Ric-O-Sound

cheyenne · Post by **cheyenne** » Sun Nov 23, 2003 4:32 pm

Anyone use this? Is there an advantage in tone? Never really heard anyone talk much about this.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Sun Nov 23, 2003 5:25 pm

There are 2 things that suck about Rickenbackers ... Ric-o-sound ... and the mute pad ...

I derive great joy in life removing these oboslete features from Rickenbackers basses ...

I usually rewire it with 2 mono outputs ...

seriously ... this feature was designed to send the signal from each pickup to a seperate amp ... I have been playing rickenbacker basses since 1973 and I have NEVER used ric-o-sound ... but 2 mono outputs is useful in the studio ...

dano · Post by **dano** » Sun Nov 23, 2003 5:57 pm

The Ric-O-Sound can be useful for recording. I have used it with the Bass Pod, the Bass Pod XT and the Sansamp DI.

keb · Post by **keb** » Sun Nov 23, 2003 6:18 pm

I was messing around with it a couple weeks ago. Had the pickups panned at about 2 and 10 o'clock in the mix (just going direct), kinda had a "wide" almost-chorus-but-not-really sound thanks to the tonal differences of the two pickups. Neat to play around with but I prefer just straight up mono.

jnbass · Post by **jnbass** » Sun Nov 23, 2003 6:34 pm

my ebasses usually arrive with the ric-o not working, somehow the seller omits this bit of info.

Never used it, probably never will.

rickde · Post by **rickde** » Sun Nov 23, 2003 9:22 pm

I noticed that as well Jared. I recently tried two different 4003's at a Sam Ash and both ric-o outputs did not work. What's up with that?

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 4:03 am

pretty much every used Ric I get on ebay the ric-o-sound is broke ... another reason I rewire it 2 mono outputs ...

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 4:52 am

It would be really cool if the 4003 bass came without ric-o-sound and if they modified the bridge slightly to remove the mute ... this would also allow players to hand mute easily on a Ric ... but it would still keep the traditional look of the 4003. One of these days I will get another 4003 and take a dremel tool to the bridge and remove some of the metal the covers the mute and make it more functional ... sorta like the s5 and s8 bridges ...

Or maybe just give us a single coil pickup option on the 4004 ...

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 5:52 am

Jeff,
Put down the Dremel and back slowly away...(smile)

rickengrowl · Post by **rickengrowl** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 6:26 am

As far as I know, Geddy Lee used the Ric'o'Sound in his Rickenbacker years. He even had converted his Precision Bass to stereo, so that it was amplified the same way as his Rickenbacker.

Cheers,
JL

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 6:44 am

Ya Chris Squire used it too ... but that was back in the 70's ... we had disco back then too ...

These days neither uses a stereo setup ...

it's like those line 6 amps with 2 speakers ... and they wire them in stereo ... the only way you can tell it's stereo is if your head is right in front of the speakers ...

robj · Post by **robj** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 10:53 am

From everything I've read Squire's workhorse Rickenbacker is indeed wired stereo (perhaps Mr. Hall can verify this one way or the other).

From what I've read in interviews from not too long ago, he splits the signals between his Marshall Super Bass Amp and two Ampeg SVT-2 pro heads through an effects chain. According to Chris' website he also uses two Samson UHF wireless systems, one for each stereo channel.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 10:56 am

There are some useful options with it though, if you want to use effects like distortion and still have a lot of bottom you can use one pickup with the effects and the other straight. Also you can run stereo into an amp with two channels and really get a wide variey of sounds. It's noisy without the ric-o-sound box though. I used to use it a lot, not too much lately, I want to get a ric-o-sound box first.
Hey Jeff, send all your mutes to me! I use them occasionally for that McCartney sound. New mutes sound much better than the old dried up ones in 4001's though, I recently replaced a few on them on 4001's, I got new ones and cut them in half and put them right next to the bridge for a little less damping effect.
I have gotten basses with noisy, crackly mono jacks before, but all the Rics I have bought have had working ric-o-sound jacks. (except one and I knew it when I bought it.)

ojobob2 · Post by **ojobob2** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 11:04 am

With an unaltered 4001 (ie cap in place) you can can get a good effect through Ric o sound. One channel is a normal bass sound, and the other pure treble.

Bob - you put new mutes in 4001's? I bought a new pad for mine but it didnt work. The metal plate it sits on is flat - not curved as on my 4003.

Even raised up nice and tight, only the g would mute. If you have any old mutes about , i want one!!

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 11:29 am

Owen, you must have your bridge set very high, On one of mine I had to actually put a little more relief in the neck to lower the bridge so all 4 strings would mute, it's fine now, and plays and sounds better.
I just pulled the stuff off the sticky side and stuck it to the mute plate. I don't remember if it was flat or curved. I think they were flat also. Another thing you could try is to cut it in half and stick them together like I was going to do until I realized that my bridge must have been unnaturally high because the new mute was about the same height as the old one.
It now sounds better also as the strings are closer to the pickups, I got significant more bottom with this adjustment because the bass pickup is closer to the strings and I just lowered the treble pickup to match, and the whole bass is much louder now, which cuts down on noise as the signal to noise ratio has been reduced considerably also. Noise of course is constant.
I like to have around around an 1/8 of an inch of the adjusting allen screws above the top of the hole they screw into. This also keeps the bridge from tilting back too much.
My old ones were all dried out and hard, you wouldn't want any of mine. I chucked 'em.