Anyone actually use Rick-O-Sound?

[SanDiegoHarry]

Rickenbacker Basses offer stereo output - they do to this day - I recall that it used to be called "rick-o-sound" (don't know if they still call it that!) - -

That always seemed silly to me - but then, I never owned a rick. Can any of you rick owners shed some light on this, and if it's a dandy feature, tell us how that is please?

 

[Alienation]

Never use it.

 

[By-Tor1000RR]

I've never used it on mine. It just takes too much gear to take advantage of it.

 

[ThunderLizard]

Big- The Carvin I bought in 1981 has two outputs. Didn't order it, it just came that way. One output sounds very thin, the other is the full bass. I've never hooked it up to two amps, which I guess is how it's supposed to be used. Still have the Carvin and gig with it every now and then.

 

[LeftyRickBass]

The "Rick-O-Sound" output splits the signal, thereby enabling the player to run each p/up through its own amp.
(The Rick 4001/4003 has BOTH Mono, and "Stereo" outputs)

The sound you get when you run through two seperate amps is MASSIVE!!!!! True, this does require more equipment, but the sound really is incredible. PLUS, you have the option of putting an effect on one pick-up or even both.

Does this answer your question????

LeftyRickBass

 

[Ric5]

Never use it.

Me Neither

 

[alembicbones]

I just bought a Rickenbacker 4003 and use the Rick-o-Sound feature at all times. Being an Alembic user, I'm very used to splitting the signals from each pickup into separate amps. Personally, I really like the flexability of using two amps. I use a standard bass rig for the neck pickup and a Fender Princeton Recording Amp for the bridge pickup. This little tube guitar amp really accentuates the Rick growl, especially in vintage tone mode.

Bones

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

The "Rick-O-Sound" output splits the signal, thereby enabling the player to run each p/up through its own amp.
(The Rick 4001/4003 has BOTH Mono, and "Stereo" outputs)

The sound you get when you run through two seperate amps is MASSIVE!!!!! True, this does require more equipment, but the sound really is incredible. PLUS, you have the option of putting an effect on one pick-up or even both.

Does this answer your question????

LeftyRickBass

Well, yes and no. I knew what the thing did technically (I think a salesman explained this too me when I was hammering my mom to buy me a new bass back in '76!) but my question is USE: It may be a nifty feature, but does anyone actually use it? If so, you think it would be simple enough to wire any two pickup bass to do the same thing, right? Why not have your J bass do this?

So I was wondering if this is more of a feature Rick keeps in place to stay 'old school' or is an actually useful feature.

And by the way - you say that splitting the outputs of the pickup to two amps results in a "massive" sound - Where did you hear it this way? Thinking on it, I'd expect to have seen this at a Yes concert, perhaps...

Were it me, I could see bi-amping the two p'ups... but again, that's a fair amount of effort for a fairly subtle change in sound...

 

[By-Tor1000RR]

Were it me, I could see bi-amping the two p'ups... but again, that's a fair amount of effort for a fairly subtle change in sound...

If you were just going to split the pickup signals and send them to 2 identical amps with identical EQ setting it might be pointless but just imagine sending the bridge pickup to an amp with some overdrive and the highs and mids boosted and the neck pickup sent clean to another amp with the EQ set pretty flat or even boost the bass a touch. The tone sculpting possibilities are endless.

I would love to do this but like I said before, I don't have enough gear nor can I justify enough gear.

 

[lawsonman]

I don't know how many post here but I know over at the one Ric site there seem to be quite a few that do use it.I'm too lazy to use it.And besides,running my Ric through the Mesa it sounds as good as I can imagine.

 

[DW1969]

I never have used it. It sounds like it could be awesome for recording.

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

I never have used it. It sounds like it could be awesome for recording.

Now, for *recording*, this might be very cool... Put chorus on the bridge p'up, leave the neck dry - stuff like that... And all you'd need is another DI/preamp and another track on the board...

But live this seems wasted. In a live situation, most of the nice subtleties of tone that we players love tend to get washed out by guitars/keys/cymbals...

recorded, this might be pretty cool...

 

[lawsonman]

But live this seems wasted. In a live situation, most of the nice subtleties of tone that we players love tend to get washed out by guitars/keys/cymbals...

One of the things that gets overlooked is the fact that Rics cut through a live mix like no other Bass I've ever heard.Not everbody likes the Ric sound but with the right amp your tone and sound will be heard loud and clear.

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

One of the things that gets overlooked is the fact that Rics cut through a live mix like no other Bass I've ever heard.Not everbody likes the Ric sound but with the right amp your tone and sound will be heard loud and clear.

yes - but is that a "rick-o-sound' thing or is just the nature of the axe overall?

 

[Ric5]

The practicality of Ric-o-sound is that if you use it live you will be the only one who knows that you are running stereo. Also the Ric-o-sound quite often malfunctions. I have rewired quite a few Ric basses that have had the Ric-o-sound malfunction. MY 2001 4003 is wired with 2 mono jacks because the Ric-o-sound was giving me problems.

The truth is the 4001/4003 bass has a lot of archaic features. like the .0047 bass cutting capacitor , the mechanical mute, the pickup cover, and Ric-o-sound.

Also you will get more bang for your buck by simply splitting the mono signal and running it into 2 or more parallel effects and mixing those together.

But for those of you with a Ric bass and its curious anachronisms then have fun with your ric-o-sound.

 

[Ric5]

One of the things that gets overlooked is the fact that Rics cut through a live mix like no other Bass I've ever heard.Not everbody likes the Ric sound but with the right amp your tone and sound will be heard loud and clear.

A good active bass will do better when equalized properly.

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

The practicality of Ric-o-sound is that if you use it live you will be the only one who knows that you are running stereo. Also the Ric-o-sound quite often malfunctions. I have rewired quite a few Ric basses that have had the Ric-o-sound malfunction. MY 2001 4003 is wired with 2 mono jacks because the Ric-o-sound was giving me problems.

The truth is the 4001/4003 bass has a lot of archaic features. like the .0047 bass cutting capacitor , the mechanical mute, the pickup cover, and Ric-o-sound.

Also you will get more bang for your buck by simply splitting the mono signal and running it into 2 or more parallel effects and mixing those together.

But for those of you with a Ric bass and its curious anachronisms then have fun with your ric-o-sound.

Ric5, It sounds as if you are not much of a Rick fan...

 

[edbass]

I use the stereo output almost every time I use my Ric.

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

I use the stereo output almost every time I use my Ric.

meaning you run into two different amps?

 

[Chuck King]

I have in fact used the Rick-O-Sound on my 4001 in a gig setting. Running the bridge pickup through an amp with a hairier tone but the neck pickup through an amp set cleaner allows the best of both worlds, tonally: distorted snarl that doesn't also come with muddy low end. And, for a couple songs, I was able to use pedals on the treble pickup signal without affecting the foundation provided by the neck pickup signal. I sent each through its own channel of my amp.