Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

When searching for Geddy sound, I learned that ric had a high pass cap at the circuit. Is it on the bridge pickup ? I thought it might cut all the bass , is it true or some bass escapes the cap.
I have stagg 4 string fretless and I have only bridge jazz bass pickup working. If I solder 0.005 microfarad cap , any chance to get flavor of rick tone ?

Hi Mustafa,

Most of the "classic" Rick bass tone is in the neck pickup, with the bridge pickup adding to it (brighter tone, particularly with the .0047 µF cap in line with it). Modern Rick basses have a switch on them to bypass the cap which produces a very full tone or can sound more like the earlier basses. There are also the usual other ingredients that also contribute to the Rick bass tone (wood type, construction methods, etc.). Your Stagg "Jazz Bass", especially given it only has a bridge pickup, won't really get you there and adding the cap in line will only make for a bass-shy instrument.

The cap does let some upper mid-bass through, but it wouldn't sound full at all.

With the cap in place the two pickups are specialized in function, with the neck pickup providing all the low end and the bridge pickup providing mids and highs only. The idea was that the pickups would be used in conjunction with each other (this also avoids the phasing and scooped mids that many basses have with two pickups on full). I seldom use the cap because I play primarily on the bridge pickup of my Rickenbackers.

With only a functional bridge pickup, adding the cap would make your bass sound extremely thin, especially because a Jazz style bass has the pickup closer to the bridge than on a Rickenbacker.

Before you consider adding a cap that will cut the lows, I would advise getting the neck pickup of your bass working. Then perhaps experiment with adding a cap in line with the bridge pickup.

Geddy also played his Rics in stereo, or so he says in every interview I’ve read.

I do this on all my 2-pickup passive basses, including the J's I have owned, a couple of friends' basses, and my P-J.

Several advantages:
1) the tone is clearer;
2) removes the impedance drop that causes the slight volume drop when you dime both volume knobs;
3) easier to dial in blend tones;
4) mitigates the comb filtering that occurs with both pickups on.

Disadvantages:
1) the volume drops off of the J pickup a little bit, so if you are a bridge-pickup-solo guy, this won't work for you.
2) MOST IMPORTANT: in order to not cut too much bass, because the string excursion is less in the J-position (60's or 70's) compared to the Rick 4001/3 treble/bridge pickup, you must use a .01 cap instead of the Rick Stock .0047. I got this from the schematic for my 4002 (yes, "2," not "1" or "3") that has this value cap keeping in mind that the 4002 is essentially RiC's version of a J-bass with end-to-end humbucking pickups instead of single coils.

henry5 wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2025 11:51 am Geddy also played his Rics in stereo, or so he says in every interview I’ve read.

I'm sure he did. I saw one concert in which he had stacks of Sunn 118BH horns on one side of the stage, and Sunn 118S speakers on the other. Presumably he was running the neck pickup into the horns and the bridge into the direct radiating speakers. This was 40-50 years ago. He's long since stopped using amps and speakers onstage.