Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hey everyone. I love playing my 330 six and twelve, I just wish the neck pickup was "usable". Its lack of treble with the stock wiring means I can't use it by itself. Anyone bypass the cap and use the neck pickup alone?

I find the neck toaster on my 330 great for jazz tones. Maybe you can install a .0047µf cap in line to thin it out more to your liking?

Here's the deal. There's a cap on it already that cuts all the highs out, it just sounds totally muffled on its own. I was wondering if anyone bypassed it and got any kind of usable tone from it on its own. It has so little high frequency information - I would find it unusable even as a "jazz" tone.

I don't understand, are you saying there is a cap you that cuts the highs in addition to the tone control cap?

I'm saying that stock - the neck pickup on the 330 sounds like there is a blanket over the amp.

Oh, okay. There is no cap that is making it sound that way; does yours have a hi-gains or toasters? 21 or 24 frets? Try my suggestion of adding the .0047µf cap in line with the pickup to cut bass from it.

I have the middle pickups on my 340/12 and 370/12 wired direct with only a volume pot between the pickups and their own jacks (no tone pots, no caps) and they have very nice tone by themselves. It might be worth playing with a cap bypass on your guitars. If it doesn't work, it's a pretty easy "undo". I also find that the JangleBox does an awfully good job of transforming fairly dull and featureless neck pickup tone into something crisp and rich. It's a bit more woody and mellow that the typical jangle, but an awfully nice sound on some things.

I have scatterwound toasters - 24 fret neck. This neck pickup sounds like any other pickup with the tone rolled all the way off. Its WAY to muddy - not bassy. Since these pickups aren't dedicated neck or bridge - I know there's some kind of low pass filtering going on. I just want to bypass whatever is filtering all the highs off my neck pickup.

Ric-O-Buc wrote:I have scatterwound toasters - 24 fret neck.

There's your problem. Cut off all those extra frets and move that toaster back where it belongs!

There should not be any kind of low pass filter except for the standard tone control, is the wiring correct on your 330?

Steve, does your inside-wiring look like the Ric Schematics or has somebody changed things before you got the guitars ? Funny that both your Neck pickups, on both guitars, would sound muddy.

I changed the .0047uf cap on an HB1 recently (Bridge position) and it really makes a difference on accentuating the highs.

Changed how, added a cap ----- bypassed?

Can you post good pics of the wiring?

8mileshigher wrote:Steve, does your inside-wiring look like the Ric Schematics or has somebody changed things before you got the guitars ? Funny that both your Neck pickups, on both guitars, would sound muddy.

I changed the .0047uf cap on an HB1 recently (Bridge position) and it really makes a difference on accentuating the highs.

Both 330's are stock.

Ric-O-Buc wrote:Changed how, added a cap ----- bypassed?

I replaced the cap that was stock on the guitar (in my case, a three pickup model 370); it was a suggestion from forum member John A.

I have a 330 with toasters, 24 frets, treble cap mod, and have the same exact problem.
The problem on mine is this-the 5th knob. When you use the 5th knob to blend both pickups, you roll highs off of the neck pickup just as if you were lowering it's dedicated volume knob. So, unless the both the volume knob and 5th knob are all of the way up, you are rolling off the highs in varying degrees. Since the bridge pickup is not affected by this, when you use both pickups, the highs are still all there from the bridge, and the neck will just produce various stages of "muffle", making the this not really a noticeable problem.
I do find, however, that the neck with everything wide open, still sounds faily muffled. I don't think a treble bypass would be the tickect, as there really isn't that clear, crisp treble that the bridge pickup has. Maybe some type of midrange cut or Q-filter type passive control might give the pickup a little more clarity, but due to a move and such, my time has really been scarce these days.I've been considering some wiring options to fix the initial problem, but the lack of "knocking my socks off" neck alone sound has put this low on my list of things to futz around with.
Not only that, but I really only use the bridge and blend positions on my 330. If I want a "to die for" neck position tone, I have many other guitars that do that wonderfully, but of course, don't have that Rick clarity and treble in the top end.
This has been my personal experience with my instrument.