Rickenfaker tone mod for

[Woodinblack]

As ebay have pulled my Rockinbetter advert, as expected, I might as well do it up.

This vintage tone mod that I hear about, I don't seem to find any diagrams on the net for the wiring, does anyone know what it is?

My current idea is that if I stuck a battery in, and made a dual channel preamp, I could have the tone knobs working independently as the basic tone is good, but the balance between front and back is not great (in fact the front isn't great at all).

[Billy Apple]

What was up with it in the first place for you to want to sell?

[Woodinblack]

Nothing specifically, it was actually quite nice but the problem was that it is a 4 string fretted bass, and I have an Ibanez prestige 1000 something which I play more, so it is my least used one (I also have a squire vm fretless).

I played one of the new fender 5 string jazzes and quite fancied one but due to a large number of guitars, there is very much a 'what is leaving to make space for it' thing going on at home!

[Musky]

Sixties and early seventies 4001's had a .0047uf cap between the treble volume pot and the jack socket, which was there to cut the bass frequencies. Later models didn't have this until recently, when they added a push/pull pot to allow the option of either. The easiest way to see if you like what it does is to just add one in there and take things from there.

[Woodinblack]

OK, so it is a treble bypass like the telecaster had. That makes sense, I will give it a try.

[iiipopes]

No, on the older basses the capacitor is between the hot lead of the bridge pickup from where it is first wired to the selector switch, then instead of a jumper from the other lug of the selector switch to the bridge pickup volume control, there is the .0047 capacitor which functions as a high pass filter.

New Rickenbacker basses do have a bypass switch incorporated to one of the controls.

[Woodinblack]

Like this:

[url="http://www.rickenbacker.com/pdfs/19507.pdf"]http://www.rickenbac.../pdfs/19507.pdf[/url]

I might give it a try with a push pull pot or maybe a on off switch on the tone. I might also do the stereo thing too if I am going to keep it.

Edited August 17, 2013 by Woodinblack

[Beer of the Bass]

I've got a similar series capacitor on a push-pull pot on the bridge pickup of my bass, even though it has Jazz pickups and wiring. I really like what it does to the two pickup sound, though it's kind of useless with the bridge pickup on its own.

[iiipopes]

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1376854115' post='2180031']
I've got a similar series capacitor on a push-pull pot on the bridge pickup of my bass, even though it has Jazz pickups and wiring. I really like what it does to the two pickup sound, though it's kind of useless with the bridge pickup on its own.
[/quote]
Indeed. But because a Jazz bridge pickup is closer to the bridge than it is on a Rickenbacker, there is even less string excursion, and therefore even less fundamental. So on a Jazz bass, I use a .01 inline on the bridge pickup of a Jazz bass instead of the .0047 on a Rickenbacker to let a little more low end through. Other values, even though they are less common and may need to be sourced differently (Sprague orange are relatively inexpensive while retaining consistency and availability in the odd values) are the .0068 which is used as the "choke" capacitor on a Fender Jaguar, or a .015 or even a guitar .022, depending on how much low end you want through. And it really does clean up the volume drop from the impedance drop of having both pickups full on. The only down side is that the output may be cut slightly, like the volume knob is rolled off a number.

[Beer of the Bass]

I can't remember which value I've got in there at the moment, but it's probably a .0047 as I got the idea from a rickenbacker diagram. I like it because it reduces the interaction between the two pickups in the lows and low mids, so I can run the neck pickup on full then use the thinned-out bridge pickup to dial in some extra highs without getting the usual scooped mid jazz sound.

[iiipopes]

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1376900946' post='2180396']
I can't remember which value I've got in there at the moment, but it's probably a .0047 as I got the idea from a rickenbacker diagram. I like it because it reduces the interaction between the two pickups in the lows and low mids, so I can run the neck pickup on full then use the thinned-out bridge pickup to dial in some extra highs without getting the usual scooped mid jazz sound.
[/quote]
Yes! Exactly! If a player can accept the Bridge pickup volume being effectively dropped a number, then this is the way to go to solve the impedance drop/thin/scooped tone of both Jazz pickups full on.

[Woodinblack]

Not really that much of a problem, the bridge pickup is a lot louder than the neck in the first place. I am going to try the cap, but I am still considering using a preamp which means I could balance the volumes properly.