Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

My girfriend said that for Christmas/Valentine/Anniversary she would gladly purchase a bass for me! Neither of us being loaded with cash, this is a big deal (I did get her diamond earings though!)

The bass I settled on is an Epiphone EB-3. Basically a cheaper long (34") scale version of the Gibson Bass. I figured it would match my Gibson SG guitar!

This is where the Rickenbacker wiring comes into play. the bass has 2 volume 2 tone but the honking big pickup at the neck (the mudbucker, as it is so lovingly called) is known to overpower the minibucker in the bridge. But I seemed to recall a certain company using a certain blend knob to even out a certain mismatched pickup combo... I used the word "certain" too much"

Solution? rewire the guitar, 2 volume knobs (on per pickup) master tone, and a blend knob that works just like the mystery 5th knob on a Rick! the "oomph" knob as that Gearwire knob called it! lol.

My question is, what kind of knob IS a blend knob? does it have a charge? are they expensive? would working out a wiring diagram for this bass be difficult? could someone help??? hehe

My $.02:

Leave the bass unmodified. If the bass has a volume knob for each pickup, then you already have all you need to blend the pickup volume to your taste.

I have a 4005 with the 5th "blend" knob. It has no "charge" if you're referring to some type of active circuit. All it does is blend the pickup volume, same as you can already do with the two volume knobs. It is redundant.

What I meant by charge was like, you know... 500K, 250K pots, stuff like that.

The reason I'd rather have a blend is because I enjoy using it on Rick guitars for tonal variation and the likes, and I think I could get some real use out of it, same way as I do when I play Rickenbacker guitars. plus, I find rolling down volume knobs decreases tonal quality, well... the highs esspecially. I found the blend knob retains all the qualities of the pup, while evening out balanec perfectly.

I here that epiphone are good candidates for Dark Star pick ups. You would have change the wire harness and pots. There great sounding basses with the Dark Stars, even Jack Casady has one. I think a fellow forumite has one, Happy Face?

I actually have a Peavey T-45 with a Dark Star pickup and it's an incredible sounding bass. Dark Star pickups are phenomenal.

Why do I read these things ? I've been wanting a Guild Starfire or something with Darkstars for awhile now . What can I sell ? Mmmmm....Darkstars

Yeah, go with Darkstars!

Nicolas, according to the wiring diagram here:

http://www.rickenbacker.com/pdfs/19511.pdf

the blender pot is 500 kOhm.

VRICKY63 wrote:Why do I read these things ? I've been wanting a Guild Starfire or something with Darkstars for awhile now . What can I sell ? Mmmmm....Darkstars

VRICKY63,

I have one(starfire II w/ DS's)......what do you have for trade??

Sam

They changed the circuit diagram some time ago for some reason at Rickenbacker.
The original circuit was (probably is) the blend-pot not grounded.
Wolfgang