Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I've had my '66 Rick 335 for a while, and though I love playing my latest acquisition (a '68 335) it doesn't sound nearly as good. Why? At some point someone installed an internal boost in the '66... and it sounds GREAT. I'm somewhat clueless in these matters, but there's some extra wires and a 9 volt battery that I replace occassionally. The boost adds bite and gain to the bridge pickup and a little more character to the neck pickup. So, a question or two for the experts:
1. Has anybody modded their Rick with such a boost, or seen something similar?
2. Any ideas what the the mod might be?
3. Lastly, convince me I shouldn't do the same (if I can figure it out!) to my '68. I'd love to play this guitar live, but it sounds so bland next to the '66.

Any comments are appreciated!

Vox treble booster or similar???

http://www.tonewerks.com/page6.html

the basic circuit diagram is available here. I believe Roger had it modified and wired directly into the guitar :

http://www.experimentalistsanonymous.co ... ooster.pdf

It could also be any number of on board preamps made over the last 30 years. Most I've seen have a small printed circuit board in which case there may be a manufacturers name on it but some don't. If it's all hand-wired a good electronics tech could probably copy it for you.

So, my tech looked at it... and it's active pickups! I don't even know where to start to try and replicate it for my '68. Are they homemade? Has anyone ever seen a custom set of aftermarket pickups that were manufactured for a Rick? The weird thing is that they have the toaster covers, so I assumed it was a preamp built in. As my friend pointed out, they're always active as there's no board and the pickups are wired straight to the battery.