Wanna Hear My Rick?

[ashcatlt]

I composed and recorded a short little thing to show off some of the different tones from my recently re-wired Rickenbacker.

ricktest1.mp3 (6.08M)

The first guitar you hear is the series combination with all v's and t's at 10, strangle off. Then in comes what is basically the normal middle position with both pickups in parallel. Again, all v's and t's on 10, strangle off.

These are both through the same amp (Bass V-Amp "British Class A") with the exact same settings and did my best to use about the same dynamics. I compressed the parallel track a bit and matched the levels so you wouldn't be fooled into a preference by volume. I think you can hear the difference in the guitar's overall output in the fact that the right hand guitar (series) starts to crunch while the other is still spankin' clean.

As it breaks down, the third guitar comes in. This is the "Vintage Bridge" position, with the NV - 0, NT - No Load, BV and T - 10, and Strangle - Series. This one is a bit weak, so I used a clean boost (Boss HyperFuzz) going into the amp (Bass V-Amp "Thunderbird").

Then the lead part that comes in is the neck pickup with the deep treble cut - NV - 10, NT - AltCap, BV - 0, BT - No Load, Strangle - Off. This goes through the Big Muff and then into the same "British Class A" model, with a bit different settings.

For the last two tracks, I was more trying to capture the spirit of the tones - to use illustrate them in context - rather than offer a direct comparison to the other tones. The neck with the AltCap is completely horrible with anything less than full on square wave rectification!

[newey]

Ash-

Very Nice! +1!

One thing I was wondering when you were building this- and I can't tell from the recording with the multitracking, etc.- is whether or not there is an audible "click" if the V or T settings are switched on the fly.

IOW, is this as audibly "seamless" as turning a pot?

[KIIMH]

Jul 14, 2010 5:14:07 GMT -5 newey said:

Ash-

Very Nice! +1!

Ditto from me, Ash - great job (and original sounding test, too)

[D2o]

Oops! He meant from me ... kyle logged in to respond to frank's karma question.

Again, great job Ash!

[lpf3]

Ash,

I really like the sound of that Ric, especially the clean tone at the beginning. A little 'Verb & that could be the tone to beat for the Surf Jam.

You know, I'm just sayin'...... ;D

-lpf3

[ijustwannastrat]

Jul 14, 2010 6:36:37 GMT -5 KIIMH said:

Jul 14, 2010 5:14:07 GMT -5 newey said:

Ash-

Very Nice! +1!

Ditto from me, Ash - great job (and original sounding test, too)

THIS IS MADNESS!!!!!





oh, btw, smite. ;D

[ashcatlt]

Thanks guys!

This has been my main guitar for like 16 years now, and I've always loved it's tone and feel and just about everything about it when it worked. Unfortunately, it's had this problem with intermittence since shortly after I bought it, and it's been getting worse. The neck pickup would fart out on me sometimes - seemed to be if I shook it or hit it too hard - so that I couldn't really play with any exuberance in either the neck only or middle position. Then the strap button pulled out. I was making do by jamming a screwdriver in there for a while, but that was not an ideal solution. On top of all that, I got my strat a few years back. Since it's much cheaper and a bit more versatile, I preferred taking it out for gigs and stuff.

I don't know what the wiring issue was, and don't care, because it's fixed now! The solution to the strap thing is awaiting my access to a power drill. I am very happy to have this thing up and running again.

newey - I haven't noticed any popping or other noise when switching the Volumes, but I honestly haven't listened for it either. There is noticeable popping when I switch caps - switching between Strangle settings, or switching the NT between 0 and 0(Alt Cap), but that was expected.

I've got another plan to record a little thing to compare and contrast the various "broadbucker" configurations on this guitar, maybe a couple other tones as well. Watch this space, but don't hold your breath.

[sumgai]

ash,

A common treatment for popping caps is a 10MΩ resistor across them. Shouldn't much change any impedance values, should sound the same, overall. But the popping should be reduced, or completely gone.

Going lower in value comes closer to ensuring that the popping goes away, but it also starts getting into the territory of affecting your tone, due to messing with your impedances.

HTH



sumgai

[ashcatlt]

Thanks, sg.

It had occurred to me that pull-down resistors would alleviate the popping problem. I don't really intend to be switching the thing "on the fly" anyway, though. I don't think the popping is loud enough to where it would destroy speakers or anything if I wanted to switch between songs. If I was really worried about it, I could always flip the Mode switch to Off before making any other changes.

[ashcatlt]

Okay, so demonstration #2 I wanted to compare and contrast some of the "broadbucker" settings on this thing.

Rick Test 2 (2.17M)

The first guitar you hear is the basic Series setting: Mode - Series, NV and T - 10, BV and T - No Load.

Second is with the Neck bypassed by its normal tone cap: Mode - Series, NV - 10, NT - 0, BV and T - No Load.

Third is the other way, with the Bridge bypassed by its tone cap: Mode - Series, NV - 10, NT and BV - No Load, BT - 0.

Those three the Strangle is Off.

But the Strangle switch in the Parallel position bypasses the Neck pickup with a cap 1/10 the size of its tone cap, and that's guitar 4: Mode - Series, NV and T - 10, BV and T - No Load, Strangle - Parallel

All four of those guitars are going through the same amp (Bass V-Amp British Class A) with exactly the same settings. I tried to get them all to about the same level in the mix again so that you wouldn't be fooled into a preference due to volume.

Then, for fun, I through in a couple others.

Guitar 5 is the Series Strangle position: Mode - Series, NV and T - 10, BV and T - No Load, Strangle - Series. This goes into the Bass V-Amp's "Classic Clean" model which is supposed to emulate a JC-120.

Last is just PooP, trying to do one of the few things this sound is good for - cheesy disco chords. Mode - PooP, all Vs and Ts - 10, Strangle - Off. This one is running into the BVA's "Brit 80's" which is a model of a very clean bass amp which sounded appropriate at the time.

I don't know if I'm real happy with the way it turned out, and I'm not sure how much it's going to illustrate for y'all. It was fun to do, though!

[ashcatlt]

So...Umm...Crickets, eh?

I know it's a bit weird, but is it really that bad?

[newey]

No crickets; frankly, I missed that you had posted again here.

I liked the sound clip, but I confess to not being able to sort all the different sounds out of the mix- so, you're right, it gives more of an overall feel than a"setting-by-setting" comparison.

I didn't know there were 6 different guitar tracks in there until you enumerated them!

[D2o]

Ash,

No, it's not that bad ... it's just the typical summer slowdown.

I'm still glad you're happy with your Rick!

[ashcatlt]

I hate to bump my own thread like that, but I recorded this specifically because we don't have many examples around of the "broadbucker" or "half-series" sounds, even though we talk about them fairly regularly.

Most of the real comparison happens in the first little bit of the new sample, and I guess it comes across pretty subtle. There actually is a pretty significant difference between some of these tones.

The second half is played in a round, and you get to hear each of the 4 series guitars play each of the 4 lines, though things do get mushy in there somewhere, and it was tough to play each track with the same dynamics and feel.

I think it might be easier to sort what's what if you listen in headphones, to get better stereo positioning cues.

Also, while I was recording this, I took the opportunity to listen for switching pops, and didn't hear any. Of course, I was not switching while strings were ringing. We might hear a sort of click sound (something approaching a full-bandwidth stair step) if switching quickly while there's something going on, but I'd expect the string sound would be loud enough to mask it.

[popsaka]

...crickets... haha ...no, just a little out of tune is all. But I'd like to hear switching while she's hooked up to some sort of strong overdrive/distortion unit. That, AFAIK is when poor switching, dirty pots, corroded connections, etc are really liable to f**k-up. Also wanted see a pix or 2 of the Riccy herself... oh, and since the multi-tracking of your samples is quite clean, wuz wondering what... software, tape or what ya used...(?) thanx in advance

[ashcatlt]

Well, here's the most recent pic I have of the thing:

Here it is with the rest of hoodlums (before it was re-wired):


I'm pretty sure I recorded and mixed this in Sonar straight from the S/PDIF out from my V-Amp into the S/PDIF in on my Steinberg VSL2020 soundcard.