Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Since 1997 I have been focusing on Rickenbackers, their history and sound. During that time, I have had the opportunity to play a range of Rickenbackers through a variety of amplifiers.

Up until very recently, I have used Fender and Vox amplifiers with my Rickenbackers, six string models 350 and 480 and 12 string models 450/12 and 1993SPC or 360/12V64 f-hole if you prefer. I have been completely satisfied with these fine instruments and tube amplifiers and have tweaked both as much as my heart and pocketbook would allow.

Well Fenders, such as the Twin Reverb, have that very warm tonality that brings out the very best of the Rickenbacker 12 strings, right. And the Vox AC30 has a great edge and shimmering tone as well. Are there equals to these models? The short answer is no. The long answer is, however, most assuredly yes.

In my journeys past pubs with volumes that rattle the mercury fillings in my teeth, I see the gold glow and hear the crunch of the notorious Marshall. But who wants that distortion and those gigantic cabinets. Have they gone crazy. The short answer is yes. The long answer is no.

So I have been pinching dollars and systematically selling off every instrument and electronic part that I am not using with the thought of getting an amplifier that increases the size of my tube pallet. I have listened to amplifiers of all makes and sizes, tube and solidstate, combo and cabinet, old and new, from here and from away.

The story proceeds for six months, but I will leave you with the short version here. So based on calls and emails to friends and visits to strangers and music shops, and based on my funds, I settle on a Marshall tube head and cabinet. Am I nuts to think of this with my Rickenbackers .... No.

I pull together a used Marshall JCM 900 Head and a newer 4X12 cabinet and await for my budget and UPS to bring it on home. I settled on a 50 watt head and believe me it is more than adequate for my purposes. Eventually it comes together and I check out the tonality. Guess what, the clean tone of the JCM 900 head is every bit as good as my Fender amplifiers and rivals the Vox AC 30 with the added advantage of an impressive reverb. The gain channel has a nice breakup and creamy bluesy lead that covers the full spectrum of those famous distorted Rock sounds.

As it turns out, this amplifier is most impressive. While not at the peak of the Marshall line, it is most impressive and has a full sound that only a cabinet can give. Whether clean or distorted it brings out the very best of my 350.

So that's my journey and with any luck I will have some soundbytes of my 350 in the near future. So how does it look? I will let the artists here decide.

Looks super. I am impressed with your methodology, temperance, and non-self-indulgent approach. I would have bought the Marshall, and let the others gather dust, and then brood about how much gear I own. Best to strip down to the bare essentials, which, in my case, is 2 drum sets, 2 basses (1 Ric), 5 acoustics, 4 amps, 3 Ric guitars, and 4 other electric axes. Someone please rob my house so I can start over. Peter, I hope you are happy. Not sure it will be as pretty as the Fender, however, I found The Twin (not to be confused with the Twin Reverb) to be not nearly as warm and round, in its tone, as the Hot Rod Deluxe, so, maybe the Marshall can give a good result in that area. Surely, it will rock better, so I suggest you learn some Smashing Pumpkins and Radiohead tunes, and blow the roof off of your house, and your neighbors'. We have hurricane season coming, so I won't need a Marshall to shoot my roof into the air. Enjoy !

Peter, I am so pleased that you're pleased!

IMO, Rickenbackers are the best gtrs in the world & Marshall is the best amp in the world....put the two together & the world somehow changes for the better.

BTW...when are you getting the bottom cab...

Thanks Steve. Of the amplifiers I sold, I retained those that I play daily, including the Twin Reverb. I am reaching at point in my life, however, where I am getting rid of what I don't use. You are right Steve, some traditional Marshall numbers are in order.

Tony: I was a hard sell but you won me over based on your music and comments regarding the Rickenbacker and Marshall combination.

I'm not an artist, but... looks cute!

Yes it is 100 pounds of cute Sheena.

Tony: I must say that my favourite Rickenbacker tonality is achieved using the neck and bridge high gain pickups of my 350. This sound is magic and has a shimmering quality to it even without the addition of reverb.

Next to that the neck and middle combination is also a superb sound. All three pickups giving a rich full sound I also find enjoyable. I seldom use the bridge pickup alone on my 350.

I use all three pickups Peter, on my 340/370, but with the neck/bridge rolled off a little (25-30%ish). This is the sound that rings my bell big time! It gives me the best of both...Rickenbacker & Marshall tonality, all rolled into one......

This is the combination that I use for 90% of my performing....except my 12 string work, which now falls to my 381, but with the same percentage of neck roll off.

Peter, I also had a JCM900 50w Dual Reverb w/ a 4x12. It was my first tube amp ever and I ended up using it for about a year - until the first time I played my 370/12 through the "bright" channel of a Twin Reverb. Jangle won over crunch. But in the end, whatever works for you, works. Glad to hear you found what you were looking for.

He knows what he wants & knows how to get it!
Now...if only that guitar were in FG...

Interesting John. To the right of the Marshall pictured above, and out of sight is my Twin Reverb, so I enjoy both sounds now.

I was never a Marshall guy until recently. Of course, I'd never played through a half stack before. I'm now a believer, like most of the rock and roll world.

Even if artists get em for free, they wouldn't use them if they stunk!

I tried out this set-up some time ago:



That's a 2555 Slash Signature head on a Model 1936 2x12 cabinet. To my ears, the rig's clean sound was lacking in the fullness of the mid-range when compared to my 1968 Twin Reverb or my 1969 Dual Showman Reverb (the cabinet of the latter is visible in the picture). And it wasn't a problem with the cab, as I used the DSR cab with it, too, and it sounded the same.

When I sold the set-up on eBay, one eBayer commented that, to him/her, it was a dream set-up, and wondered why in the world was I selling it. Tone is in the ear of the beholder, I guess ...

Gary: I am no Marshall expert, however, I found that different heads certainly had their own sound. I noticed quite a difference in the EL34 compared to the 5881 output tubes and also in the differently configured speaker cabinets. The bass cabinets were different from slant models and the Celestions G12T75s very different from the mellower Greenbacks for example. Also, there is a very different sound between the 2X12 and 4X12 cabinets as well. The 4X12 being more three-dimensional to my ears. Just as the two speaker Fenders have a more open sound compared to the single speaker models, so too with the 4X12 compared to twin speaker cabinets.

I will try to get some comparison soundbytes between the Twin Reverb and the Marshall cabinet, however, with JCM 900 they have a very fine clean sound that shows off the Rickenbackers.

I agree that tonality is in the middle ear and temporal lobes of the listener. Further, I concur that the 6L6 of Twin Reverb has a mid-range advantage over the 5881 but the EL34 has a great midrange.

"Live I play Rickenbacker guitars through Marshall 100 watt amps. I love Ricks because they are so percussive and sharp in tone. It can sound like a washboard, it can sound like a piercing treble laser or it can just sound Byrdsy and 60's chiming. It also allows me to cut through Ian's sound which is much thicker, fuller and heavy. He and Joe function like a wall of rhythm and I kind of slice in and out. In the studio I've started using a Fender Twin Reverb. Also every now and then I'll try an effect box, like an MXR distortion or a wah-wah."

Guy Picciotto of Fugazi as reported on www.diskant.net.

Don

Thanks Donald. Here is Guy.