Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

You guys are gonna think I'm off my rocker...

So I've loved Peter Buck's guitar tone (on LP and live) ever since I started listening to early R.E.M. That clear, defined, percussive tone was a breath of fresh air in the grungey mid-1990's. But my efforts to replicate that tone (first with my Strat copy, then my Mexican Telecaster, then my 2004 330) only resulted in painful icepicky tones when I turned up the treble enough to clear up the low strings. When I bought a Boss EQ-7 pedal, I instinctively started dialing out the low-end in kind of a stepped pattern. Much closer to the tone I wanted, but something about the resulting sound didn't agree with me, and I didn't like having to keep a pedal in the chain to get the sound I wanted. I learned here about the 0.0047uF cap used in Ricks up till the mid-1980's and a light went off in my head. Since I'm the experimental type, I decided to open up the guitar, unsolder the connection to the Treble pickup, plug it in, and try it both ways before stitching it up again. And it was a success! Finally, the clear -- but not piercing -- sound I heard on those records! A tweak of the blend knob, and now the reduced volume from the bridge pickup is a non-issue.

I'm in love with this guitar again -- I may even keep these flatwounds on it, now that they have that old-school "clanky" sound!

- Scott

I recently capped my 4001V63.

I wonder why The Sopranos sprang to mind when I read the title of this thread?

Anyway, it's good to know that the mod worked for you Scott.

The Sopranos....

Glad you've found your sound, Scott.
JimK

Oh, if anyone is interested -- one mod that really helped my Tele was to install a left-handed bridge. This angled the bridge pickup so that the bass side was closer to the saddles and the treble side was further away. This reduced the fundamental on the low strings, and warmed up the high end a little. (Those Teles can get REALLY icepicky!)

When I first bought my Rickenbacker, I was a little disappointed because I expected it to be all bright and chimey in comparison to my Fenders, and it actually sounded warmer with those Hi-Gains!

- Scott

You could probably stick a bar magnet under your bridge pickup to boost output and not need to twiddle the blend knob as much.

I recently worked on a `75 430 that had two .0047 caps in the bridge pickup circuit!

paologregorio wrote:I recently worked on a `75 430 that had two .0047 caps in the bridge pickup circuit!

Interesting! Were they in parallel or series?

scott_s wrote:

paologregorio wrote:I recently worked on a `75 430 that had two .0047 caps in the bridge pickup circuit!

Interesting! Were they in parallel or series?

So, did it sound twice as good??


Series would be the same as a 0.00235uF, parallel would be a 0.0094uF...