Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi everyone!

I've been out for a while... got a new job and I'm working a lot, and when I get home the last thing I want to do is turn this thing on... Anyways...

The thing is, I am thinking of ways of getting the best sound out of ROS spending the least possible and also not making it too complex for live gigs and such...

My setup, at this time is:

Treble pup: Delay and Phaser.
Neck pup: little overdrive and wah.

The effects are obviously not on all the time and almost never those of both pups at the same time... sometimes a little overdrive and some delay go together, but not very regularly. The thing is I dont want to lose any treble on the bridge pup and at the same time I want heavy bottom and nice mids for my neck, so that it is solid and at the same time I can get that "cat in the bag" with the wah.

I switch from pup to pup and rarely use both at the same time and have adapted a volume pedal for this. I am currently mixing the signal to mono with the mod volume pedal, and then send it to a single amp. My amp is not good and I have to change it soon.
Now to the options, one is a acoustics 150b that is on sale here in Buenos Aires that I might buy if it is still on sale by December. That would help eq the two signals separately and only use one amp. Now, this amp's eq is very limited, just low and high. I don't want to miss any mids... Plus, only 110 watts, I don't know if that is going to be enough in a short time.

Second option, get a small mixer and send the two pups to different lines... and this can run either to a bass amp with very low eq work there, or the mixer can be amplified itself, and run straight to the speakers. Now, I've never seen anyone doing this, and I'm not sure it can work and give a nice sound. I've tried it with one of my friends' mixer and it did the job quite fine...

So, suggestions??

Sorry for the length of this post... but I think I didn't over explain anything...

Cheers!!!

jc

There's some amps that have dual inputs or dual amp channels, but they're pricey. A small mixer would be a cheaper route and would not limit you to the types of amps available.

s4001 wrote:There's some amps that have dual inputs or dual amp channels, but they're pricey.

What, like this one?

jps wrote:What, like this one?

Jeffrey, you're gonna wear out that picture!

Yeah, I should take some new ones to wear out!

Don't forget, guys, Joaquin is working on a budget.

In that case, a small mixer would be ideal.

The old Acoustic 140s and 150s are loud as hell and their tone controls are quite good. They also seem to last forever and will take a beating. With the right speaker, you shouldn't have a problem filling any room. My ancient Acoustic 140 head is probably twice as loud as my 200 watt Traynor tube head. The problem with a lot of small mixers seems to be a huge hit in signal strength loss. I've got a few for situations where I want to run my stereo basses into single inputs (Electro Harmonix, Traynor, Art). The little Art four channel "Power Mix I" is really convenient, but cuts the signal by 6db. It works for recording, but the signal is too weak for live stuff. If you buy one, check the specs carefully first and get some sort of master gain control if you can find one with it.

Considering how cheap these amps are on the used market these days, they're probably the best buy out there in a powerful, two-channel amp.

Thanks everyone!!

I think that so far I'll go with the Acoustic, if I can grab the one that's been on sale when I get some extra money. I gotta say it is not cheap in this case, imagine that vintage/rare stuff (which this amp would be) are very expensive here, regardless of the price in the US, that is why buying a Ricky bass here is almost impossible for a regular musician.

I was told this Acoustic was very loud and if its still on sale by December I will definitely try it... Todd, what can you tell me about its mids? I know yours isn't exactly the same, but it shouldn't differ much. Can you handle that well without it having a knob?

If the Acoustic is no longer for sale or I'm not at all convinced with the sound I get outta it, I'll go for a mixer and a new single input amp. Any cons of using an amplified mixer?

Jeffrey, although my birthday was a month ago, I'd still take your amp... Considering the distance, I'd consider paying the shipping if you can't cover it yourself.

LOL

nice toy you've got there!

Thanks again!!

I hope I can find something worthy of my Ricky.

Cheers!

jc

Everybody has their own ideas about what type of bass tone they're looking for, but I never felt like I was missing anything before the days of graphic equalizers and mid-range knobs. The standard Acoustic 140/150 treble and bass knobs are neutral at the 12:00 position with a fair amount of adjustment, plus or minus, as you turn the knobs up or down. This is combined with a rather aggressive bright switch. I generally used Sunn 18" folded horn cabs (118VH) with mine and the combination seemed to do a good job or projecting the sound all the way to the back of big concert halls without it getting muddy (this was in the days before people started feeding the bass into the PA system, so your amp pretty much had to do the whole job all by itself). Even in 2,000-3,000 seat auditoriums, I don't think I ever turned the volume up over about half-way on the amp. I usually wanted a fairly deep bassy sound, but with a lot of percussion so that notes had a really crisp attack and the combination of running two channels on the bass and good speakers worked well for me, both live and when recording. You can hear fairly typical samples of that sound here:
Click the track samples for "Let's Take A Weekend" and "Get Right With God"
They were recorded by just sticking a mic in front of my amp.
http://www.theshipmusic.com/left_in_the_wake_album.html

I would add Acoustic amps and speakers were just coming out back when I was just ending my music playing but I was always very impressed with the sound I heard from them. Strong and clear is how I remember. Great tone.

Hey! Sorry I didn't reply before.

I'm now positive I am at least trying the Acoustic... I think that, based on the tone you get outta it, I can get what I want... and if not I'll try the mixer.

Beautiful music by the way!

Thanks!!

Cheers!!