Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Kids,

I just put my old 480 back together and ran through some stuff last night. Really great sound. I'm a 360 fan, but the Hi-Gains with the solid body sounded great though a Mesa Heartbreaker with some distortion.

I recall someone on hear wanting a Rick but wanting one with a little more edge to it... IMHO, the 480 certainly fits the bill...

They ain't the prettiest Rick out there... But the still got that cool vibe going. Anyone else out there enjoying these or have they gone the way of the DoDo Bird in favor of the 600 series? (If so, please post your experiences, I'd like to hear them).

JKC

Hello all. As a new 480 owner I'd love to hear other 480 users' tone tricks with this guitar? What type of music do you play with it and how do you achieve your tone? For example, what distortion/overdrive units do you use? I find that my Proco Rat works nicely with a tad of distortion with the 480.

I found this on Harmony Central under Rickenbacker 480. Anybody know anything about this? Should I do it?
"The trebble pickup sounded like a thin megaphone when I first got it. after studying the circuitry I found a capacitor in line with the pickup which removes the bass from the pickup and passes only trebble. The trick on this baby is to either put a jumper over it or add a push pull pot that shorts across this cap. Then you will have an equal balance on the pickups."

Hey Mikko, I had e-mailed you about my 481. I don't recall seeing the capacitor previously, but then again the 481 has humbuckers.
I'm usually running it through a SansAmp GT-2, an old analog delay and either a Silvertone tube amp or Laney solid state.
After seeing the prices the 480s went for on E-Bay, I've been thinking of selling it (always wanted a 330.) What did you find were common asking prices?

Nick, about the asking prices: some 480s were ridiculously expensive. I saw (a very nice) mapleglo 480 go for $1925! But that's the highest price I encountered. I also saw another mapleglo one go for 1250 euro. Other finishes seem to be less expensive, the most common finishes (at least to me) were burgundy, burgundyglo and black, which tend to go for roughly $500-$700. Hope this helps.