Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I just read a thread on the RIC website that said the RIC-O-Sound was going to be discontinued. Is there any truth to this?

As far as I know, yes.

To clarify, this is reference to the Ric-O-Sound cables and not the feature on the guitars/basses themselves.

...and stereo (to two mono) cables are easy to get (or make) and cheaper than the Ric-O-Sound kit.

I've heard that balancing the output can be a bit tricky with home made jobs or stereo patch cords. True or not true?

A homemade or off-the-shelf stereo Y-cord should be functionally equivalent to ours with regard to balance or utility. The main difference might be the quality of materials which could affect shielding and capacitance and is strictly a matter of what you want to spend.

I have a Ric-O-Sound cable kit and was quite disappointed when I opened it to take a look. I was expecting a few capacitors or something. It really is nothing more than a split cable.

Brian, you should have no problem making your own.

I'm the proud owner of a NOS RIC-O-Sound that I picked up many years ago. It is absolutely mint and I don't know its actual age. It sat unsold and unused in a local music store longer than anyone could remember. It certainly looks very vintage, with a funny silver jacketed cable and hammertone finish.

Thanks for the speedy and informed response gentlemen. I think I'm with Randy on this one. I would rather have one of those apparently soon to be rare RIC-O-Sound units.

I put off buying one 'til the announcement was made. It's a nice accessory to have. I had a home built version made with Switchcraft parts, but it's not the same.
I've noticed that ones on ebay usually go for around $90 & usually don't have the extra cable!

This topic, of course, has come up before. Jesse started a thread in March about Ric-o-Sound "on the cheap" and mentioned a specific Y-adapter.

That adapter (Hosa YPP-177) is available from Music123:

http://www.music123.com/Hosa-YPP117-i27885.music

That's quite correct Mark. Did anyone report back on the success of these adapters and how they fared in an A/B comparison? I don't recall. Old age setting in I'm afraid.

I have a new Ric-o-sound kit, but none of my 7 ricks has the feature!

What are the cables on those ROS? I thought guitar cables are usually two core, not the same as three core signal cable.

I've never heard of stereo guitar cable, just wondering how to wire up one of these?

For what it's worth, they'll be some stock for quite awhile still.

Thanks John.