Rickenbacker ROAD amp - cool!

[VMR]

So I picked this Ricky Road R-50 up for grins from the local Craig's List. Price was cheap enough to take a chance. I must say, it has really surprised me. Mainly because it's solid state! But I thought it "looked" cool and decided to take a chance with it. Besides, it has 2 nice CTS 10's in it, reverb with it's own treble and bass adjust - yes, on the reverb. The main tone controls are very effective, especially the "Sustain" control, which is a very wide ranging mid control. This amp was clearly voiced by someone that knew what to listen for. Sounds excellent and takes pedals well. Actually, it's fairly light weight, too.

Not allot of info on these out there. If anyone has a schematic, I'd love to get a copy. Talk about a long shot - I've already combed the net, and none of the Rickenbacker schematic collections have these Road series in them.

Mitch

[VMR]

Correction, they are Emminence speakers.

[fluffy]

wasn't there some correlation between road amps and Kustoms, like the engineer went from RIC. to Kustom , or to RIC. from Kustom. ???? seems like I heard or read that somewhere.

[VMR]

Yes, but I read that the guy behind Kustom started ROAD amps, then sold it to Rick or did a partnership with Rickenbacker. Eventually, ROAD was sold to Celestion. That's what I read on the internet, so it must be true.

[jps]

...the guy behind Kustom...

Bud Ross?

[beatlefan]

.....paging Mr. Sands to the front desk.....

I own a TR35B Road series amp and love it! ... very lightweight and a great sound!

[johnhall]

Bud Ross founded Kustom, then later moved on to found Road, still in Chanute, Kansas. After falling on some bad times or something, he sold it to the Griffin Brothers of West Los Angeles Music fame, who moved the shop to downtown Los Angeles. We bought it from the them and our engineering staff led by George Cole redesigned the line.

Yes, indeed, George was the master of voicing amps and speakers, as the Rickenbacker TR Series also attests to.

When we made the decision to leave the amp market, I sold the brand name only to Rola Celestion; they needed the trademark to consolidate their use of the name in a wider range of markets from some products of theirs.

Customer service should be able to supply you with the appropriate schematic on request.

[VMR]

Thank you, John, for those clarifications. As I said, it is a surprisingly well-voiced amp. I am particularly impressed with the "Sustain" (mid) control. It really fills out and thickens the tone without going overboard in a narrow frequency range. It really lets you adapt different guitars to the amp.

[VMR]

So I have had this amp for a while and it still just knocks my socks off. Right now, I have it sitting next to a nicely tuned up Fender Vibrolux Reverb, and I swear this Ricky amp sounds better. I have taken it to jams, and everyone absolutely marvels at the sound coming out of this thing. And my buddies are all vintage tube amp snobs. LOL

I will say that I am not too impressed with the reverb quality, despite it having bass and treble controls on the reverb. But that doesn't take away from the tone that this solid state circuit can muster. I really takes pedals well. In fairness to its tube based competition, I have not tried to push it into breakup, but it can get so loud it isn't a factor with good OD pedals. And that "sustain" middle control just works so well, it makes both humbucker and single coil pickups sound thick and rich. I find that using just a bit of compression also makes for some impressive tones. I can't believe I only paid $150 for it. I am very pleased with myself for taking a chance on even buying it at that price, because I knew nothing about these amps other than it was a Ric and it looked kind of cool.

I decided to dress it up a bit and put on some Ric style knobs (like the earlier TR series amps) and re-grilled it with some Fender cloth I had on hand. (sorry, J.H.) I think it really looks sharp now.