!!!

My W.o.S. patch (tonelab SE) is a bit milder - just a moderate crunchy AC30TB setting with a moderate slice of the tube OD - it's probably not quite as over-the-top as yours! I've got a similar delay setting though. For some reason reverb just doesn't feel right with the Vox models.

I LOVE the AC30 models on my tonelab!

i frequently use just the bridge pickup full-up on my 360/12V64 (with unwound pickups) played through the top boosted "brilliant" channel of my newly acquired vintage ac-30. ear plugs are useless to my treble assault!

Question? Does the "blend knob" on 60's Rics work the reverse from the modern "blend"? In other words, with the selector in the middle position, does turning the "blend"
couter clockwise add the neck pick-up?

Yes it does. It's just a reversed, redundant neck volume knob that does not affect the bridge pup at all. The only differences between it and the regular neck volume are a) it doesn;t cut out 100% of the volume b) it's cool looking c) it works in reverse d) it confuses a lot of people. Myself too, initially.

Yes it does. It's just a reversed, redundant neck volume knob that does not affect the bridge pup at all. The only differences between it and the regular neck volume are a) it doesn;t cut out 100% of the volume b) it's cool looking c) it works in reverse d) it confuses a lot of people. Myself too, initially.

I think John is trying to say it's redundant.

Paul, we're working on that MP3. I'll post it once everyone is happy with it.

John, yup, maybe redundant, but I am so used to it now I don't like it not being there (as on my second fiddle fiddles, as it were). I find it handy presetting your eq with the "standard" controls then just modding it on the fly with just one light tap.

...Dean

Ugh. sory for the double post - I think it's great that people use and like them. . . (small knobs) but knowing what they do is a good thing.

>>>>>The only differences between it and the regular neck volume are a) it doesn;t cut out 100% of the volume b) it's cool looking c) it works in reverse d) it confuses a lot of people.

And lets not forget that it's handy to be able to control things with one turn. But "B" and "D" are by far the most important feachures of the knob.

As for me, I find that I'm usually leaving this knob most of the way toward the neck position and when I want to get trebbly I do that with the real control knobs. Having the control knobs trebbly and this blender knob toward the neck pup sets up competing forces which is a good thing.

Having the blender at the neck and the control knobs toward trebble is just too icy bright and causes my brain to freeze.

Once you get the hang of the relationship between the blender and your base/treb knobs I think you'll find that it's less "redundant" and more of a luxury feature. But even having said that I find that I dont ever move it more than about 25% of it's range.

Yea, it's real value is in the cool/confusing aspect.