Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi gang. As some of you know, I picked up this gem in Cleveland during the MICRIO events. It is currently at the repair shop getting the fast motor looked at, hopefully fixed. It's a 4 ohm 100W cabinet. I need an amp to drive it but I know nothing about amps. I've looked at a few, but they are all the wrong ohms or wrong watts, etc. And I need something that will let me unplug the internal speaker and route this in between. Thanks gang, J

Wow! Pics would be cool----I've seen plenty of silverface Vibratones, but never a blackface one. Cool!

Will do as soon as I get it back. I called today and they said they might start next week.

How much are you lookin' to spend J?

A Fender amp is your best bet. Do you have the external wiring rig?



The Vibratone has a wiring harness with a two-button footswitch pedal that uses the same housing as the Fender amps of the late 1960s. The footswitch terminates two cables with 1/4" phono connectors -- one plug and one jack. To connect the Vibratone, the harness' plug is inserted into the amplifier's main speaker jack, and the amp's cabinet or internal speakers are plugged into the harness' jack. This puts the Vibratone and its switches between the amp and the speakers. One of the switches on the pedal routes the sound either to the amp's speakers or to the Vibratone. The other switch changes the rotor between chorus and tremelo speeds. On later models, there was also a cylindrical crossover that restricted the frequencies sent to the Vibratone (seen at left in the photo).



I have on e of these and it Kills, The correct Harness makes all the difference!

I have all the original parts, including crossover, except I don't have the louvers for the side and top grills (not that important to me). It worked great in Cleveland but hit too many bumps in the road somewhere between Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis, Atlanta and Tampa.

I would be happy to keep it under $300, but I realize I'm very ignorant about amps and may need to go higher.

Here's a photo of Jdog with the Vibratone jammin' away!

jps wrote:Here's a photo of Jdog with the Vibratone jammin' away!

Hey!!!

What gives?

He's not in Black Face!!!

jps wrote:Here's a photo of Jdog with the Vibratone jammin' away!

And did it sound sweet in that setup.

Jason was using my Walter Woods Super amp into the Vibratone; it did sound great with a lovely swirly tone.

Once we got the head off the top vent the sound really filled the room in a very pleasing way. With the 12'er he's playing it was a great sound.

Good news. The shop just called. It was bad wiring, not a problem with the motor. I shall pick it up Saturday.

That's good news, indeed.

jdogric12aolcom wrote:Good news. The shop just called. It was bad wiring, not a problem with the motor. I shall pick it up Saturday.

Hah! What'd I tell ya?! That is good news.

jdogric12aolcom wrote:Good news. The shop just called. It was bad wiring, not a problem with the motor. I shall pick it up Saturday.

May I ask who does your amp work, locally?