Rickenbacker Wiring Problem

Ric5

Ric5

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Jan 29, 2008
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I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
#1
So I have a friend who needed help with his Rickenbacker bass. He has a nice 80s 4001v63. He bought it used and the previous owner had a special wiring put in. It has 2 push pull pots, one is for a vintage tone circuit the other is mono / Ric-o-sound.

Well the bridge pickup was totally dead. I started checking things and it turns out the problem was the toggle switch. I got the toggle working, sorta, it was still crackling so I put in a new toggle. Then I made a mistake, I didn't photograph the existing wiring. I have wired up over 100 different basses. Well I when I pull the pull switch for stereo only the bridge pickup works. I cannot seem to get old wiring back.
 
#2
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#9
perhaps I should qualify .... I know how to wire Ric-o-sound on a normal Rickenbacker, but the one in my shop is wired differently and there are no schematics for a Ric with 2 push pull pots.

This is maybe the only Rickenbacker in existence wired like this ... So to solve it I need to think outside the box.
 
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#10
Ric5 said:
perhaps I should qualify .... I know how to wire Ric-o-sound on a normal Rickenbacker, but the one in my shop is wired differently and there are no schematics for a Ric with 2 push pull pots.

This is maybe the only Rickenbacker in existence wired like this ... So to solve it I need to think outside the box.
Click to expand...
Having been forever since I've wired a bass, I would think wiring for Ric-O-Sound with the pot pulled out would be first priority, and then understanding what configuration changes are made with the pot pushed in and wiring accordingly for mono. I.E. what does the pot change?

Ignore this, probably, because I haven't had my coffee yet.

Always, always, always take pictures, of course.

John
 
#11
Study what the Ric-O-Sound jack with its extra finger that sums the signal does before sending the combined signal to the mono jack. Then wire a push-pull to combine the signal together in the same way.

The Ric-O-Sound jack works "backwards." If nothing is plugged into the jack, then the finger is closed so that the signal from each pickup is summed together to send to the mono jack. When you plug a tip-ring-sleeve plug into the Ric-O-Sound jack, then that finger is opened so each discrete signal of one pickup goes to the tip and the other to the ring.
 
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#12
iiipopes said:
Study what the Ric-O-Sound jack with its extra finger that sums the signal does before sending the combined signal to the mono jack. Then wire a push-pull to combine the signal together in the same way.

The Ric-O-Sound jack works "backwards." If nothing is plugged into the jack, then the finger is closed so that the signal from each pickup is summed together to send to the mono jack. When you plug a tip-ring-sleeve plug into the Ric-O-Sound jack, then that finger is opened so each discrete signal of one pickup goes to the tip and the other to the ring.
Click to expand...

well another problem here is this is a Rick with one jack ... not 2 ... so the one jack is doing double duty as a mono and stereo jack
 
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#15
Scarysharkface said:
Right. The switch is doing what the jack does on a standard 4003 with ROS. Is it just moving one pickup signal from the tip to the sleeve?

John
Click to expand...

That would seem like the logical way to do it. So if you pulled the switch up with a mono cable connected, you would ground the signal from one pickup, but with a stereo cable connected it would work as expected.
 
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#16
Scarysharkface said:
Right. The switch is doing what the jack does on a standard 4003 with ROS. Is it just moving one pickup signal from the tip to the sleeve?

John
Click to expand...
Right, this is to the point.

In two-jack ROS (as found on the standard 4003), the mono jack has a switch that connects the two pickups together when a plug is inserted. It's a single-pole, single-throw (SPST) switch.

If there's only one jack, the pickup that connects to the ring must be disconnected from the ring contact in the jack and connected to the tip contact in mono mode. This requires a single-pole, double-throw (SPDT) switch.

So the switch that selects ROS or mono mode has to have three pins. The pickup connects to one of them; one of the others connects to the jack's tip (along with the other pickup), the other one connects to the jack's ring contact.
 
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#17
Ric5 said:
well another problem here is this is a Rick with one jack ... not 2 ... so the one jack is doing double duty as a mono and stereo jack
Click to expand...
Yes. That was the point of my post: you will need to wire in a Ric-O-Sound jack and wire the push-pull to close the finger contact in the circuit and send the combined signal to the tip contact which is what the extra finger does to send the signal to the mono jack when you want mono when you don't have anything plugged into the Ric-O-Sound jack on factory wiring.
 
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#19
Aceonbass said:
I built this harness several years ago when I first started doing the push-pull mono/stereo thing for RIC basses with a single output jack. In is mono, and out is stereo. You must have a stereo cord plugged in to the jack when in stereo mode, or you'll just short the neck pickup to ground.
Click to expand...

Yes ... the harness was well made, but those darn switchcraft toggles can be a problem sometimes.

I have tried a mono plug and I also have a stereo plug that runs into 2 different channels of a mixer ... so it should work, but it doesn't. I inspected the stereo jack on the bass and it looks really solid
 
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