Anyone actually use Rick-O-Sound?

[teleharmonium]

+1
I always felt like that was the reason for the highpass filter (cap) on the bridge pickup. Takes the lows out and will somewhat protect a guitar amp. Never seen Ric make this claim but it makes logical sense.

That's right. I don't normally do this but I have tried it and it is cool. Being able to separately crunch the highs and have independent volume control for it with clear, less compressed lows is great if you're playing rock.

On a mono bass with the high pass cap, the bridge only position becomes a way to use a guitar or Bass VI like sound for a tune or part of a tune. It can be a lot of fun. It really can sound like you switched instruments for a solo or bridge or whatever.

You can do both of these things with a good EQ pedal (and a split signal for the latter) too but I like having it on the pickup switch. Also you're using the knobs of a Ric with the high pass (and without the pull switch for the high pass) as a low/high mixer all of the time anyway - which is not the same as having independent treble cut on each pickup - so it's less of a leap to think this way than it would be if you're used to other basses.

 

[mike77rios]

 

[mike77rios]

On Saturday I wanted to see if my 35 watt 110 Ampeg would be loud enough to use at practice and I decided to try using the Rick-O-Sound with my 220 BA115 and my BA110. Bass p/up into the 115 and treble p/up into my 110. with the treble tone knob pulled up to get the 4001 tone. now, as counter intuitive as this may seem, it actually sound fantastic! both amps blend perfectly!! and it gave me a very Geddy like tone just straight from the amps. Later today I will do an A-B comparison between the 110 and the 210. Results to follow. I am very happy!!

 

[Coolhandjjl]

What do you really need a box for, unless I'm missing something? Isn't a Y adapter off a stereo instrument cable doing the same thing? Or does a box have a master volume control that is a dual concentric pot?

 

[car_man65]

What do you really need a box for, unless I'm missing something? Isn't a Y adapter off a stereo instrument cable doing the same thing? Or does a box have a master volume control that is a dual concentric pot?

I think it probably just looks a little more professional than the Y cable sitting in front of the amps (been there done that) but it really is the same exact thing. Just a hardwired split in a fancy little box.

 

[redstrand]

So I pick up a cheap SWR workingman 15(for a guitar amp...lol) get it home and the light bulb goes off. I dig through my pile of adapters and BLAM it works fine. The cool part of doing this is the sounds you can get, I'd hate to lug all this stuff around. But at home it's way cool to fire up and play around with the sounds.

 

[Aceonbass]

Rick basses with the ROS option are actually wired primarily in stereo to begin with. There are 3 wires coming off of the stereo jack going to a mono shorting jack that shorts the left and right channels to one terminal on the jack for a mono signal. Both jacks cannot be used at once. This jack is a tight fit in the cavity it sits in. Over time they often become problematic, which is what Jeff was talking about earlier when he said they malfunction. I no longer build harnesses for ROS equipped basses in this fashion. I now build them with two stereo jacks that are simpler and fit better, while using a push pull pot on the bridge volume for stereo activation when pulled. When it's in, its shorting the two channels together, performing the same function as the old mono shorting jack. One advantage to my new harness is that by simply removing the extra output jack, it can be used in mono Ricks, converting them to stereo at the pull of a knob, giving those who own basses like the 4003S and 4001CS the ability to play in stereo when they want to and mono when they don't.

 

[Aceonbass]

And by the way, a Jazz bass with the standard volume volume tone controls can't be wired in stereo because there's only one tone control, after which the signal becomes mono. If the tone control were replaced with a stacked tone control, a Jazz bass could be wired in stereo.

 

[Delusionati]

I've played around with the RoS on my Ricks a few times, and I currently have the Bass pup running into an SVT-4Pro with compression, and the Treble pup into a Bass Pod XT Floor, then to the second poweramp of the SVT. Each channel goes to EVM-15B cabinets.

I can dial in the treble channel with my Pod's volume pedal, but the bass stays the same. I'm a huge fan of dUg Pinnick's tone, and this is the closest I have ever come to getting it (even though dUg biamps his mono bass).

I love the sound, but I doubt I'll ever gig it in that configuration. I doubt a soundman would be willing to give me 2 channels. If I were in a 3-piece band, I would use it for sure.

 

[Deleted member 264575]

I used to split the signal of my 4001CS into 2 Trace Elliot combos. Clean into the lower 1x15, effects into the upper 2x10. Best live sound I've ever had.

Cheers,
Neal.

 

[Aceonbass]

Unless you converted your CS to stereo, that wasn't Rick-O-Sound.

 

[Spirit of Ox]

Back in the late 90s I had a 78' Rick that didn't sound like I wanted it to (Geddy, Squire, Paul Damour). I was told to use the Rick O' Sound so I did some experimenting. My original set up was a Hartke ha500 with a 4x10. I bought an old Peavey 2x12 Guitar Combo. I ran my front pickup into the Hartke and the rear into the Peavey. It sounded awesome. Keep in mind I am playing in a Progressive metal/punk band. After a few months the Peavey was making some funny noises so I ended up buying an 87 Marshall 3530 Jubilee bass head and a no name 4x12 guitar cab with Celestion speakers. This sound was the one I was really looking for since I could get my rear pickup louder and bassier than before.

Nowadays at age 40 with no pickup truck and small 4 door sedan, I use a Carvin bx500 and a couple Flite Cabs that weigh 30llbs a piece. I do miss the massive sound and rig but it's not practical anymore.

 

[Deleted member 264575]

Unless you converted your CS to stereo, that wasn't Rick-O-Sound.

You're right, that obviously wasn't Ric-O-Sound. I guess I was just pointing out that a split sound (clean/effects) can be huge. If I was using Ric-O-Sound, I think I would have used the bridge pickup out for the effects cab and the neck pickup for the clean cab. Personally, I think having both pickups go into separate cabs would be better than splitting the pickups, but that's just me.

Cheers,
Neal.

 

[cjj]

I use Rick-O-Sound most of the time. RIC quit putting Rick-O-Sound on the new 4004 series basses, I rewired mine for stereo so I could have it.

As for how I hook it up, I run a stereo TRS cable to my rack, where everything is stereo so each pickup pretty much has its own channel to process how I want...

 

[Jeff Scott]

I like that you have what I assume is a stereo reverse switch on your input box, just like good old stereo preamps of yore!

 

[Arthur U. Poon]

I've never used mine, but after reading about players that use two outputs from their basses, one from each pickup into separate amps, I find it really interesting. I'd like to run the neck pickup into a deep, clean tone tube/solid state head into one cabinet and the bridge pickup into a cranked up all tube SVT stack.

 

[davy4575]

I dont have a ric, but Ive ran two amps for a long time. I dont mind the extra gear at gigs, its worth it for the sounds that I get. I run my eq's pretty similar on both amps, after reading this thread though, I think I might experiment with running different eq settings on the amps. I plan on getting a ric sometime soon, will probably get one stereo after reading all this. Glad it got zombified

 

[carsbybigd]

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...

I used to run my Ric 4001 into a SVT head/bottom[8X10's] for the bridge pickup,lots of treble & mids. Then I also had a SVT head/V4B[2-15's in a folded cabinet] for the neck pickup,lots of bass and some mids.You could shake pictures off the walls with it,and you still got the "Chris Squire" sound too. I wired my Mockingbird this way too.Then I went to Alembics and played them that way also. I do believe Geddy Lee used this also[around the "All The World's a Stage" period as in most of the pics of him he was using the closest jack towards the neck. And yeah,you can do it with a Jazz bass or any 2 pickup bass.Just need to change the jack.Lots more to haul around though.

 

[StereoPlayer]

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?

I use it and wire all of my two PU basses this way.

Very useful.
Effects only on the treble/bridge PU . EQ each PU the way you like each....and wow. It rocks.
I don't split cabinet locations, just stack them.
You can even use a two channel amp for those lazy nights. EQ each channel.

Get lots of compliments.

 

[StereoPlayer]

Rick basses with the ROS option are actually wired primarily in stereo to begin with. There are 3 wires coming off of the stereo jack going to a mono shorting jack that shorts the left and right channels to one terminal on the jack for a mono signal. Both jacks cannot be used at once. This jack is a tight fit in the cavity it sits in. Over time they often become problematic, which is what Jeff was talking about earlier when he said they malfunction. I no longer build harnesses for ROS equipped basses in this fashion. I now build them with two stereo jacks that are simpler and fit better, while using a push pull pot on the bridge volume for stereo activation when pulled. When it's in, its shorting the two channels together, performing the same function as the old mono shorting jack. One advantage to my new harness is that by simply removing the extra output jack, it can be used in mono Ricks, converting them to stereo at the pull of a knob, giving those who own basses like theive S and 4001CS the ability to play in stereo when they want to and mono when they don't.[/QUOTE
I've
Never
had a problem withmy'71 4001!