Rickenbacker has brought the 4003s back

[andrew]

http://www.rickenbacker.com/model.asp?model=4003S

They said on FB they will be doing lefty ones too.

[bhunt1]

Yeah that is cool. I also saw on TB that there is a walnut s version:

http://www.talkbass.com/threads/rickenb ... s.1128550/

[pjmuck]

It's funny. On the one hand I'm thinking, "Why would anyone want a mono Rick?" And on the other, I'm thinking that I've never met a single Rick player who actually used the Rick 'O Sound in stereo.

[superheavydeathmetal]

I've never met a single Rick player who actually used the Rick 'O Sound in stereo.

I use the stereo output exclusively on mine! I love it! Put some grit on the bridge pickup to make it a little mean, but keep the neck pickup nice and clean for some thickness without the flub that can come with gain behind the lower frequencies.

[Matt R.]

I can't believe I've never run any of my Rics in stereo. I'll give it a shot

[pjmuck]

I've never met a single Rick player who actually used the Rick 'O Sound in stereo.

I use the stereo output exclusively on mine! I love it! Put some grit on the bridge pickup to make it a little mean, but keep the neck pickup nice and clean for some thickness without the flub that can come with gain behind the lower frequencies.

Okay, that's one guy.

I like it in theory, but years ago I attempted it and for some reason it wasn't outputting correctly or something and I gave up. I either plugged two mono 1/4" cables in or a single stereo split Y cable, but it just didn't work. (Rick should really give a thorough explanation of the feature as long as they're going to be stubborn in their desire to maintain their design aesthetics). Apparently I'm not the only one who gets confused by how exactly the Rick O Sound is supposed to operate, so please do tell!

[superheavydeathmetal]

...as long as they're going to be stubborn in their desire to maintain their design aesthetics

People have been saying that about the bridge pickup cover (or the entire assembly, for that matter) and the mutes for years!

Apparently I'm not the only one who gets confused by how exactly the Rick O Sound is supposed to operate, so please do tell!

Yeah, this comes up quite a bit. Here's how it works (I'm sure you already know some of this):

If you look at the end of a guitar cable, you will see it has two parts: the tip, and the shaft, and these are separated by a
plastic ring:
http://s3.showmecables.com/images/catal ... Jack-1.jpg
This is a mono cable, also called "TS" (T for Tip, S for Shaft). Mono meaning one signal. If a bass has multiple pickups, they are combined into one signal, which goes out the tip and returns through the shaft.

Now, if you look at the cable on a pair of headphones, you will see an extra middle section, called the "ring":
http://manual.audacityteam.org/m/images ... eo_1_4.jpg
This is a stereo cable, called "TRS". It has two signals: left ear (tip), right ear (middle) and return (shaft).
The Rick-o-Sound uses a stereo cable. The signal for the bridge pickup goes out through the tip, and the neck pickup through the middle. The signals do not get combined, so they can be amped or effected seperately.

The next piece is connecting it to an amp. You can get a cable like this:
http://c1.zzounds.com/media/quality,85/ ... 8f48aa.gif
The stereo end goes into the Rick-o-Sound jack. The mono ends then connect to an amp or pedal board or whatever.

Or you can get a stereo cable and then get an adapter to split the stereo cable into two mono cables, like this:
http://s3.showmecables.com/images/catal ... able-1.jpg
This is what the "Rick-o-Sound" box does, which is really nothing more than a collector's item at this point because the cable adapter is cheap.

You should not have a cable connected to both jacks at the same time. Also, if you try to use a mono cable for the Rick-o-Sound jack, you won't get any signal from the neck pickup.

Let me know if any of this doesn't make sense, or if anyone has any other questions!

[bobjones2260]

Playing live I would use Mono as most of the amps only have one input or two inputs (one for active and one for passive) however I have used the Ric at home and recorded in Stereo with some unique sounds and kinda cool to play around in the mix if you pan the pick ups to different channels.

Lastly caution as you need to ensure you have real Stereo splitter (one left and one right output) verses a device that gives you two combined outputs (Left and Right combined on two different outputs.

[bobjones2260]

Playing live I would use Mono as most of the amps only have one input or two inputs (one for active and one for passive) however I have used the Ric at home and recorded in Stereo with some unique sounds and kinda cool to play around in the mix if you pan the pick ups to different channels.

Lastly caution as you need to ensure you have real Stereo splitter (one left and one right output) some devices will give you to combined Mono output (Left + Right) on two outputs.

[bhunt1]

I am going to attempt Rick-o-Sound at band practice this Friday. I ordered the Y cable (splits the stereo signal into two mono signals) and I am going through two different amp heads and cabinets. This is the Y cable:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000068O54/ref ... 60_TE_dp_1

I will report on how it goes. I have owned 2 Rics and never tried it before - we shall see

Apparently it's Rick-o-Sound week here at Leftybassist

[andrew]

I sold my Ric-o-sound box to someone (I believe) on here years ago. I got it with the bass and used it once at home. It was fun but I couldn't justify keeping it. Now I wish I still had it to try out again.

[AzWhoFan]

I sold my Ric-o-sound box to someone (I believe) on here years ago. I got it with the bass and used it once at home. It was fun but I couldn't justify keeping it. Now I wish I still had it to try out again.

way back in the day in the early 70's I used to use a Ric-o-sound at gigs. Ran one lead to my buddy's SVT and the other to my Acoustic 370. After I sold the Acoustic I sawed open the ric-o-sound box just to see what was in there because every Ric dealer I ever talked to gave me a different story about what was in there and how it was designed. This was before anything using a TRS cable was commonplace.

Long story short, there was NUTHIN in there except for some clips to hold down the wires going to each output, and some extra electricians tapes to isolate the split leads.

And again, this being the early 70's, if you wanted a TRS cable with two individual outputs to split the signal you had to build your own kludgey version.