Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Can anyone (Paul et al) let me know what electronics are in Rickenbacker acoustics or indeed what they would recommend for other acoustics?

I appreciate a good valve mic, nicely compressed, and a quiet acoustically-treated room would be the best answer, but I'm thinking more about live work. Any ideas?

Paul recommend a L. R. Baggs' iMix for my Ric acoustic.

...which in turn was recommended to me by John Hall himself, in the course of a dinner conversation on this very topic.

John mentioned that the unit which Baggs OEMd for RIC (back in '92, I believe), used a really nice ribbon transducer that had very little problem with piezo "squawk" or "quack" (the tendency to compress and simultaneously emphasize midrange that was a problem with some other units). We then discussed proper ribbon installation in the bridge saddle slot, and John then mentioned the newer Baggs under-side unit (iBeam) and its cool mounting method--it comes with a mounting fixture that's foolproof for perfect placement.

I did some research and ordered an iMix, which combines their under-saddle ribbon with the iBeam and features all sorts of EQ adjustments, a balance-on-the-fly feature, and a mono/stereo selection option, and tried it out on my own 730/12L. It is amazingly flexible and can be tweaked for any performance situation.

The old Baggs, single-element unit that RIC used to fit to their acoustics is pretty nice, too. The RIC75 700/12S has one installed, and through the right amplification (read: dedicated acoustic amplifier) has a very natural presence.

I use a Sunrise in my main acoustic. I tried pretty much every other pickup system at one time or another, and finally settled on that. They aren't cheap, and you really need the preamp to get the best performance but I have yet to find a pickup that sounds better.

YMMV.

Thanks guys. I'll check it out.

Rick Turner also makes great sounding acoustic pickups.