Hi guys, this is my first post here. I just got a new 4003 mapleglow. What a great bass. The guy's in my band told me not to use any of my other basses, and I agree. Anyway I have a question on the Rick-O-Sound. Does anyone use it, and why, what does it do for your sound. I know I need the kit with the box and stereo cable. Would I also need to use two heads. I use a sansamp to my amp, to a 15 and a 2x10. With the Rick-o-Sound I guess I would use both heads, one for highs, one for bass. Could both heads be feed with the output from my sansamp. Is the sound much different from the mono output. As you can tell im new to Ric's, I could use any help or insight. Great site, I found it through Paul Yan. I've been reading the older posts, a lot of good info. Thanks for any help.
George
Rick-O-Sound
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atomic_punk
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What a time for Jeff Rath to be on vacation! I could probably cut and paste one of his rants on the subject here, but look at any ROS topic and you might find it. 
For me, I've never used it, I could see how it would be a cool toy, but my '73 4001MG has the outputs wired as mono and I have no desire to change it back.
For me, I've never used it, I could see how it would be a cool toy, but my '73 4001MG has the outputs wired as mono and I have no desire to change it back.
"They make great f***'n basses". - Lemmy, NAMM 2009
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atomic_punk
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My thoughts on this are, when I got my first Ric I wanted the ROS feature. However after trying it out I have never used it again. However as I wanted the other features, binding and inlays as well which are usually associated with the models with ROS I would still have made the same purchase even if I hadn't wanted ROS (the other option at the time didn't have any of the three). Now if ROS is a feature or not is not important to me. However if it is a feature I see no need to change it to a mono output as I would use a second mono output as much as I use the ROS. However others may think differently both as to the use of ROS and the elimination of it (to each his own). However if I were thinking of purchasing a Ric that came with ROS and found it had been modified I would probably not do so or pay less for it.
Hi George, welcome,
I've used it, it can be useful, for example you can get a cool sound with the treble pickup and then get some real deep bass out of the other amp, and set the relative volumes the way you want. Or you can use an effect with one amp and run clean with the other, if you experiment you can find some good uses for it. Some people here like it in the studio. I use to use it all the time in an SVT, one pickup to each channel, one guitar player I highly respect recorded our practise one night and said it was the best bass sound he head ever heard in his life.
If you use it live, show up early for the gigs it sometimes takes a while to get the sound correct, and the ric-o-sound box is a very good idea, can be noisy with a Y cord.
The ultimate set up is two SVT's (IMHO of course) which I plan on trying when I get back to the states. I saw a vidoe of Joe satrianni one night a few years ago and his bassist was playing a white Ric stereo with two SVT's, it looked awesome. (I don't know if that's what he played on the recording)
I've used it, it can be useful, for example you can get a cool sound with the treble pickup and then get some real deep bass out of the other amp, and set the relative volumes the way you want. Or you can use an effect with one amp and run clean with the other, if you experiment you can find some good uses for it. Some people here like it in the studio. I use to use it all the time in an SVT, one pickup to each channel, one guitar player I highly respect recorded our practise one night and said it was the best bass sound he head ever heard in his life.
If you use it live, show up early for the gigs it sometimes takes a while to get the sound correct, and the ric-o-sound box is a very good idea, can be noisy with a Y cord.
The ultimate set up is two SVT's (IMHO of course) which I plan on trying when I get back to the states. I saw a vidoe of Joe satrianni one night a few years ago and his bassist was playing a white Ric stereo with two SVT's, it looked awesome. (I don't know if that's what he played on the recording)
Thanks for the reply guy's. It a new toy and I want to try everything. I guess I'll put it on the back burner for a while. But I still want to try it. I don't do much studio work, just play in bar's a few nights a month. For that it might be more trouble then its worth. But hey I'll still order the box when I get a few bucks. Thanks again
George
George
Welcome aboard, George.
It's good to finally see you here!
I'm lucky in that the Rick-O-Sound jacks of my 3 Rick basses all work just fine since the time I got them.
Bob has pretty much explained how the ROS feature could be put to good use in a live situation. I'd also like to add that plugging the bass PU into a clean amp with deep low ends while plugging the treble pickup into an overdriven amp (or via an overdrive/distortion pedal before a clean amp) can yield an exciting sound that's both edgy and big. It's a totally different sound from trying to overdrive the mono output from the bass which can get muddy and one-dimensional. It also gives more tone flexibility than to split the standard mono signal and try to do different things to the same signal. IMHO, a distorted treble PU and a clean neck PU do sound great when combined to the right balance. The treble PU's less low frequency content makes the distortion articulate while the bass PU sounds best with a clean setting that takes care of the bottom frequencies.
I once borrowed an ROS box from a friend of mine and compared the S/N ratio and tone quality to the Y cable (20' long, shielded Canarie pro-grade instrument cable and right-angled neutrik jacks. The thing costs about $15 in materials) that my assistant engineer had put together for me and I honestly could not hear a difference in sound quality and quietness except the nuance in sonic personalities due to the different makes of cables. (ROS is equipped with Belden shielded cables, if memory serves.)
You can even have more fun with the ROS in the studio if you have time.
Besides the 2 amp setup, you can DI and record the neck PU on one track and mic the amp that amplifies the treble PU and record on another track and then experiment with adding flanger,chorus,phaser,delay,reverb,pan etc. effects to a certain track in the mixing stage; put both pickups in mono or pan them open in the stereo field; different balances of the pickups for the verses and choruses...the posibilities are limitless!
I actually like the ROS feature and hope all my future Rick basses have it.
It's good to finally see you here!
I'm lucky in that the Rick-O-Sound jacks of my 3 Rick basses all work just fine since the time I got them.
Bob has pretty much explained how the ROS feature could be put to good use in a live situation. I'd also like to add that plugging the bass PU into a clean amp with deep low ends while plugging the treble pickup into an overdriven amp (or via an overdrive/distortion pedal before a clean amp) can yield an exciting sound that's both edgy and big. It's a totally different sound from trying to overdrive the mono output from the bass which can get muddy and one-dimensional. It also gives more tone flexibility than to split the standard mono signal and try to do different things to the same signal. IMHO, a distorted treble PU and a clean neck PU do sound great when combined to the right balance. The treble PU's less low frequency content makes the distortion articulate while the bass PU sounds best with a clean setting that takes care of the bottom frequencies.
I once borrowed an ROS box from a friend of mine and compared the S/N ratio and tone quality to the Y cable (20' long, shielded Canarie pro-grade instrument cable and right-angled neutrik jacks. The thing costs about $15 in materials) that my assistant engineer had put together for me and I honestly could not hear a difference in sound quality and quietness except the nuance in sonic personalities due to the different makes of cables. (ROS is equipped with Belden shielded cables, if memory serves.)
You can even have more fun with the ROS in the studio if you have time.
Besides the 2 amp setup, you can DI and record the neck PU on one track and mic the amp that amplifies the treble PU and record on another track and then experiment with adding flanger,chorus,phaser,delay,reverb,pan etc. effects to a certain track in the mixing stage; put both pickups in mono or pan them open in the stereo field; different balances of the pickups for the verses and choruses...the posibilities are limitless!
I actually like the ROS feature and hope all my future Rick basses have it.
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jwr2
A kit made from Canare cable and Neutrik connectors would make a very nice alternative to our ROS kit and I don't doubt the performance would be similar.
But I don't see how you could do it for $20, at least using the Canare cable that's equivalent to the Mogami cable we've used for some years now. Don't forget our kit at US$ 75 list price also includes a 6 meter standard guitar cable using the same quality components.
At small quantity prices, I came up with a cost over $30, not including the connector box and supplies like heat shrink tubing. Naturally, we have to pay our employees to work, as well as the light bill, and presumably you didn't include the cost of your assistant engineer and overhead in your figure.
Nevertheless, I'm like Jeff- I don't have any particular use for it personally. But if we removed it from existing models, say in lieu of a price change, I'd still have to endure a year of moaning and groaning.
But I don't see how you could do it for $20, at least using the Canare cable that's equivalent to the Mogami cable we've used for some years now. Don't forget our kit at US$ 75 list price also includes a 6 meter standard guitar cable using the same quality components.
At small quantity prices, I came up with a cost over $30, not including the connector box and supplies like heat shrink tubing. Naturally, we have to pay our employees to work, as well as the light bill, and presumably you didn't include the cost of your assistant engineer and overhead in your figure.
Nevertheless, I'm like Jeff- I don't have any particular use for it personally. But if we removed it from existing models, say in lieu of a price change, I'd still have to endure a year of moaning and groaning.
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atomic_punk
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