Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hello Don. I was wondering if you know how the Rick O' Sound is supposed to work? I have tried it on my '73 Rick 4001, which I bought used, and if I plug into two seperate amps, rolling down the volume or tone on the bridge pickup affects the tone and volume on the amp the neck pickup is plugged into, and vice versa. Is it supposed to do this or are they supposed to be completely seperate? Thanks!
Greg

Greg; My understanding of it is that on the stereo output jack of the instrument that you are sending one pickup to one amp and the other pickup to another amp. It shouldn't be effected by the volume or tone settings of one to the other. They should be independant of each other.
But.. if you have a mix pot then this maybe where they are summed and cause the interaction. To do it right you would need to either remove the mix control or have a dual pot for the mix control that was seperate.

I have read of Ric basses with mix pots but have never seen one, maybe the 4005 had one, but on a 4001,I've never seen one in my life. If there is no mix control and you are getting interaction with the controls maybe the wiring is wrong. Don is correct, they are completely independant of each other, with two amps, treble vol. and tone only effect the amp that that pickup is connected to, same for the bass vol. and tones.

It does not have a mix pot and I am getting interaction between the controls when going to seperate amps and/or channels. So I guess I have a problem somewhere. I'll have to take a look at it one of these days tehn. Thanks for your help!

Those stereo and mono jacks are complicated, it could be something as simple as a wire touching where it's not supposed to, that type of thing. On the mono jacks sometimes I lightly sandpaper the contacts on it, as after a while they get dirty or something and the bass will make an awful noise if the cord is moved. This has happened to many of my Rics, even as new as 5 years old, especially if they have been sitting for a while.
There are schematics on the official Ric website for these also.

Bob; You may want to try some Caig "DeOxit D-5" spray contact restorer instead of sandpaper. The Switchcraft jacks are brass and sooner or later you will sand thru the nickle plating. the brass corodes pretty easily and turns a lovely shade of green. The D-5 stuff and a Q-tip work real well for jacks.
I've used this stuff on 40+ year old tube sockets, pots and jacks that you would swear needed to be replaced. It's like bringing the dead back to life.

Thanks Don, I'll try that.